What A Mother Can Claim From God
By Mrs. A. W. Kortkamp
“I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children” (Isaiah 49:25).
Mother, could God speak any plainer to you? If the dictionaries of the world were searched, could any words be placed together that would better cover the case of your aching, mother heart and of that wayward boy or girl? Though you may be waging a losing warfare with the enemy of souls, yet listen to the ultimatum issued by the God of battles: “I will contend with him that contendeth with thee!”
Oh, don’t you hear the tread, tread, tread of reinforcements marching down the Milky Way? They tell us that when the news was flashed to the camps of the Allies during World War II that America had entered the war and would soon come to reinforce their failing strength, many of those big, strong soldiers threw their caps up in the air and jumped and shouted, while others cried like babies for very joy.
A greater army stands ready to fight for you, mothers; a shining, white-winged band, headed by the Lord of hosts! Your enemy, the devil, may have supernatural cunning and might, plus six thousand years’ experience in dealing with your race, yet One who is almighty has agreed to come to your rescue.
Just what may we mothers claim for our children? A rose-strewn path, with every rough place made smooth? Ah, no, but we may claim things infinitely more worthwhile than that.
A mother may claim for her child the best gift that has ever been given to a mortal – salvation of the soul. The most important event that has ever taken place on earth, or ever will take place, is the transaction whereby a sinner passes from death unto life – one of the few transactions of this earth life that is reported immediately in the heavenly land (Luke 15:10), and that event she can claim, shall come into the life of her child. “And I will save thy children.” Praise the Lord for the salvation of our children!
How many cases I have seen where the precious Blood Covenant has availed for some godless boy or girl and brought them down to the foot of the Cross. Sometimes it has been in the last hour of life that the parents’ faith has been rewarded, and peace with God has been made by a dying child. But always, in some way or some time, God keeps His part of the contract.
Then she may claim for them if she will the Baptism with the Spirit. Many a mother has held on to that one sentence in Peter’s inspired sermon, “The promise is unto you, and to your children,” (Acts 2:39) until she has seen the enduement of power come upon each child of hers. Isaiah, too, leaves not a shadow of doubt, “I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed” (Isa. 44:3).
After that boy of hers has received the Baptism with the Spirit, will he sit back the rest of his life with arms folded and with an “I’ve got it” attitude? Not if she holds God to the rest of the promise: “And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses.”
On a drive through the country, I saw a willow that someone had planted on top of a hill – a sickly-looking object, with dry and ragged leaves, and I remarked, “It’s been so dry, even the willows can’t find any water for their feet.” But as we sped along, we crossed a winding river, willow-bordered – and those willows! They were bright, fresh, green and healthy-looking. Claim that for your children!
“Thy children whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth” (Psa. 45:16), princes, to have power with God and with men, like the wrestling Jacob of old. It is not just for “our seed and our seed’s seed” this precious covenant was given, but that “in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). You are opening up streams of blessing that will flow out to other lives.
Many another blessing will come into the life of your child, for the Lord “blessed Obed-edom and all his household” while the ark was under his roof (2 Sam. 6:11).
How blessed to hear God offering to bless “all families of the earth” (Gen. 12:3). Let us sign up on the dotted line right now and make Him the God of our family. Abraham did it, and you know we are as dear to Him as Abraham was, and so He is saying to us parents today, “I will be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee” (Gen. 17:7).
Oh, the tenderness of His love, to gather our children into His arms because our hearts are set upon those boys and girls of ours! The glory and the wonder of it, to think we can stand some day on that golden pavement, and lift our eyes to the sapphire throne, and say, “Behold, I and the children which God hath given me.”
So mothers – and fathers, too – let’s gladden the heart of God by becoming the “party of the second part” in this glorious contract He has drawn up. Let’s delight in His service ourselves, and train our boys and girls in the same way. Pray for them, and with them, teach them the good and the right way, love them, take an interest in their hobbies, and in their pleasures. If they get a little obstreperous now and then, and I’ll promise you they will, just punish them, and if that doesn’t take effect, turn them over to the heavenly Father and let Him chastise them.
Of course, you will have your tests all along the line. Satan isn’t going to let them walk right into the kingdom without putting a straw in their way. But isn’t the prize worth it?
And if you never knew the promises so as to claim them while the children were with you, then step out today upon the promises. It is a more strenuous task to bend the old tree than the little sapling, but “with God all things are possible.” So commit them to Him and don’t get in the way when he begins to deal with them.
From the depths of grateful hearts, let us praise God for the full provision He has made for our children. No Christian mother if she takes God at His word and meets the condition, need ever stand in icy horror while her boy or girl is being lowered into a Christ-less grave.
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