Wholehearted Women & Mother’s Day

I have been reminded recently about the lavish riches of God’s grace in Ephesians:

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved (Eph 2:4-5).

Out of his grace and mercy, he brought us back from spiritual death to life, and that life is eternal. He has given us every spiritual blessing in Christ - we’ve been chosen to be holy, predestined to be adopted, we’ve been redeemed and forgiven, and we have his Spirit in us, guaranteeing that we are his. It’s such a litany of blessings, isn’t it, that is ours as we trust in Jesus as our Lord and Saviour! Paul spends a fair bit of time unpacking these blessings in Ephesians. And he exhorts us to live lives (to “walk”) that are worthy of God’s forgiven people.

I’ve been spending time in Ephesians as I prepare the two main talks for our upcoming Wholehearted Women Conference (Sat 30 May, 1.30-5.30pm). I and the other speakers (Helen Lovell from Mornings and Joelle Fuller from Nights who are doing the short talks) are privileged to be unpacking Ephesians 1-3 and what it means to be women who walk worthily as God’s dearly loved, chosen and forgiven people.

I am so looking forward to gathering with women from across our church – Mornings, Late Mornings, Nights and Tuesday Church. What a delight to gather as women of all ages - Senior High’ers to 90+ year olds - to sit under God’s word together, and to sing, meet, chat and eat together!! In recent years, we have enjoyed watching the Equip Women conference livestream. However, we’re keen to do our own, in-house conference, so that the talks and the singing are live, and we can hear from women from across our church through the talks and interviews.

This Sunday is also Mother’s Day, a time to celebrate and give thanks for mums, step-mums, grandmas, aunties, foster mums, and mothers in the faith in our church community, and in all our extended families and networks. It’s a great opportunity to thank God for mums, and to pray that he will strengthen and sustain them. And we also want to pray for God’s comfort for those for whom Mother’s Day is a reminder of pain and loss – those whose mothers or children have died, those who are estranged, or separated by distance, and those who long to be biological mothers but have never been able to be. I look forward to gathering this Sunday as people who have been graciously brought into God’s forever family.