Latest / Dwelling Place: The Bible for Moms / (Replay) Surrendering Our Children to God | A Biblical Perspective on Motherhood from Psalm 84 :Why the Dwelling Place? | Refresher/Intro for the Newbies :)

Transcript

(Replay) Surrendering Our Children to God | A Biblical Perspective on Motherhood from Psalm 84 :Why the Dwelling Place? | Refresher/Intro for the Newbies :) · Dwelling Place: The Bible for Moms

• 0:00
  Speaker 4: welcome to the Dwelling Place Bible Plan for Busy Moms from Entrusted Ministries.
• 0:05
  Speaker 4: I'm Stephanie Hickox and I am thrilled that you're here for this Prepare to Dwell episode where I explain why I've chosen the name, the Dwelling Place.
• 0:13
  Speaker 4: We are getting ready for our January 1st launch, and if you are looking to be faithful in the word of God and have the words of scripture prayed over you and your family, you are in the right place.
• 0:23
  Speaker 4: There are so many messages of culture and abundant things vying for our time at the end of 2026.
• 0:30
  Speaker 4: What didn't you love to say?
• 0:31
  Speaker 4: That you are faithful to God's word and that you sought to dwell with a God that has always desired to dwell and abide with you.
• 0:37
  Speaker 4: Me too.
• 0:38
  Speaker 4: In this episode, I'm gonna talk to you a little bit about why I chose this theme dwelling place and who I am, and I'll start with a story about my childhood.
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: From quite early on, I had a dream of being a singer.
• 0:48
  Speaker 4: I begged for voice lessons and piano lessons, but money was tight and it wasn't able to happen.
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: But I would watch with admiration, the talented ladies get up at my church and sing.
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: Or maybe the people trying out on star search, and I wanted that to be how I serve the Lord.
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: And I definitely asked for a karaoke machine for my third grade Christmas.
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: One day in fourth grade, my dad came home and said, Stephanie, I have a surprise for you.
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: Come over here.
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: He pulled me over to our large dining room window, which faced the front of our home, and as I looked out, I saw a truck pull onto our street in front of my house and in the truck bed
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: I saw a huge piano.
• 1:26
  Speaker 4: I looked at my dad wondering, could this be real?
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: Am I getting a piano?
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: At that exact moment, I watched the piano crash out of the back of the truck and smash into a thousand pieces on the road.
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: I tried to tone down my devastation because clearly my dad had worked hard to get this piano to our home, but my hopes were literally shattered that day.
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: I know there are many people that are natural musical talents, but I just wasn't one of 'em.
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: And I found as I look back That this was a door, that the Lord seemed to keep closing on my life, but now I understand that it was actually his kindness and directing me a different way instead of
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: focusing on my singing abilities.
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: I've spent a lot of time digging into the pages of scripture and it's become my absolute delight.
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: And one of my favorite ways to worship the Lord, although there are definitely a lot of areas that I need to get it together.
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: Nearly every time I'm talking to someone, I can think of a scripture that would apply to their situation, and it's the way I continually administered to my own heart.
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: When I'm struggling with different circumstances, I've learned to rely on the word of God to get me through.
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: And I bet the word of God has helped you before too.
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: I think that's how we become the mothers God wants us to be.
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: Not that we're doing it perfectly, but that we have a reliance upon the Lord.
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: And that leads me to why I've chosen this name and why the dwelling place is so important for me.
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: Years ago I was pregnant with my fourth child and I was having a rough pregnancy.
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: I would've kept going and had as many kids as possible, but my husband was maxed out and it seems that the Lord gave me a really miserable pregnancy to make sure that we had unity in our marriage and
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: that that was our last baby.
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: I can remember wrestling and praying with the circumstances of this pregnancy when one day the Lord brought me to a Psalm that I had read many times before, and as I read it.
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: Perhaps old school worship songs are gonna pop into your head.
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: But there was a verse right toward the beginning that I had never heard before.
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: Psalm 84 says, how lovely is your dwelling place?
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: Oh Lord of hosts.
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: My soul longs yes faints for the courts of the Lord.
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: And here's the verse.
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: Even the sparrow finds a home and the swallow a nest for herself where she may lay her young at your altars.
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: Oh Lord of hosts my king and my God.
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise.
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: If I were to continue to read this chapter, you would hear that the activity that keeps happening is the worship and praise of God, but talked.
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: Here we see a mother that's laying her young at the altar of the Lord.
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: If I'm honest, surrendering my children over and over has been something I've needed to do regularly with the Lord.
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: I think I've done it completely and then something new happens and I realize there's a new layer that I need to give over.
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: Maybe an unseen hope or expectation I had and I need to wrestle with.
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: Is this a desire God has for them or was just this something in my heart?
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: And I need to remind myself of God's goodness and his trustworthiness, how he loves my kids even more than I do, that he created them and has a good plan for them.
