How many of you, in the past or at present, have someone you love or care about very much?  Someone that you have been praying and interceding for?  This someone could be a husband, a close relative, a friend or a child.  You may be praying for their salvation or perhaps they have been saved but are not walking with the Lord in the way that they should and they are missing out on the blessings of God because of their sin, woundedness, stubborness or rebellion.  Perhaps this person or persons needs a healing or they are in a very bad situation and they need to be delivered.  Whatever the need this dear one has, the point is, that you have the deepest love and concern for them.

     Your prayers start out with great faith and belief that God will hear and answer in just the way you have asked.  But the answer doesn’t come as soon as you had hoped for and, in fact, the situation seems to be getting worse, much worse.  Your cries to God become more desperate and emotional.  Your soul is in anguish over this precious one or ones.  Now, in your inner being, the longing you have to see this dear one saved, healed, delivered and enjoying life has changed from interceding to interfering.  All well intentioned, of course!  That intense desire to nurture, teach, lead, guide, direct and correct becomes overwhelming and the next thing you know, you’ve said too much, had one too many “helpful” suggestions, pointed out one too many scriptures and perhaps have rescued them one more time out of the hand of God.  Those of you who are mothers, have you ever had a time when Dad seemed a little too harsh or unreasonable when disciplining your child?  So, being the compassionate nurturer you are (oh, and don’t forget “just and fair”), you stepped in the middle to save them from their “big bad Daddy”?  After all, he couldn’t possibly understand your child the way you do, he didn’t birth them or spend all that time with them like you did! Ha!  Sometimes, we find ourselves doing this very thing with a loved one that God is dealing with.  And sometimes the Lord is directing us to have input into this person’s life in the ways I have previously mentioned.  After all, as females God has wired us in such a way that these attributes are part of who we are, aren’t they?

     There has  been a longing stirring in me for sometime to understand more fully this calling of “motherhood” that is on my life and the lives of other women.  Not only for my own children, their spouses and my grandchildren, but also for the many brothers and sisters in Christ He has called me to disciple.  I don’t always understand this intense desire to mentor, teach, nurture and correct that rises up in me and other women who are blessed (sometimes it can feel like a curse) with this gift of a “mother’s heart.”  I know in the depth of my being that, for the most part, it is a good thing but sometimes when it is filtered through my flesh it can feel like a negative, destructive thing. Many times it is difficult to distinguish between the two.  Sometimes the desire to show these dear ones the way to truth and intimacy with our Jesus becomes so intense that I fear my emotions overshadow the desire and intentions of the Holy Spirit. Is that intensity me and my emotions or is it the Holy Spirit?  Sometimes I’m not sure.  Especially when the person’s reaction is one of offense, anger or rebellion.  I know that in spite of the Lord’s mercy and compassion He many times offended and still does those He is speaking to.  I want to examine more closely what the Word says about all of this.  Perhaps, I can come to a greater understanding and intimacy with the Lord on this subject.

     “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”  3 John 4.  Like the Apostle John, I too desire that those I have and am discipling, including my own children, would, at all times, walk in the truth.  “It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commands us.”  2 John 4. 

     There is so much talk and teaching about the “Father heart of God”, and I do understand and relate to that, but I wonder, is there something to this “mother heart” idea in the person of the Holy Spirit?  I don’t want to, in any way, take away from or demean the authority of God found in Him as our Heavenly Father and Creator, or attempt to feminize Him, as some have tried to do.  But rather, explore the idea of the nurturing, compassionate, hovering and brooding over aspect of His personality that seems to be described in the person of the Holy Spirit.  These aspects of His nature may help to explain the intensity with which a mother broods over her children, natural or spiritual, and especially a wayward child.

     Genesis 1:2 – “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”

     Webster’s definition of hover – to hang fluttering in the air or on the wing; to remain suspended over a place or object; to move to and fro near a place; to be in a state of uncertainty, irresolution or suspense; to brood over.

     Webster’s definition of brood – to sit on eggs in order to hatch them; to cover young with the wings; to think anxiously or moodily on a subject.

     Think about the following scriptures in light of a hen sitting on her eggs and even after they  have hatched.  The mother hen will fluff herself up and extend her wings and feathers over her eggs or young when threatened.  If the chicks are out of the nest and the hen senses danger she makes a sound and all her chicks comes running up under her wings.

     Psalm 17:8 – “Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings from the wicked who assail me, from my mortal enemies who surround me.”

     Psalm 91:4 – “He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.”

     Matthew 23:37 – “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.”

     Have you ever wondered where that tendency to brood over your young came from?  We see from the Word that it has come from the Father from the beginning.

     I would like to continue this topic in my next blog, in August.  I will pick up with how our female characeristics, in the context of having a “mother’s heart”, are part of being created in His image.