What does the doctrine of the HOLY SPIRIT have to do with PMADs?
Pneumatology, the study of the Holy Spirit, has been one of the most comforting doctrines to me as I’ve sought to understand my PMADs.
A survey of verses about the Spirit show that He is God, since He is holy like God and does the work of the Triune God: creating life and regenerating to new life, consecrating and empowering, and refining believers and judging unbelievers. The Spirit acts as a down payment towards God’s promise of full redemption. He makes us new and then dwells in us, applying all the benefits of the Son’s death to us—freedom from sin and death, power to begin to walk in his ways, and communion with the whole Triune God.
What does this mean for PMADs?
- Scriptures on the Spirit reveal that His work is gauged by fruit, not emotions. I have so often tried to gauge the work of the Spirit and the presence of God in my life by how much I feel it. But instead, the Bible points to what the Spirit works in people. This may involve emotions, but in Scripture is centered on how the Spirit makes us more like Christ. If you see spiritual growth and fruit in your life, you can trust that God is at work in you, and that His presence is with you, even if you don’t feel like it is.
- Pneumatology also tells us that we are never alone. We always have a helper-advocate-comforter with us, guiding and teaching us. When we don’t know what will calm the baby, when anxiety tells you you could never get through your worst, when you’ve never felt so lonely—God is an ever-present help. And that comfort and help we have in the Spirit is only the firstfruits, only a foretaste of what’s to come.
(For more on the Spirit, read John 14-16 and Romans 8).
What does the doctrine of THE CHURCH have to do with PMADs?
Church can be one of the most difficult places when you’re wrestling PMADs. It’s hard to get there. It’s hard to focus. And the people can be hard, no matter how much we love them. Insensitive comments, along with expectations that motherhood is all cheery, leave you feeling exhausted and isolated.
But the Church is also one of the most necessary places for new moms. This is true because of how the Sunday service shapes us and because it is the community God has designed for us. Our churches have brought meals, provided babysitting, and supported us in many other ways when I had PMADs, even when no one knew I was struggling until later. The Church is Christ’s body, and in its proper function, it cares for its members so that the whole body is strong.
And it doesn’t stop with practical help. Your pastors/elders are gifts from the Lord for building up the whole body of Christ, so that we will not be “tossed by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine”—even the winds of doctrine our own feelings want us to believe (Eph. 4:11-16). The Sunday service tethers us to truth. Your fellow members are there to bear your burdens and look out for your interests, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, and be patient with everyone (1 Thess. 5:15).
It goes both ways. Even when you’re overwhelmed by PMADs, you build up the Church. Your response to your weakness and suffering can strengthen other members as they serve you. You can edify fellow believers as you explain how they can best help you, even gently responding to those who make insensitive comments. You can love those around you even as they love you.
The Church is not easy; it’s God’s people in progress. But we cannot do without it.
(Study Romans 12, Colossians 3:12-17, and Ephesians 4 for more on ecclesiology)
“The Church is not a theological classroom. It is a conversion, confession, repentance, reconciliation, forgiveness, and sanctification center, where flawed people place their trust in Christ, gather to know and love him better, and learn to love others as he has designed. The church is messy and inefficient, but it is God’s wonderful mess—the place where he radically transforms hearts and lives.”
Paul Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands, page 116
What does the doctrine of LAST THINGS have to do with PMADs?
“Just wait for the Millennium. As soon as it hits, your PMADs will be gone.”
That might be where your mind goes with eschatology, but there is far more to the study of last things/end times (and for the record, I’m not convinced on my Millennial view anyway).
I want to focus on eschatology as the end of the Story. PMADs are not the end of your story. It may feel like they are all there is to your life and that they will never end.
But they will.
There is help and healing here on earth. And while you wait for that, groaning and yearning for your suffering to subside, you can rejoice and anticipate an even greater healing. In the here and now, even full healing from PMADs doesn’t mean life becomes easy. But then? Resurrection. New bodies. Every tear wiped away. The full presence of God, forever, in a place where depression can never obscure it.
And what about this suffering you wade through now? It’s going to make that glory so much sweeter (2 Cor. 4:16-18). So we do not lose heart, because we know what’s coming. We know there’s a happy ending, even if we can’t see or imagine it now. God keeps His promises, and He is coming soon.
Like the Getty’s Communion Hymn declares,
“As we share in His suffering, we proclaim Christ will come again, and we’ll join in the feast heaven, around the table of the King.”
The Sorrows of Eve 