As this day is put aside to honor you as a mother, I pray that you will be blessed, honored and spoiled rotten for all your toil, faithfulness and sacrificial love. I would also like to remind you again of the high status of your calling. In the midst of all your mothering, when you often feel exhausted, worried, frazzled and overwhelmed, it is easy to forget the big picture and the divine task to which God has commissioned you.

You are not involved in some insignificant task. You have the highest calling in the nation. You may have been involved in a career at some stage and of course you had to be faithful to your employer. But you now have a far more important task. You are employed by a heavenly employer, the King of all kings and the Lord of all lords. You are now responsible to Him.

Here are a few reminders of the greatness of your divine calling.

1. YOU ARE THE REVEALER OF GOD’S MATERNAL HEART

Dear Mother, in all the activities and work of keeping your home, never lose sight of your highest purpose – to walk in the anointing of your maternal instinct. This is who you are. You are a maternal being. You were created to ooze with nurturing. This is the greatest need of your children. This is the greatest need of this sin-sick hurting world. It does not matter if you do not finish every project and every teaching course you have planned for your children, but it does matter that your children live in an atmosphere of nurture and love. Embrace your maternalness. Pour it out upon your family and all you meet. In doing this you will walk in the anointing and glory of womanhood.

2. YOU ARE A NATION SHAPER

More than anyone else, you as a mother can determine the destiny of the nation. You may feel as though you are hidden in your home while many of your neighbors drive off to work each morning. They may think you are wasting your life, but they have no idea of what you are doing! They don’t realize that you are shaping lives. You are polishing and sharpening “arrows”. You are getting children ready to fulfill God’s divine purposes for their lives. There will come a day when they will come forth out of your home to rock this nation – and even the world!

Look out world! Get out of the way, Satan. There is a mother in this home who knows who she is and knows her calling from God. You can trifle with this woman. She is like an awesome army with banners! (Song of songs 6:4,10)

3. YOU ARE A LEGACY MAKER

You not only can you determine the destiny of this nation, but you will influence the generations to come. Ruth became the great-grandmother of King David and I am sure she had the privilege of holding him in her arms.  Did you ever read about Hudson Taylor who founded the China Inland Mission? His godly generation started with his great-grandfather who lived in the time of John Wesley. This godly line has passed on from one generation to the next and there are now nine generations of preachers in the Taylor family.

What mighty children will be born in your following generations as you strongly impress God’s ways into the hearts of your children?

4. YOU ARE AN ETERNITY FILLER

Your influence goes even beyond the many generations to follow. Motherhood is an eternal career. Every precious baby that you embrace from the hand of God is another eternal soul that will live forever. There is absolutely nothing more powerful and more eternal that you could do in this life than bring an eternal soul into this world! You will leave everything in this world behind – except your redeemed soul and the redeemed souls of your children.

5. YOU ARE A HOME NESTER

Don’t let this humanistic society deceive you to think that your home is a boring place. On the contrary, it is a place of divine appointment for you. It is a sacred place. God chose the home as the place where He wants His children nurtured and raised. Before God gives us children, he first puts us in a home. Psalm 113:9 “He makes the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children.” Our humanistic society provides daycares for children but these are poor substitutes for the home. A little boy was asked why he didn’t like daycare. “Because I didn’t have a mommy,” he replied.

Embrace your home. Thank God for it. Know that it is where God wants you to be to fulfill your great commission.

6. YOU ARE THE SENTINEL OF YOUR HOME

Husbands guard the city gates but you stand sentry at your home, guarding against all inroads of the enemy. You watch in prayer. You watch over the bodies, souls and spirits of your children. As I raised our children, I made Paul’s prayer for the Thessalonians in 5:23 my goal, “I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

7. YOU ARE A WALKING PRAYER MEETING

Prayer should be inseparable from motherhood. It is pretty difficult to adequately mother without constantly looking to the Lord. Abraham Lincoln said, “I remember my mother’s prayers, and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all of my life.”

Perhaps you have a child who has gone astray or is giving you much concern. Don’t despair. Keep praying. They cannot get away from your prayers. When the great Latin Church father and theologian, Augustine,  went away to college, he got in with the wrong crowd and became a worldly young man for many years. Monica, his mother, had one vision – that her son would know God and be a preacher. She prayed and interceded continually. Her whole life was given to prayer. When he eventually came to the Lord in answer to her prayers she said, “I have fulfilled my task. I am now ready to go to the Lord,” and she died soon after.

8. YOU ARE THE BEST TEACHER AND TRAINER OF YOUR CHILDREN

There is no one who can teach your children better than you can. Proverbs 6:20-23 says, “Do not forsake the law of your mother. Bind them continually upon your heart; tie them around your neck. When you roam, they will lead you; when you sleep, they will keep you; and when you awake, they will speak with you...”

Abraham Lincoln said again, “The greatest lessons I ever learned were at my mother’s knees.

George Washington said, “All that I am I owe to my mother. I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her.”

John Wesley said, “I learned more about Christianity from my mother than from all the theologians of England.”’

Dear mother, God has chosen you to be the mother of your children. No one can do it is well as you can. And God is behind you all the way. He has commissioned you to the task and He will empower you.

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

Isaiah 60:18, “You shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise.”

I love the fact that our God is such a practical God. He is concerned about our everyday lives. He is even interested in the doors and the gates of our homes. In fact, they are very important to Him and He speaks a lot about them. Psalm 87:2 tells us that “The Lord loves the gates of Zion.” He loves your gates and doors too.

Beautiful gates and doors fascinate me. When visiting my niece in Majorca a couple of years ago, I took most of my pictures of gates and doors – amazing huge wooden doors of all beautiful designs. It was also delightful to walk through the narrow streets of old villages. Old doors, quaint doors and interesting gates led into courtyards, gardens and homes. Doors are enticing. They are entrances that lead you into new adventures, new ideas, new vision and new excitement - and of course into your home.

God wants us to call the gates and doors of our home Praise. Every time we open a door to enter it we should praise the Lord. We should take the praises of the Lord into each room we enter.

Pray a short prayer of praise each time you open a door. “Oh Lord, I thank you for this room. I enter into it with thanksgiving. I take your praises into it. Fill it with your presence and your love. Amen.” Can you imagine the change in the atmosphere of your home if you praised your way into every room you enter? Try it.

Actually, it may take time to get into the habit of doing this. I myself am trying to get into the habit of it. To help you, share the idea with your husband and children too, so you can all do it. Remind one another until it becomes the habit of your life.

God gives us another practical principle about our doors in Jeremiah 17:19-27. Take time to read the whole passage. He told Jeremiah to go to all the gates of Jerusalem and tell the people that they were to take no burden in through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. They were not to carry a burden out of their houses either. Jeremiah spoke of the literal Sabbath day. However, through Jesus’ death on the cross, God has now provided a way for us to live in a continual Sabbath rest. Jesus is our rest. He wants us to live in His rest. He wants us to have rest in our homes. He does not want our homes to be filled with tension, stress, bickering and fighting.

Of course, He always gives the remedy. Every time you enter your gate, and each door of your home, make sure you leave your burdens at the door. Don’t take them through the door into your home. These burdens will spoil the atmosphere of your home. They will devour your home. Roll them over to Jesus at the door. He has promised to take your burdens and carry your sorrows. (Psalm 55:22)

This passage in Jeremiah promises that if you do not take your burdens through the doors of your home that the King will sit on the throne! Who do you want ruling your home? Your problems and your burdens? Or King Jesus, who is your Rest forever? It’s your choice.

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:

“Oh Lord, please remind me to praise my way through every door of my home. I thank you that you are my Burden Bearer and that I don’t have to carry my problems into my home with me. Help me to get in the habit of rolling them upon you before I enter the door of my home Amen.”’

 

AFFIRMATION:

Isaiah 44:21, “Remember these, O Jacob and Israel; for you are my servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me!”

We continue discovering God’s purposes for our lives…

3. We were created to show forth His praise. (Isaiah 43:21b)

We do this through our life, our words and our writings. The words “show forth” besides meaning “to make known and to celebrate” also mean, “to inscribe”. This same word was used for scribes. This means that in everything we say, write and do, we are to make His praise known.

4. We were created to be His witness. (Isaiah 43:10-13; 44:8)

God’s purpose for Israel was to witness to the world that God was the only true God. This is also our task. We are His representatives, His ambassadors and His witnesses on this earth to show that He is the only true God and Savior in the earth. We are to declare His truth, His ways and the knowledge of Him to the world. Of course, we start with our family! Every day we reveal to our children what God is like. Someone has said, “Mother is the name for God in the lips of little children.” What kind of picture of God do we witness to our children?

