Being physically barren (infertile) was one of the worst calamities that might strike someone during the Bible's time. In fact, seeing how someone (or a couple) who was once infertile has had their condition changed by God and now has their fertility is a prominent topic of Scripture. They saw infertility as a horrible burden, if not a curse, in every mention to it in Scripture! Nonetheless, nothing goes to waste in God's view (even our suffering).
Before You Continue...
Do you know what is your soul number? Take this quick quiz to find out! Get a personalized numerology report, and discover how you can unlock your fullest spiritual potential. Start the quiz now!
The Bible's precepts are still applicable to God's people today, whether they be individuals, families, or larger groups.
Unfortunately, many Catholics, as well as many parishes and dioceses, are spiritually empty. For a variety of causes, as we will discuss below, we have little fruitfulness in our lives.
Even so, everything can be used to help us grow in holiness and mission. Take a look at the Bible's stories!
Sarah is the first biblical figure to experience physical infertility. Even so, God does not allow this to be the end of the narrative, promising that they will be blessed with descendants early on (Gen 12: 7). He repeats the promise, but Sarah becomes impatient with the slow progress and decides to take matters into her own hands by having Abram get a servant pregnant. Sarah did not believe in God, but God never gave up on her. Even though it wasn't on Sarah's schedule, he eventually blesses her with a son, and the promise is kept. What we learn is that trusting God's promises always results in a better outcome than pursuing our own plans, regardless of the timing.
This is a timely reminder for the Church! We must abandon our reliance on man-made plans, methods, and ideas. We must return to acting in a way that is based on prayer, discernment, and fidelity to Jesus' paradigm (spiritual multiplication through relationships).
We find this statement later in Genesis – “Isaac prayed to the Lord for his barren wife, and the Lord answered him, and Rebekah, Isaac's wife, conceived.” -Genesis 25:21 It's as easy as that: God answered Isaac's plea. What do you believe God is trying to accomplish through you? What do you think God wants to achieve via your parish?
God, I believe, wants us to do great things for His glory. However, this requires the Church to rise up and step outside of its comfort zones. It all starts with prayer and surrendering to God's will. Prayer that is sincere and persistent. Prayer on a daily basis. How is prayer going in your diocese, parish, or family? Is it a personal matter? Is it normal? Is it personal? Unfortunately, I've only seen this type of group prayer in Catholic organizations or families on a few occasions. Many Catholic leaders, I feel, have stunted spiritual lives and lack genuine spiritual relationships with others in which they may be open about their challenges, share one another's sufferings, and grow together. We don't know how to pray and discern together as God's people without this example. As a result, our families and organizations become spiritually empty. The solution is to break the mold and begin praying deeply and regularly, both individually and corporately. To be true prayer warriors.
Rachel's narrative is told in Genesis 29-30, and she is loved more than Leah (her sister). Jacob is the husband of both of them. Rachel is childless, but Leah has three boys. Rachel is envious (Gen 30:1), angry (Gen 30:2), blames others, competes with her sister, and is angry at God as a result of this. Finally, when God saw it appropriate, he bestowed children onto Rachel. But only after her heart was ready to gratefully accept the gift of fertility (Gen 30:23).
Too frequently, we allow pride, prosperity, comfort, wants, and other factors stand in the way of carrying out God's purpose. God desires for you to have spiritual children and make disciples! He desires this for your life, but if you don't love him first and foremost, you may find yourself spiritually barren. First and foremost, we must repent and love our Lord with our decisions, time, money, sexuality, politics, and so on. We must submit everything to his Lordship. Our organization's objectives and outcomes are included.
“Evangelization is both true to the Lord's gift and fruitful. Because the Lord wants her to be prolific, an evangelistic society is always concerned with fruit.” EG 24 –
We can see from the Scriptures and the history of God's people that God desires us to be fruitful! In fact, it is one of the ways we demonstrate that we are Jesus' followers:
“It is through this that my Father is exalted, that you yield much fruit and thereby demonstrate that you are my disciples.” -Matthew 15:8
- Lack of love, especially love for God and love for others' salvation. Do we truly want to lay down our life for the salvation of others around us? Are we willing to be embarrassed, rejected, or shamed in order for the Gospel to be made manifest in others' lives? We don't love God or people enough if we don't.
- Lack of faith – many people do not believe God can operate powerfully through them. There are far too many Catholics who are stranded. They are stuck in the belief that they can't change, that growing is too difficult, or that they aren't capable of being instruments in God's hands. All of these are lies spread by the enemy, who wants you to remain barren. Believe in God rather than your own strength. Like Elizabeth, who bore children in her later years!
- We believe we are too tiny for God to utilize us or that we are doing good and don't want God to mess up the lives we have established. As a result, rather from growing and changing, we become stagnant and barren. To progress, we must begin with a humble stance before God, who gives us with the spiritual power (grace) that we require.
- Obedience lapses – Jesus provided us with a road map for how to do community ministry. We just do not adhere to it. Rather, we hunt about us for that “silver bullet” that will eliminate all of the hard effort of developing relationships. The status quo is frequently adopted as a cover for disobedience to God's will in our lives and organizations.
- Lack of leadership – ineffective leaders will be unable to lead congregations of believers through all of these challenges to fruitfulness. Take a look at the Saints' life. They lead by example, rely on God, and then serve others to lead. This is our Lord's example. We can't make it better, but we can use it.
- Lack of readiness to change – we should not expect things to change if we stay on the same road (or make minimal modifications). The Bible's stories should teach us that change can bring about fruitfulness.
- Lack of vision – our vision is too modest if all of our planning results in little growth. We must strive to fulfill God's goal for us, which is to alter a wounded and barren world for the glory of his name and the expansion of his kingdom.
