Birth Pains and Judgment: The Link

“Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” James 1: 15.

This passage encourages believers to endure trials with joy, as these tests build spiritual maturity. It distinguishes between trials and temptation, ultimately emphasizing that God is the unwavering source of all goodness and truth.

To read the passage for context, click here.

The Progression of Birth Pains

This verse tells us sin gives birth to death. And it happens with labor pains, just like natural birth. Those pains start out relatively mild and benign, but increase in intensity and frequency, if we don’t repent, until death is finally born.

I’ve experienced this in my own life. I had an out-of-control temper for many years. I said and did regrettable things to my husband and kids in anger.

And I broke my kids’ things and was what could only be described as physically abusive a few times. I even verbally assaulted the teenager next door.

And I didn’t just say and do these things once or twice in a weak moment. It was my pattern when I was angry.

As a result, I experienced judgment that started out bad and got much worse. My husband had walked away from the faith and had his own unrepentant sin.

My Personal Birth Pains

The first judgment, to my mind, was my marriage from hell. It’s clear to me now that had I repented, God would’ve redeemed the situation.

From there, the judgments were more frequent and intense.

I stopped seeing my therapist after 2.5 years. This triggered extreme grief over the loss of my father (although I didn’t realize it at the time) and lasted many months.

Then my husband kicked me out of the house for two months. I wasn’t allowed to go home in that time. I rented a motel room and slept in my car on several occasions.

About a year later, my ten-year-old son was diagnosed with cancer. (Noone will ever convince me that a loving heavenly Father gives innocent children cancer for no good reason. No, we do these things to ourselves when we repeatedly and stubbornly sow to the sinful nature).

But let me be clear. This doesn’t apply to the Christian who hates his sin and is working with God to overcome it, though it may be a process. This applies to the one who has given up and given in and is therefore given over to their sin. That was us.

After that a “friend” reported us to the DHS, and my husband and I were accused of maltreatment of minors (not criminal) because the house was in a state of disrepair/disorganization.

This threatened to derail my nursing education before it even begun, since I had just been accepted into a local nursing program.

A year later, my son’s cancer relapsed, and he almost died. And then I experienced another painful trigger of my father’s abandonment many years earlier.

I Finally Repented

Finally, after years of heartache and misery, I saw the connection between my sin and my suffering. And I repented.

Finally, the judgment, or labor pains ceased. But the point is, those pains became more intense and frequent, and within a hairs breath of giving birth to death.

In fact, had God not miraculously healed our son in answer to the prayers of many, there’s no doubt he would’ve died. To read that harrowing ordeal, click here.

After I repented, the pains stopped, though I still had intense grief for several more years related to my father’s abandonment when I was an infant. (I was not able to properly grieve the loss as an infant, and the pain was repressed until I was an adult).

I also had extreme anxiety on my first nursing job and was lonely all by myself after my husband divorced me. The Lord did encourage me to get more involved at church, but I let my busyness get in the way.

So, I still had trials. Life wasn’t perfect, even after I changed my ways. But every year since then seems to have gotten more peaceful and quieter. And I’m not experiencing any more sudden, distressing contractions that come out of the blue and upend my life.

To read another post related to Birth Pains and Judgment: The Link, see The Cup of Suffering: The Father’s Will.