July Yada Prayer Reflection
The Birthing of Humility
Welcome to July’s Yada Prayer Reflection, where I look back on the fruit of the verses (2 Corinthians 7:9-10) I prayed over this month. I would love to hear your reflections too. What can you praise God for, together with me, this month?
Let me start by sharing some definitions with you (https://biblehub.com/lexicon/2_corinthians/7-9.htm):
HELPS Word-studies
Cognate: 3076 lypéō (from 3077 /lýpē, "deep grief") – to experience deep, emotional pain (sadness), i.e. severe sorrow (grief). 3076 (lypéō) is very intense and hence even used of the pain of childbirth (see Gen 3:16, LXX). See 3077 (lypē).
HELPS Word-studies
3340 metanoéō (from 3326 /metá, "changed after being with" and 3539 /noiéō, "think") – properly, "think differently after," "after a change of mind"; to repent (literally, "think differently afterwards").
To be changed after being with struck me so deeply, as did godly grief being akin to child birth. For, I remember the intense emotions that flooded me as I beheld the crying babe in my arms, drawing her close to my heart, longing for her to feel safe, warm and protected in my embrace. It was a mix of deep pain and deep joy. Akin to what I had also felt when I held and soothed my little adopted brother in my arms, longing for him also to feel safe, warm and protected in my embrace.
I felt deep pain at the anguish these little ones had endured to get here. And deep joy at holding them in my arms and receiving them as God’s sweet gift to comfort and cherish and delight in. Even as they themselves were already bringing my own heart such comfort, cherishing and delighting in me, with their eyes fixed intently on my own.
When did I experience this type of godly sorrow, this birthing of new thoughts, flooded by both deep anguish and deep joy, as a result of being with Jesus this month? What comes to mind is my Catholic baptism on Monday, the 13th of July. One and a half years after entering the Catholic Church on the basis of my Pentecostal baptism.
Praise God, where sin increased, grace abounded all the more (Romans 5:20). Yes, God’s grace was present to me in that Pentecostal baptismal pool. But it was in receiving the sacrament of baptism that grace humbled me. As the water poured, a deep awe flooded my whole being- as I wept in godly sorrow at the pain Jesus had borne for me and in such thankfulness for His love.
And just like with my little brother and my baby daughters, as I wiped the tears from my eyes, it felt like I was holding a fresh newborn babe. Baby Jesus: given to me to comfort, cherish and delight in, even as He Himself was already looking intently into my own eyes to bring my own heart such comfort, to cherish me and delight in me.