- We have a surplus of experienced missionary disciples who have real-world experience leading people through pre-evangelization, evangelization, and discipleship. As a result, we remain in our cozy bubbles, spiritually immature. Infertility and immaturity go hand in hand.
Accepting our spiritual barrenness is not an option. Let us build on our desire to be fruitful disciples, whether latent or not, and rejoice in what God can accomplish through his Church.
When we truly surrender our lives to God in faith, love, and obedience to his call to make disciples, we can't help but allow God's grace to flow through us, overcoming our spiritual sterility. If we do this, we will be able to have spiritual children who will dwell with God eternally, and we will be able to rejoice because we are no longer childless!
What is the cause of barrenness in the Bible?
The phrase “she had no progeny” can also be used to describe a woman's infertility (as in Genesis 11:30, Judges 13:2, 2 Kings 4:14). As a result of their barrenness, these biblical women often endured tremendous humiliation, with their barrenness being attributed to some underlying wrong, fault, or flaw.
What does God say about fertility?
Christians must consider more than technology factors while making procreative decisions. Reproductive technologies do not have a zero-sum value. That is to say, just because these technologies are available does not mean they should be employed or that they are ethically acceptable. Reproductive technology decisions, like all other decisions, should be guided by a Christian perspective. Is there anything in the Bible about infertility?
First and foremost, having children is a good thing, and parenthood should be embraced whenever possible. Procreation has always been a blessing from God. “Be prolific and expand in number,” God ordered in Genesis 1:28, “fill the earth and conquer it.” In a similar vein, the psalmist declares: “Children, indeed, are a gift from the Lord. His recompense is the product of the womb. The offspring of one's youth are like arrows in the hand of a warrior. The man who has a quiver full of them is happy…” (See Psalm 127:3-5a.) “God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those who were under law, that we could receive the complete rights of sons,” says the Bible (Galatians 4:4). That is, God chose to bring his Son into the world through the procreative process, albeit through the virgin birth. Furthermore, children played an important role in Jesus' mission (see Matthew 18:1-6; Mark 10:13-16). Furthermore, the relationship between a believer and God is described as a parent-child relationship: “The Spirit himself bears witness to the fact that we are God's children through our spirits. We are heirsheirs of God and co-heirs with Christif we are children ” (Romans 8:16-17).
Second, the sovereign Lord is equally clear as to who opens and closes the womb (1 Samuel 1:5-6). While children are plainly a gift from God, the ability to bear them is a mystery that only God can reveal. Indeed, the apostle James warns Christians against being arrogant in their lives. “Instead… to say, ‘If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that,'” we are taught, rather than openly following our own inclinations. (According to James 4:15)
For believers, God's providence should not be a bleak and frightening reality. As our Father, he is always concerned with his own glory as well as our best interests, and the two never clash. While we should not apply the passage casually to those who are suffering, “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” is true (Romans 8:28). Our tragedies and traumas can be used for good by God. The purposefulness of God is one of the most reassuring aspects of the Christian faith. He never makes mistakes, makes poor judgment calls, or behaves rashly.
It may not be God's will for a couple to have children in some instances. Infertile couples should not be treated as second-class citizens simply because they are unable to conceive. It's possible that God has other wonderful and loving plans for them. Unfortunately, many couples believe infertility is always a sign of God's displeasure or punishment. That isn't always the case, though. God's will, on the other hand, may be to bring a couple through infertility before they conceive. One thing is certain: God has vowed to never lay a load on us greater than we can bear (1 Corinthians 10:13).
Finally, trials, such as infertility, are occasionally introduced into the lives of believers to urge them to pray. 1 Samuel 1 serves as a striking reminder that prayer is frequently God's chosen method of achieving his goals for us. Hannah was a childless woman who yearned for a child. Her inability to conceive had made her exceedingly depressed. She prayed so loudly that the priest believed she was inebriated (1 Samuel 1:11-15). Hannah's response to his accusation was as follows: “I'm a woman who's been through a lot. I wasn't drinking wine or beer; instead, I was pouring out my heart to God.” Hannah eventually became pregnant. Samuel was the name of her son (“heard of God” in Hebrew). Hannah's prayers were answered in the same way that all of God's children's prayers are answered: by carrying out his loving purposes in their lives.
Is infertility a punishment?
Infertility is not a penalty you received for something you did or did not do. In the Creating a Family Facebook Support Group, Lisa Notes, an infertility patient who was unsuccessful in treatment but became a mother through adoption, shared some wise advise.
What does the Bible say about being barren?
In fact, some biblical verses plainly treat barrenness as a curse, the most famous of which being Gen 20:1718: “Abraham then prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his slave girls, allowing them to bear children, because Yahweh had sealed every womb of Abimelech's household because of Sarah, Abimelech's wife.”
What causes barrenness in a woman?
Ovulation issues are the most common cause of female infertility. There are no eggs to be fertilized without ovulation. Irregular or nonexistent menstrual cycles are symptoms that a woman is not ovulating regularly.
Polycystic ovarian syndrome is a common cause of ovulation issues (PCOS). PCOS is a hormonal abnormality that can prevent ovulation from occurring normally. Female infertility is most commonly caused by PCOS. Ovulation issues can also be caused by primary ovarian insufficiency (POI). POI is a condition in which a woman's ovaries stop functioning normally before she reaches the age of 40. Early menopause is not the same as POI.
- Obstructed fallopian tubes caused by pelvic inflammatory illness, endometriosis, or ectopic pregnancy surgery
- Uterine fibroids are noncancerous tissue and muscle aggregates seen on the uterus's lining.
What are the signs of infertility in a woman?
- Periods that are irregular. Each month, the amount of days between each cycle fluctuates.
Female infertility is sometimes linked to a hormonal imbalance. Symptoms in this situation may also include: