The Birth Pangs of Zion....

This post is part of the Friday verse series. May you come to the realization that your birth pangs will cause you to produce something great.

Zion is a woman - strong, mighty, and tall. She is a woman of character. She is strong in every way. She is intelligent and she is wise in all her ways. She has been to the depths of the earth and back again. She has overcome what her peers cannot even comprehend. But for nine months now, Zion has been in pain. She cannot take two steps without the pain thrusting through her spinal cord. Every cell in her abdomen is in pain. She may have the freedom of joy for some seconds, but then she would feel a sharp, localized pain on her abdomen. Sometimes she sinks to the floor and begins to weep, sometimes she sinks on the soft bed and sleeps off only to find herself in another world, the world of her dreams. But Zion is in serious excruciating pain, and no one can do anything about it...

In Micah 4:10-13, Micah describes Zion (or the daughter of Zion) as a woman who has labor pains. These labor pains are what she has to go through in order to be delivered by God.

10 Be in pain, and labor to bring forth,
O daughter of Zion,
Like a woman in birth pangs.
For now you shall go forth from the city,
You shall dwell in the field,
And to Babylon you shall go.
There you shall be delivered;
There the LORD will redeem you
From the hand of your enemies

Also Isaiah 66: 8-9 talks about the delivery of Zion, saying, "For as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children, shall I bring to the time of birth, and not cause delivery? Says the Lord."

So it is an ordained process. If there are no labor pains, then the miracle cannot be seen afterwards. How can God deliver if there is nothing to deliver? The bible says, "Your creations speak of Your glory." If there were no mountains, oceans, forests, and rivers...how would nature glorify God? But these things were put in place to tell us that God is the ultimate architect. In the same way, the deliverance of Zion from child birth can only be through the power of God. During child birth, a woman usually feels like it's the end of the world, and some feel like they are going to die. So also, when we go through certain hardships in our life, we feel like the world is coming to an end and we can't make it through. But today, God is saying He can deliver you. But it won't be a testimony if He shows up when things are easy (although sometimes He will). But in this case, your final delivery will be the talk of the Nations. When you come out of this particular hardship, you won't be able to stop telling people to come and see what the Lord has done.

Psalm 30:7 says, "by Your favor, You have made my mountain strong." I think of mountains as obstructions to our destinies, but if God Himself makes your mountain strong, it means that He wants you to give birth to something, and it means that He will have to come to your deliverance on the day of child-birth. If your mountain has been made strong by God, it means that your story will be told in this generation and in generations to come...

***Blessed are you, Zion***