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  A WORD TO MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS
  by Annie Poonen
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Summary: This sermon on Mother's Day reflects on the tender mercies of
God, likening His care to that of a mother hen sheltering her chicks. It
emphasizes the importance of recognizing and appreciating the sacrifices
mothers make, drawing parallels to God's sacrificial love. The speaker
shares personal experiences of prayer and God's protection over her
children, highlighting the power of prayer in a mother's life. The
sermon concludes with an encouragement to remain steadfast and dedicated
in the work of the Lord, knowing that all efforts invested in raising
children are not in vain.

Topics: "God's Love", "Mother's Sacrifice"
Scripture References: Psalm 91:4, Luke 13:34, 1 Peter 3:8, 1 Thessalonians 5:16, 1 Corinthians 15:58

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon on Mother's Day reflects on the tender mercies of God,
likening His care to that of a mother hen sheltering her chicks. It
emphasizes the importance of recognizing and appreciating the sacrifices
mothers make, drawing parallels to God's sacrificial love. The speaker
shares personal experiences of prayer and God's protection over her
children, highlighting the power of prayer in a mother's life. The
sermon concludes with an encouragement to remain steadfast and dedicated
in the work of the Lord, knowing that all efforts invested in raising
children are not in vain.

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CONTENT
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Praise the Lord, my brothers and sisters, today being Mother's Day, it's
a very special day for us, mums, these are days what they call shelter
in place, very special word, but these days remind me of what we just
heard earlier when my husband was speaking about God, being a mother,
the tender mercies of God, and I thought of this verse, a hymn which
comes to my mind, under his wings I am safely abiding, those words come
often to my mind that I can find shelter under the Lord's wings, and I
was also reminded of Jesus when he went to, when he was approaching
Jerusalem, you see that mother, tender mercy and that tenderness coming
out of Jesus' words, when he was approaching Jerusalem, and he and his
disciples approached Jerusalem and he was saying, you wept over
Jerusalem, and he said, oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often I would have
wanted to gather you as a mother hen would gather her chicks under her
wings, but you would not have it, so I was thinking how of the
tenderness God has towards us, his tender love towards us in these days
when we face some pressures, and we mums and sisters are so fragile, and
we think of how can we make it sometimes, our children are always around
us, but I think of God's, of Jesus' words, like he gives, he wants to
shelter us under his wings, and we can find that shelter, and be
thankful that we are safe under his shelter, I praise and thank God for
the tender mercies of God, I thank God for his mercy and love, more than
a mother, and he becomes more and more real to us in these days, and we
can experience that mercy of God, and that loving kindness of God these
days, and that example to us also, that we can have that tenderness and
merciful nature towards our children, kindness towards them, gentleness,
and these are days when we can spend time with the Lord, and say Lord,
teach me what it is to be tender hearted, to be merciful, to be kind,
these are days when I can cast myself on you, I can hide under your
wings, I can learn from you, I can get comfort from you, so those words
used to come, have been coming to my mind these days, and very often I
think of my mom, especially on Mother's Day, I think of my mom, my
mother, and all of us have a chance to think of our moms too, my mom
passed away and was with the Lord, but looking back I know, it must have
been very difficult for her being a mother of nine children, and I'm the
eldest, and I took many things for granted, but as the years went by,
God opened my eyes, because when I surrendered my life to the Lord when
I was 14 years old, suddenly my eyes were open to see the extent of
suffering, a sacrifice my mom had to make to bring us up in those days
in a cold climate and limited resources, how she brought us all up, I
thank God for that, he opened my eyes to see that, you know before that
I used to come home from school, go into a corner and pick up a
storybook and read and read till I was tired of reading, and then I'd
get up and my life was centered around myself, and then when I
surrendered my life to the Lord, suddenly I realized how selfish I've
been, I've been such a selfish daughter and had no thought for what my
mother was going through, I was just building over my own things, things
I was facing in school, and things which were happening, my whole world
was just around me, then the Lord, I thank God, he opened my eyes to see
what my mom was going through, I praise and thank God that it was not
too late, dear daughters who have your moms with you, this is the time
to think of your mom, don't just say and send a mother's day card to her
or greet her or say thank you, but have that attitude of thankfulness to
your mom all through your life, beginning with little things, big
things, just open your eyes to see what sacrifices she's making, late
into the night or early in the morning, just to make her life
comfortable for her children, and in my case, I went off to college and
I studied to become a doctor and my youngest brother was just two years
old, hadn't started going to school and they diagnosed that my mother
had cancer, so my dad brought her to the hospital where I was studying
and she got treated, she had to undergo a surgery lasting about seven or
eight hours and it took a long time for her to recover, but thank God he
gave me some training so I could look after her and take care of her
needs and my dad could go back and be with the younger ones, and during
the time the Lord was speaking to me and I thought if my mom dies, you
know how cancer is, nobody can predict how it will go, if my mom were to
die, she survived the surgery, but if she were to die, then I'll finish
my studies and I'll go back and stay at home and take care of the
younger ones so that they could come up in life and I'd be a mother to
them and I surrendered my life to them, to the Lord and that was a not
an easy surrender, but I said Lord take me, I'm your child and do, I'll
be a mom to my younger ones, but you know the Lord didn't, and I said
Lord I even want to give up marriage, but the Lord didn't have to do
that, my mom lived for another 40 years, she lived to see us all married
and see all her grandchildren, so I praise and thank God, but that was a
surrender which I made to the Lord and I thank God for the opportunities
he gave me to take care of my mother and so dear young daughters, you
have a chance now to take care of your mother and help her and do things
for her, when you see her do something, be mindful, especially girls,
you know how moms get tired because you yourself get tired and you have
aches and pains, young as you are, you know that your mom will have
aches and pains too, so take time to help her out. Now coming to
mothers, I want to say a few words, this is Mother's Day, God has put in
us a very sensitive nature, a sensitive nature which we are aware of our
children, need children's needs right from the time they are infants,
from the time they are born, our heart are so close to them, some
invisible strings, they're connecting their hearts to us and they can
sense when they are in pain and when they are hungry or whatever needs
they're going through and as they grow up, we see them, they're in
struggling with different things and they can sense, yeah, this child of
mine is struggling in this area, maybe he's not able to express himself,
maybe he's not eating correctly or so many things, but he's not taking,
but he's not able to express what I can sense that need and God has
given us moms that ability to sense our children's needs and we can help
them to go through and face those challenges and most of all, we can
learn to commit them to the Lord in prayer. I learned to pray after my
children came into the world and as they were growing up, that's when I
started learning to pray because I tell the Lord about everything that
was in my heart which I wanted to do to my children or for my children
and I couldn't do, all my hidden wishes and plans, everything I learned
to tell the Lord and the Lord used to minister to me.

