Mother's Day: Lordship and Motherhood (Deut. 32:11-12; Matt. 23:37)
By Earl C. Davis
Psalm 91:4 is one of our favorite verses: "He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: His truth shall be thy shield and buckler." Brothers and sisters, let us put this image of the mothering character of God into our hearts, and run to the shelter of His wings when our hearts are fearful, when the burden is heavy, and when He calls us to flee from dangers unknown to us.
In
Isaiah 66:13 we find a motherly promise of God: "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you." It is the promise of our God; He will comfort us as our loving mother comforted us as children, when our hearts were fearful of many things. And so often she dispersed the dark fear with a word because she knew so much more than we, and knew there was nothing to be afraid about. So it is with God, who loves us with a mother's love, weeps with us with a mother's sorrow, comforts us as a mother, when all other helpers fail and comforts flee.
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So the lesson is that God is like a mother, is it? Well, in a sense. But more correctly, the godly mother is simply reflecting the character of God. The lesson is that every mother ought to be a mother who acts, as nearly as possible, toward her children like God acts toward us, because her finest motherly qualities are an extension of the character of God. Yet, no mother, in your own strength, can reflect the motherly qualities of God as you ought; no mother, in your own strength, can be the redeeming force in your child's life that you ought to be, without a holy and sanctified relationship to God yourself.
I close with one other image of motherhood, found in
Revelation 12:1-5. It is a piteous and hideous scene: a woman is travailing in childbirth, and a dragon is waiting at her feet to destroy her child as soon as it is born. Now this scene is of the birth of Christ. How I wish I could convince you that this same dragon -- the devil, that old serpent, Satan, the deceiver -- waits to devour your child from the day it is born. And unless you live in the power and strength of the Lord Jesus, the dragon may get your child; devour him or her through abortion, through drugs, through the temptations of this world.
So I ask all the mothers: Is Jesus the Lord of your life? Have you experienced the motherly love of God, strong, deep, sacrificial? Are you reflecting into the lives, the precious souls committed to your keeping, that your love and discipline and faith in them and sacrifice are all a reflection of a deeper love of God for each child? Is your life lived daily in the presence of God? Or is your life stuffed with soap operas and secular goals? Do you have the desire to pour your life and your faith into your children in such a way that they will know and love God?
You can be a biological mother without Jesus as Lord; but you cannot be a channel of the highest blessings of this world without Him. Would you this day make Jesus Lord of your life?