Mother's Day: The God Who Sees Your Tears

Introduction

For Mother's Day, Église Hillsong Paris gave the floor to several women who took turns encouraging the mothers in the body of Christ. The first, a high school teacher, spoke to mothers who no longer dare to hope for their teenagers. The second shared her testimony of a high-risk pregnancy where God "set her in a spacious place." The third revisited the life of Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel. Together, these three voices point to the same certainty: God sees your tears, He has not forgotten your prayers, and He gives a double portion to those He loves.

Message Outline

1. Don't be discouraged : God sees you in the silence

• The first speaker opens with a real-life story: a mother in tears called her because her teenage son had cut off all communication with her. "I've tried everything," she said. This message is for all mothers (and everyone), who do good without yet seeing the fruit.
• The starting text is Galatians 6:9: "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." What you see is different from what you believe, but faith has never walked by sight.
• What you are going through is for a season. Ecclesiastes 3:1 reminds us that there is a time for everything: this season has a beginning and an end. After winter comes spring, then summer. We can declare that summer is coming.
• You will reap what you have sown. Like a seed you water without seeing anything break through the soil, the harvest is invisible before it is visible. A day will come when you will say: "I did well to persevere, I did well to intercede for my son, for my daughter."
• God sees you. In Genesis 16:13, Hagar gives the Lord the name El Roi, "You are the God who sees me." He sees your tears, He hears what you don't say, He counts your efforts that no one around you notices. Just as He feeds the birds of the air, He will take care of you and your children.

2. He set me in a spacious place : a mother's testimony

• The second speaker shares her story. Pregnant with her younger daughter, she went through a high-risk pregnancy compounded by a thyroid problem. The doctors considered the pregnancy life-threatening and discussed termination. She was going through blood tests constantly, sometimes several a day, known by everyone at the lab.
• Her text: Psalm 118:5 · "When hard pressed, I cried to the Lord; he brought me into a spacious place." This verse does not deny the reality of distress; it affirms that in the very heart of distress, when you call on the Lord, He goes beyond what you could expect.
• She compares herself to Jochebed, the mother of Moses (Exodus 2:1-9). A mother who, in a season when her child's life was threatened, carried him, protected him, preserved him, then made the overwhelming gesture of letting go and entrusting him to God by placing him on the river. This is not a mother abandoning her child; it's a mother saying: "I've done my part. Lord, I let You take over."
• "Faith is not controlling the situation or having all the answers. Faith is telling God: I see this is beyond my strength, and I choose to hold on to You." Her daughter was born weighing nearly 9 pounds, in perfect health, even though doctors had said she was too thin. Three years to the day later, her thyroid levels returned to normal.
• He is the God of complicated cases, the God who hears prayers carried with tears, the God who transforms distress into testimony. Maybe your battle isn't a pregnancy: it's your health, your finances, your children, a weariness you can't even name. The One who "set her in a spacious place" will set you in a spacious place too.
• Before the spacious place, there is often a narrow passage. Like a butterfly working its way through so its wings can finally unfold, you go through a constriction to become able to fly. This passage is not an injustice; it's a preparation.

3. Those who sow in tears : Hannah, the mother of Samuel

• The third speaker draws on Psalm 126: "Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them." Your prayers are seeds. Your tears poured out before God are seeds.
• She revisits the story of Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel (1 Samuel 1). Hannah was barren, humiliated year after year by her rival Peninnah. Her husband Elkanah loved her and gave her a double portion, but that was not enough to fill her pain.
• One day, at Shiloh, Hannah rises up in bitterness of soul and prays to the Lord, weeping greatly. She moves only her lips. The priest Eli thinks she is drunk. She answers: "I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the Lord."
• Eli blesses her: "Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him." Hannah begins eating again and her face was no longer downcast. Like Job, she had shown God how hard it was, but she left with the certainty that the Almighty would answer.
• Later, the Lord remembers her. Hannah conceives and gives birth to Samuel, then five more children (1 Samuel 2:21). She sowed with tears; she reaped with joy.

