FATHERHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD IS IN GOD “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up” (Psalms 27:10) In this scripture, he was so certain that his father and mother will surely forsake him, and he is so certain that when that happens is when the LORD will take him up. He did not say “If my father and my mother forsake me”, but “When my father and mother forsake me” and “Then the LORD will adopt me”. “If” is subject to probability or chance, but “When” and “Then” are subject to Time and Event. This shows that the man had more confidence and relationship with the LORD, than with his father and mother. He begged God never to forsake him in the preceding verse, and then in this verse he said when his parents forsake him God will receive him. There are many people in this world who feel their lives are miserable because their father or mother abandoned them. So they use that as an excuse or license to live recklessly, delinquently or follow wrong ways because they feel they have no parental guidance, no father or mother showed them love and care and gave them the needed attention. If you are such a person, hear me: Do not continue in that self-pity, but brace up because God is closer to you than any father or mother can be. It is good to take refuge under the covering to your father and mother, but it is best to take refuge under the covering and care of the Almighty. A. FATHERHOOD OF GOD: [[Psalms 68:5-6]] - A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation. God sets the solitary in families: he brings out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land.” B. MOTHERHOOD OF GOD: [[Isaiah 49:15]] – “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, they may forget, yet will I not forget you.” The book of Psalms contains the confession and testimony of a man and woman who knew God as their refuge, trust, their salvation, their guide, their everything. 1. It is not my father or mother that is my shepherd, rather the LORD is my shepherd and I shall not want. (Psalms 23:1). 2. It is not my father or mother that is my light or salvation, rather the LORD is my Light and my Salvation; whom shall I fear? (Psalms 27:1). 3. I do not put my trust in my father or mother, rather O LORD my God in you do I put my trust. (Psalms 7:1, 11:1). 4. I ceased from crying to my father or mother a long while ago, but unto you will I cry O LORD my Rock (Psalms 28:1). 5. Our fathers and our mothers are not our refuge or strength, rather God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalms 46:1). The womb of a mother does not last forever, and God who gave you to suck the breasts of your mother can give you better breasts than that of your mother’s: For God is the greatest Nurse, who nurses his own children better than a mother could nurse hers (Isaiah 66:13): And there are breasts which are more better than your mother’s breasts: As it is written, “That you may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that you may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory. For thus says the LORD, “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream: then shall you suck, you shall be borne upon her sides, and be dandled upon her knees. As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you; and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.” (Isaiah 66:11-13) He mentioned the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream as part of what His children will suck. The glory of the Gentiles is one of the breasts God has ordained for his children to suck in the days to come: As it is written, “You shall also suck the milk of the Gentiles, and shall suck the breast of kings: and you shall know that I the LORD am your Saviour and your Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob” (Isaiah 60:16). IN CONCLUSION Be separated from the womb and breasts of a mother into full relationship with God and His Son Jesus Christ. The only reason we are permitted to forsake our father and mother is for the sake of God, otherwise nothing else is worth it. It is not an investment where the parents must reap from the children all that they had put into them by raising them up, rather it is a selfless sacrifice of the parent for their children to which they were called to raise up. I tell you, being called into full walk and ministry with Christ will mean that one will have neglect his parents at some point because of God and what God demands of you: Ordinarily, even a man’s commitment to his wife or husband will sometimes demand him or her to neglect his parents for his wife or husband; how much more a man’s commitment to Christ and his calling. God asked us to honour our father and mother, but he did not ask us to reward them: To honour means to respect and regard them with high esteem, but to reward them means to pay them back for what they have done to us. It is not my duty to reward any man, but it is my duty to honour all men. Rewarding a man is God’s task to do: As vengeance belongs to him, even so does rewarding all men belongs to him. We are not called to pay back evil or good, rather we are called to honour men without distorted prejudices according to the counsel of the LORD. Do not feel obliged to reward your parents for what they have done, either good or bad. Whether they had done so much good to you or so much evil against you, do not reward them; but rather honour them because it is right. There is a local song in the part of the country where I live, which says: “Sweet mother, I will never forget you for the suffering you suffered for me… when I was hungry, you ran up and down to feed me; if I do not sleep, my mother will not sleep… etc.” I now tell you, we do not sing such song in the kingdom of heaven; and a mother who had done all these things for her child could still be forgotten if she did not walk with Christ even in doing all these sacrifice for her son or daughter: Obedience is what shall never be forgotten, and not sacrifice. Obedience to the will of God is better than sacrifice. There are parents, who may be seen as failures before their children or despised by them, but before God they are highly regarded as great parents; and there are parents who may be celebrated by their children, but they have failed God. Children would assess their parents by how much comfortable they made their lives to be, but God assesses parents by how much they ordered their children after God in righteousness, in faith and in discipline. Your parents (whether natural or spiritual) are not your God on the earth; for your God in heaven is still your God on the earth and everywhere.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 08:28:09 +0000