EDITORIAL by Pastor Ralph H. Flynn
There Is No One Like Mom, Except God
Mother's Day Message by Pastor Ralph H. Flynn
Faith Bible Church of Bellevue
Bellevue, OH

Isaiah 66:13-24

13      As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in
Jerusalem.
14      And when ye see this, your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like an herb:
and the hand of the LORD shall be known toward his servants, and his indignation toward his
enemies.
15      For, behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render
his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.
16      For by fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD
shall be many.
17      They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in
the midst, eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together,
saith the LORD.
18      For I know their works and their thoughts: it shall come, that I will gather all nations
and tongues; and they shall come, and see my glory.
19      And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations,
to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal, and Javan, to the isles afar off, that have
not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles.
20      And they shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the LORD out of all nations
upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to my holy
mountain Jerusalem, saith the LORD, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel
into the house of the LORD.
21      And I will also take of them for priests and for Levites, saith the LORD.
22      For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me,
saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain.
23      And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath
to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD.
24      And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed
against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be
an abhorring unto all flesh. 

As one whom his mother comforteth,
so will I comfort you;
and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

    1.     Comfort is found in a Mother’s presence.
    2.     Comfort is found in a Mother’s counsel.
    3.     Comfort is found in a Mother’s silence.
    4.     Comfort is found in a Mother’s sympathy.
    5.     Comfort is found in a Mother’s discipline. 

1. Comfort is found in a Mother’s presence.
Mother is the queen of her home. The house is dull and cold when she is absent. Her presence
therein means comfort, joy, help and love. It is worse still to have a heart and home without God.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4
3        Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the
God of all comfort;
4        Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are
in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. 

Not all Moms and not all Dads follow God. Many a heart is without God and without the comfort
a child needs. We cannot pick our parents, but we can pick to be a better parent. To be a better
parent, one must include God. So many treat God as a kind of convenience. He is a tower they
run to for safety when the storms of life appear. The tragedy is, however, that as soon as the
storms blow by, many depart from the tower, and forget God until the storms break again. They
forget that He is the God of all comfort. They forget there is no one like Mom, except God.

2. Comfort is found in a Mother’s counsel.
The child’s first teacher is his or her mother. From her lips he receives his earliest and most
sacred lessons of God and life and duty. When discouraged, mother’s words comfort and
inspire. When disobedient, her reproof brings repentance. When in doubt, her counsel leads
to firm resolve. 

Think of the young men who, amid the strong temptations of city life, have been encouraged
to keep straight by the remembrance of prayers and words they learned at mother’s knee. 

Yes, and is it not true that to a mother’s heart her child never seems to grow up? To her, he is
always the child who nestled near to her side. He may pass out into the world and meet honor
or disgrace, but in her imagination he is always the little form that clung to her knee and ran to
her for comfort, and those little aches and pains she always soothed away. Yes, there is no one
like Mom, except God.

The grown man, broken in the battle of life or by his own sin, may return to his mother, but it is
not the grown man she sees, only her child. Thus it is with God. To Him, we can never be
anything else but children – weak, foolish, inexperienced and erring. 

God comforts us as a mother by His words. God exercises a mother’s pity over our sin and
folly, makes every allowance for our circumstances, and then with His own heart, pleads for us.

Matthew 11:28-30
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke
upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your
souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

3. Comfort is found in a Mother’s silence.
When in trouble, the mother receives her child without asking many questions. A mother’s
intuition tells her what is wrong. It is enough for her to know that her child is in distress.
She may guess much, and fear more, but comfort is her first consideration. Explanations can wait.

How beautifully tender is the comfort of God. He asks no questions, utters no reproach,
demands no explanation. He just desires us to come to Him. 

John 6:37
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me
I will in no wise cast out.

The God of all comfort is always there to give comfort. But we must be willing to go to
Him to receive that comfort.

When a child flees to his mother for help, with what or how does the mother comfort her
distressed child? Not with many words which often increase the child’s grief. Mother is wiser,
and catching up the child bends over him and smothers him with kisses of love. And in the
silence, Mom has healed the pain and hurt. It was not anything mother had said, but simply
her own touch and presence that brought relief. There is no one like Mom. Yes, there is no
one like Mom, except God.

We need to carry to God our bitter heart filled with doubts and worldly cares and deep
disappointments and receive from Him a new heart filled with direction, grace, and love. 

2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold,
all things are become new.

Colossians 3:12-13
12      Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness,
humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
13      Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against
any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.  

4. Comfort is found in a Mother’s sympathy.
A wise child speaks out all his joys, sorrows, and burdens without reserve into that most sacred confessional box, his mother’s ear. It is because of her gift of sympathy that he returns to her
in pain and sorrow. He searches her face to find that smile of approval. 

God offers us the same motherly type of tenderness and sympathy. God heals, gladdens, sympathizes, loves, and cares as no mother could. Does He not give Himself the name of Comforter? Yet is it not strange to think that men will seek for comfort almost anywhere else than in the love of God? 

Men try to escape from sorrow by drowning it in drink, in seeking a change of circumstances or surroundings, in harder work, in eager pursuits, in the distractions of sin and pleasure. And all
the while God stands open to every sufferer. What fools we are to cut ourselves adrift from the
God who made all mothers, and who waits to do far more for us than the best mother is
capable of doing. Yes, there is no one like Mom, except God. 

5. Comfort is found in a Mother’s discipline.
When we come to manhood and womanhood, and, it may be, have children of our own, how
often we have cause to remember what mother said to us: “But mother must punish you.” That
surely is the sorest test of mother love. Above everything else, she wants her children to be
good men and women when they grow up; and, though it causes her a sore heart, she will not
shrink from correcting the willfulness and disobedience of those she loves so dearly. 

Hebrews 12:5-7
5        And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son,
despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
6        For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
7        If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom
the father chasteneth not? 

You cannot chose your mother and your mother will not always be there when you need her
the most, but you can chose God and He will always be there to bring comfort. So as comfort
is found in a Mother’s presence, counsel, silence, sympathy, and discipline; so comfort is
found in God, because there is no one like Mom, except God.

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