4. Garments of salvation : Hannah's prophecy fulfilled in Christ

• After Samuel's birth, Hannah sings a song (1 Samuel 2). Perhaps unknowingly, she prophesies: "He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed." At that time, there was no king in Israel yet. Hannah was already announcing the King of kings, Jesus Christ.
• Jesus, in Gethsemane, also sowed His tears for each one of us. He is the one who says: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). He gave everything on the cross so we could receive our miracle.
• Isaiah 61 announces this same Jesus: "He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives... to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair."
• Isaiah 61 adds: "Instead of your shame you will receive a double portion... you will be called priests of the Lord." We are clothed in garments of salvation, in a robe of deliverance. What Hannah received (a double portion because he loved her), God gives to His children today, in Christ.
• He is the God who counts your steps. He is El Roi, the God who sees. He is El Emunah, the faithful God. He is Jehovah Jireh, the one who provides. He is Adonai, Lord and Master. He is Yahweh, the one who was, who is, who is to come. And it is to this God that you can entrust your situation today.

Key Takeaways

• What you sow in tears, you will reap in joy, the harvest is invisible before it is visible.
• God is El Roi, the God who sees: He sees your efforts, your silent prayers, and your tears that no one around you notices.
• Faith is not controlling the situation; it's choosing to hold on to God when it's beyond your strength.
• Before the spacious place, there is often a narrow passage, like the butterfly, it is this constriction that prepares you to spread your wings.
• Hannah sowed with tears; God remembered her and gave her a double portion. Today in Christ, you are clothed in garments of salvation: a crown of beauty instead of ashes.

Personal Application

1. Write down the name of a child, a loved one, or a situation you have been praying about for a long time without seeing fruit yet. Decide before God not to give up this week, rereading Galatians 6:9 every morning.
2. Like Jochebed placing Moses on the river, is there a worry you've been carrying alone that it's time to "lay down"? Write it out, hand it over to God out loud, then take a concrete step not to pick it back up.
3. Take a quiet moment this week to pour out your heart before God as Hannah did at Shiloh, without perfect words, just in complete honesty. Note what changes in you between the beginning and the end.
4. Read Isaiah 61 slowly and declare over yourself, by faith: "Instead of ashes, a crown of beauty; instead of mourning, the oil of joy; instead of a spirit of despair, a garment of praise." Which area of your life most needs this exchange today?
5. Spot a tired mother or someone in a long season of waiting around you. This week, take ten minutes to send them a specific message of encouragement, remembering that God sees them and you can remind them of that.

Scriptures Referenced

• Galatians 6:9 · "Let us not become weary in doing good..."
• Ecclesiastes 3:1 · "There is a time for everything"
• Genesis 16:13 · Hagar: "You are El Roi, the God who sees me"
• Psalm 37:5 · "Commit your way to the Lord... he will act"
• Matthew 6:26 · God feeds the birds of the air
• Psalm 118:5 · "The Lord answered me and set me in a spacious place"
• Exodus 2:1-10 · Jochebed places Moses on the river
• Psalm 126:5-6 · "Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy"
• 1 Samuel 1 · Hannah prays at Shiloh, the Lord remembers her
• 1 Samuel 2:1-10 · Hannah's song, prophecy of the coming king
• 1 Samuel 2:21 · Hannah conceives five more children after Samuel
• Matthew 11:28 · "Come to me, all you who are weary"
• Isaiah 61:1-3 · A crown of beauty instead of ashes
• Isaiah 61:6-7 · A double portion instead of shame

Frequently Asked Questions

What does "El Roi," the name Hagar gives to God, mean?

El Roi is the Hebrew name that the servant Hagar gives to the Lord in Genesis 16:13: "You are the God who sees me." She is alone, pregnant, fleeing in the desert, invisible to the eyes of men. And God finds her. For a mother who feels no one notices her efforts or her tears, this name is good news: the God who saw Hagar sees you today. He counts your steps and He hears even what you don't say.

How do you pray when you have no words left, like Hannah at Shiloh?

Hannah "was moving only her lips" and her heart was too heavy to form sentences (1 Samuel 1:13). Her prayer wasn't beautiful; it was real. The Bible calls this "pouring out your soul before the Lord." When you're exhausted, you can come to God just as you are: cry, sigh, write a sentence, lay your hand on your Bible without saying anything. The Holy Spirit Himself intercedes for you with wordless groans (Romans 8:26). What matters is that you come.

Why does God let seasons of waiting last so long?

The message doesn't claim to answer everything, but it offers an image: the butterfly must pass through a narrow constriction to unfold its wings. A difficult season is not God forgetting you; it's often preparation. Ecclesiastes 3:1 reminds us that "there is a time for everything": this season has a beginning and an end. In the meantime, you can keep sowing, interceding, and cultivating an atmosphere of faith in your home, confident that the Lord remembers you, as He remembered Hannah.