[by Jack Deere, delivered Mothers Day 2011, Wellspring Church, Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas]
Mother’s Day Letter
If God were to write the mothers a letter today, I think it might read something like this. Remember that Jesus warned us to be very careful what we listen to (Mark 4:24).
I’ve given you one of the most difficult tasks on earth, but I never meant for you to define your worth by that task. You are worth so much more to me than your motherhood. I knew you’d have a tough time being a mother. I’ve had a tough time being a father. All of my children are challenge. Some are source of great pain to me. I never expected you to be the greatest mother in the world, just a grateful mother for the children I gave you. And another thing, I don’t hold you accountable for your children’s mistakes either. I’m a perfect Father, the only perfect Father, and look how some of my kids have turned out.
Your real value lies in my love for you and your friendship with my Son. He paid for that friendship with His blood. And His blood makes you infinitely valuable. I know that evil voice tries to get you to forget this. That’s why it keeps reminding you of your failures. But remember my Son’s already paid for those failures. And besides, no amount of success on earth is going to make you feel good about yourself for more than a few minutes. I’m the only one who can do that.
Let me tell you about one more trick the evil voice is always trying to pull on you. That voice resents the blessings I’ve given you. It’d love to take my blessings away from you, but it doesn’t have that power. So it tries to get you to turn those blessings into idols. Sometimes you fall for this trick. Let me tell you how you can know you’ve fallen for this trick. When you think you can’t be happy in your present circumstances, you may have turned one of my blessings into an idol. Every time you think I’ll be happy when…just fill in the blank. When my child starts walking with God, when my husband changes, when I change, or just whenever. You are not wrong to want these changes. I want them too. But if you really have to have these changes to be happy, you’ll never be happy. You’re counting on them to do something only I can do for you. And that’s what an idol is. My children make their own idols, usually out of my blessings. They do it to feel better about themselves. It just never works. It only makes you feel shame. The evil voice is always trying to get you to conquer shame by doing something. Don’t listen to it. You can’t conquer shame. You can’t conquer fear. The only one who could do that is my Son. He’s already done it on the cross. Everything comes back to His blood. His blood will help you overcome the evil voice. His blood will make you feel your true worth.
One more thing on this idea of conquering sin, shame, fear and other negative things. It’s not very likely that you’re going to conquer any of these things. I know some of my preachers have been telling you that it’s possible to put these things behind you, once for all. Your pastor, my son, Jack, used to teach that. When he was much younger, he even used to talk about his pride in the past tense. We really got a big laugh over that up here. The angels were taking bets on how many times he would have to fall before he would give up trying to rid himself of his pride. All my children are prideful. The ones who don’t know it are the unhappiest. The ones who know it are happy and humble. You may be wondering how you could be prideful and humble at the same time.
Remember what a mess you were when I found you? You were such a mess because there was a part of you so broken that I decided not to fix it. That part of you will always be prideful and selfish, but I put my Spirit in you and gave you a new nature. I left the old nature alone. It’s still there, and it urges you do things you don’t really want to do anymore. The devil tries to get you to improve it. I just want you to ignore it. You’re never going to conquer it. I’m going to remove it when you come up here to your real home. But for now get used to living in conflict with it. And give up the idea of any kind of permanent overcoming of anything until you get to heaven.
If I let you permanently overcome things like shame, fear and other sins in this life, you have no idea how proud you would become. But don’t worry. None of these things have to be your master anymore. I have a better plan. What I offer you is a daily reprieve from the power of shame, fear, guilt and other sins. This reprieve is based on you and I taking a walk together each day. The more walks we take together, the more you will feel how much I like you just like you are. And the more you will learn to count on me not your circumstances. Your circumstances are always changing. But I never change. You can always count on me to do what is good for you and what is right.
I’d like to talk to you some more about all this, but I’d rather do it alone, just the two us. How about we meet a little later to finish this talk. I’m sure you’ve got some things you like to say to me. And I’d love to hear them. Yes, I’d already know what you’re going to say, but knowing is not the same thing as hearing.
Now stop worrying that you don’t have it all together and that your family is messy. All families are messy and no one has it all together. Life is messy for everyone. I did not put you here to clean up the mess. I put you here to enjoy me. That is how you overcome the messiness of life.
I know you think you could have been a better mother. I know you’re hurt when you think of some things in the past. I think of your past too. I remember every little kindness you’ve done to those children I gave you. I remember every sacrifice you’ve made for them, especially the sacrifices you didn’t even think were sacrifices. I remember every stab of pain you’ve felt over those kids and every tear you’ve cried for them. I remember every single prayer you prayed for them. But I can’t remember any of the wrong things you’ve done. Those things are hidden forever under the blood of my Son. Why don’t you just forget them too? Considering everything that came against you, you really have done your best. One day I will tell this to you face to face.
But for now, believe Me when I say you have no idea how loved you are. And any voice that says different is just lying to you. In a very short time you’ll be with me and then you will be able to feel what you can only dream about now. In the meantime, be careful what voice you listen to.
Happy Mother’s Day,
From your God, your Lord, your Savior, Your Friend, and your proud Father
*Published by expressed permission of Jack Deere. Shared at Hawaiian Islands Ministries' Life in the Spirit Conference, August 20, 2011
