My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.
Galatians 4:19 NKJV
I was so blessed to be able to naturally deliver three healthy babies. There are so many stages to having a baby, with labor being the final one. It isn’t easy. It’s work. It’s painful. It can take anywhere from minutes to hours or even days. But it’s so worth it.
The apostle Paul compares praying for the church to labor. That word labor literally means to travail in birth or to experience the pangs of childbirth. Pain. Sorrow. Travail.
He wasn’t talking about their new birth. The people he was writing to were already born again. He called them “my children” and said he was laboring in birth AGAIN.
He compared praying for Christ to be formed in them to actual childbirth. It painted the picture it would be painful and at times difficult. It would take work and time and effort and energy.
Paul prayed until Christ was formed in them. He prayed until their very nature became the same as Christ’s nature, and we are to do the same. Don’t stop praying until the outward demonstration lines up with the inward transformation of their new birth.
Just like a newborn requires outside assistance from a caregiver, so also these new babes in Christ require prayer.
And lots of it. It will help them to grow, to put down roots, to become like Christ and to walk fully mature in Him. After all, we don’t just want salvations, do we? We want to see full- grown Christians, fulfilling their God-given destinies.
Our job as parents is to care for our children until they are adults and beyond. I mean, you never really stop being parents, do you? Our job as the church is to pray for them until Christ is fully formed in them and beyond. We should consider it a lifelong assignment. So let’s get on this prayer journey until Christ is formed in them.
Let’s pray this together.
Lord, thank You for Your Church in the city of Warren. We’re so thankful for their salvation and that they belong to You. We recognize that isn’t the finish line. It’s the starting gate. So we commit today to pray until Christ is fully formed in them. Lead and guide me in what to pray. We ask You to come into their space today and reassure them of Your love. In Jesus’ Name, amen!