As a Mother Loves Her Child

The Father loves you; it is at this point that multitudes of believers fail God. They are willing to be convicted of sin and failure over and over again, but they will not allow the Holy Ghost to flood them with the love of the Father.

The legalist loves to live under conviction. He has never understood the love of God or allowed the Holy Spirit to minister that love to his soul.

Isaiah was writing to a stubborn people of God whom he says “went on backsliding in the way of his heart” (Isaiah 57:17). Despite this, Isaiah described God, saying, “As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem” (Isaiah 66:13, NKJV).

The prophet Isaiah took one of the highest images possible among men, that of a mother’s love for her child, and shows us something of the love that our Father has for us. One mother in our church takes a whole day to visit her son in an upstate prison. She gets on a bus and rides for hours just to see him for a short while. Such a mother will look across at her son in that drab uniform and see the agony in his eyes, and each trip she will die a little more inside, but she never quits on him. He is still her son.

I have taught that the righteous person, the true lover of Jesus, loves reproof. He learns to welcome having the Holy Spirit expose his hidden areas of sin and unbelief because the more he deals with sin, the happier and freer he becomes. However, the attitude I see in many Christians is “Keep on judging me, Lord. Convict me, rebuke me!” This is not the same thing as true conviction.

For example, I see this in many responses to my newsletter messages. When I write a message that thunders with judgment, I get overwhelmingly approving responses. When I share about the sweetness and love of Jesus, I receive letters saying, “You’re not preaching the truth anymore.” It is as though these people are saying, “If you’re not reproving, what you’re saying can’t be the gospel.” Such believers have never entered into the great love-mission of the Holy Spirit.

This is an area where you must learn to walk in the Spirit and not by feelings.