5.  We were created to serve. (Isaiah 44:21; 49:3)

We were born to serve. To serve is God-like. Satan refused to serve in the heavenly realm and instead rose up in pride. Because of this he was cast out of heaven. Milton expresses Satan well in Paradise Lost…

“And in my choice

To reign is worth ambition though in hell:

Better to reign in hell, than serve in Heav’n”

He still tries to instill his anti-servant spirit in us today. It’s helpful to remember that when we resist serving, we fall into Satan’s willful ways.

Jesus Himself did not come to be served, but to serve. In fact, Jesus died, not only to save us from our sins, but also to save us from our selfish instinct that tries to rule our lives. 2 Corinthians 5:15 says, “He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.”

We often think of serving as servitude, but servitude is when we are made to serve, or when we do it grudgingly. We have joy when we willingly serve. It is God’s purpose for us. I love the song with the Maori tune we used to sing in New Zealand, “If  you want to be great in God’s kingdom, learn to be the servant of all!”

How can you serve God in our daily life? You serve Him by serving your husband and family. You serve Him when you are cleaning, cooking and tending to your children and baby. When you serve in your home you are actually serving the Lord. Every mundane task is a service to the Lord. 1 Corinthians 10:31 reminds us, “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

You serve God by serving one another. You serve Him by serving the poor and the “least of the brethren.” (Matthew 25:31-46) When one of Mother Teresa’s novices was ministering to one of the destitute, one who was repulsive to look at, or one whose stench was nauseating, she would often take the novice’s hand. With the palm out-stretched she would fold the fingers and thumb back into the palm one by one as she spoke these five words, “You did it to Me.”

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:

“Lord, please help me to remember that serving is a godly attribute and that when I serve I am revealing your life. Help me to be full of joy as I serve in my home. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

Isaiah 43:21, “This people I have formed for myself; they shall declare my praise.” 

Not one of us is here on this earth by chance. God has purpose for our existence. He created and formed us for Himself. More than that – He loved us.  Even more than that – He redeemed us.  And He has called us and chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. (Isaiah 43:1,4,7; 44:1,2,22,23; Ephesians 1:4; 2:10; 1 Timothy 1:9) When we understand this truth, there is no room for disillusionment or discontentment with life. It is the enemy of our souls who tells us that we are “good for nothing” or that life is not worth living.

Let’s continue looking at the specific things for which God has created us…

2. We have been created for God Himself.

We were not created for our own pleasure but for God’s pleasure. Revelation 4:11 tells us that everything thing that God created was created for His pleasure. That includes us!  We are the work of God’s hands. (Isaiah 60:21) The J.B. Phillip’s translation of 2 Corinthians 6:19 reminds us, “You are not the owner of your body.”

This takes a lot of the frustration out of life. We understand our purpose. We are not here to live for ourselves but to bring pleasure and delight to the One who created us. What greater purpose could we find in life than to please our Creator and Redeemer? The Westminster Shorter Catechism says, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.” *

When you wake in the morning, tell God, “Lord, I thank you that you created me for your pleasure. Here I am, Lord. I am available to serve you today. I want my life to bring pleasure to you.” This purpose affects every moment and every aspect of our lives. As you bring pleasure to your husband and your family in your home, you will also pleasure to the One who created you for this task.

God calls our children the work of His hands too, and it is important to remember that they also were born for His pleasure. Isaiah 29:23 says, “For when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in his midst, they will sanctify my name… and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.” Only God can create a life, each one different than anyone else who has ever lived, each one with a different personality and gifts. When we see each one of our children growing in the Lord and honoring Him, it causes us to praise and stand in awe of Him. Every newborn baby is the exquisite work of God’s hands and renews the face of the earth with the presence of God. (Psalm 139:13-16; 104:30)

The Living Bible and the New Living Translation give an interesting light on this Scripture, “When they see the surging birth rate and the expanding economy, then they will fear and rejoice in my name… and stand in awe of Him.”

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:

“Oh Lord, help me to become more and more aware of the glorious truth that I am created for your pleasure. You created me for your enjoyment and fellowship. Please help me to bring joy to you in every aspect of my life, in my home and in my relationships. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

I am created for God’s pleasure!