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: But I must come back to his presence and to dwell with him laying my children before him, worshiping him and seeking him for myself before I ever try to pass on my faith to them.
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: The Psalm goes on to say, blessed are those whose strength is in you and in whose heart are pathways to Zion.
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: As they go through the valley of Bacca, they make it a place of springs.
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: The early rain also covers it with pools.
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: They go from strength to strength.
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: Each one appears before God and Zion.
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: I so want this to be true of me, that when I go through these bitter places that here are represented by the Valley of Bacca, I wanna make them a place of springs.
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: I wanna bring joy and hope as I minister to others in my trials, but I have to confess that without returning to God's presence over and over, this is naturally not what comes out of me.
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: The Psalm continues.
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: Oh Lord of hosts, hear my prayer.
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: Give ear, oh God, of Jacob.
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: Behold our shield, oh God, look on the face of your anointed for a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tense of wickedness for the Lord, God is a son and shield the Lord bestows favor and honor.
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: No good thing does He withhold from those who walk up rightly.
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: A Lord of hosts blessed is the one who trusts in you.
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: As I've grown in the Lord and looked on what the world has to offer, I can say amen.
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: Though my heart breaks for the lost.
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: I would absolutely rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God and the fact that it says God is a son and shield and bestows favor and honor not withholding good from us when we walk uprightly, even if
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: imperfectly, of course, it's such a good reminder that God often protects us, but he's also a God that bestows blessing.
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: He has good things for us and we know he's working all things for the good of those who love him as he transforms us into the image of Jesus Christ, his son.
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: This psalm has meant so much to me when I press in and think about how I can surrender my children to a good sovereign God.
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: Perhaps you heard me say the name of God, oh Lord of hosts multiple times.
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: And as I studied, I found that the first time this name is used in scripture.
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: Is when Hannah was praying to the Lord to give her child, and when she surrendered her son Samuel to serve in the house of God.
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: What a cool thing that these two passages talking about mothers surrendering their kids to the Lord and trusting in him.
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: Show this powerful title of God, oh Lord of hosts this name.
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: Denotes power and protection and it's used 250 times in scripture.
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: This is the God that commands the armies of heaven in the entire universe, and it's the God we can surrender to.
• 6:52
  Speaker 4: I hope you're realizing that the word of God has so much to say about motherhood.
• 6:56
  Speaker 4: Again, we're not trying to look to the pages of scripture and make them about our lives, but we're longing to make our homes centered on Jesus Christ.
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: When I look to the model of Hannah and also to the sparrow in the temple, I can say, yes, Lord, help me point my children to you.
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: Help me to surrender them to you.
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: But first of all, make me a mother that is worshiping at your feet.
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: And then just when I thought I had gotten every ounce of goodness outta the psalm, I read Charles Spurgeon commentary on the Psalms and found that the focus of the psalm is about the pilgrimage to Jerusalem that the
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: people would've made to go and celebrate in the temple.
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: It's describing their path, and this makes me think about how there's a communal element to this, and that so applies to motherhood.
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: Some of the wisest words I've ever received about my parenting have come from other moms that are in the trenches with me, encouraging me to be faithful.
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: And that's why I wanna do this together with you.
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: God didn't intend for us to live the Christian life on our own.
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: Let's stop trying to do it in our own strength.
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: Let's do it together and hold each other accountable.
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: We can admit we're not gonna do this perfectly, but let's be intentional and set goals through the spirit that we can say at the end of the year that we really pressed into the heart of God to help
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: us understand what he calls us to in our homes and to be transformed by his spirit.
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: I hope this is sounding like something you'd wanna commit to.
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: We know there's going to be resistance and busyness in our families, but that's a reason to press into the Lord instead of throwing in the towel.
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: Listen to the other Prepare to Dwell episodes so you can really be set up for success.
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: To be intentional.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: in episode three.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: We'll plot out this a little bit more, and I am gonna explain the printable options I have for you, because if you're like me, you're gonna wanna cross something off a list
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: you may have committed to Bible reading plans before and then dropped off, and that's okay.
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: You are still in the right place.
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: We're gonna be wise about how we kick this off, and by the grace of God may this year be different.