I remember a couple of instances I want to mention where the Lord gave
me a burden to pray for my children. One was when many years back when
one of my sons was in college and he was facing some very difficult time
and I could not, we did not know what he was going through, but in my
heart, I felt there was something happening to him and I saw a dream
that he was in some danger and I started praying and we didn't know even
anything was going wrong, but that burden which I had after the dream, I
kept praying and praying and after many months, I realized that was the
very time my son was going through that difficult patch and the Lord
wonderfully brought him out of that. So, I praise and thank God for the
power there is in prayer.

It's not that God needs our help to do things, but he has given us the
privilege to take a small part in doing his work by praying for our
children and for other children whom he is in our heart. Then more
recently, another thing happened to one of my children, our children,
and we were in a meeting very far away from Bangalore. It was a
conference and during the time of prayer, morning prayer, it was
extended time of prayer.

Everybody was praising and worshiping the Lord and committing our lives
to the Lord. I felt in my heart some email or some telephone call or
something has come and that one of my sons and his family have met with
an accident, but they are all safe. I thought, okay, maybe I read that
email.

I didn't pay attention, but an email came and that was, it came to my
mind, but actually no email had come. It was just a thought which came
into my mind. So, I started praying and then before I realized, I
started praising the Lord.

I said, Lord, I praise you that my children are safe. You've taken care
of my children. You've wonderfully taken care of my children.

I prayed it a little bit aloud so the person next to me could have heard
that, Lord, my children are safe. I thank you. Of course, from the depth
of my heart, it was a heart prayer of thanksgivings to the Lord.

So, I finished the prayer and the whole meeting was over many hours
later. Then my husband received a phone call and he looked very grim and
he called me aside and he was looking very grim almost as if he had to
break some sad news to me. And then he said, you know, there was an
accident.

And so I said, yeah, I know there was an accident, but they're all safe.
It was almost as if the Lord had put a healing balm over my mind and my
spirit earlier, even before the accident happened, maybe. But he helped
me to take it that I was not at all upset or worried or anything because
almost I knew about it and God had taken care of and they're all okay.

So, I praise and thank God. And that was such an amazing experience for
me because it was so real and we hadn't yet heard about the accident,
but the Lord administered to me. It was like a supernatural touch from
God.

So, I praise and thank God that we moms can have the privilege of
praying for our children and upholding them to the Lord and committing
them every day of their lives, our lives. That is the duty we have. Even
after they've grown up, we can pray for them.

In closing, I want to just leave a verse with you, which often comes to
my mind for us all, dear sisters. It's in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and
verse 58. The verse 57 says, thanks be to God who gives us victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ.

And this is what I pray for. My beloved brother, my beloved moms, my
beloved sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work
of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord. Knowing
that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.

All that we do for our children and all that we are and we can do is not
going to be in vain. So, therefore, be steadfast, be steadfast, be
immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. 1 Corinthians 15,
58.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/3TO5XhgFJxw.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/annie-poonen/a-word-to-mothers-and-daughters/
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