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Sometimes I’m not as thankful as I should be for my children. I confess. God shows me so gently that while my heart was in the right place, I should have handled such and such situation this way. Then He shows me where I went wrong. It’s not to bring about guilt because God doesn’t use that tactic. He allows me the beautiful freedom of making of making my own choices (even if they aren’t in His perfect will) and He still loves me. He waits patiently for me to make this mistake and come to Him so He can show me where I went wrong.
God lovingly allowed me to experience this with my son recently. It wasn’t any major issue but it was something that I wasn’t prepared to handle. It became a dramatic thing because I made it dramatic. Looking at it now, I realize that I didn’t even try to let God handle it nor did I trust Him with it.
My son had his first “girlfriend” and I interfered every way I could short of making him end the relationship. I saw myself becoming exactly what I didn’t want to become and I did it anyway. I think that’s commonly referred to as rebellion. Yes, I became frustrated over it, I cried over it. I even prayed over it. My next step should have been to let it go and trust God to handle it. Notice I said “should have”. I tried to convince my son to handle it the way I thought he should. Of course I’m older, more mature. He should listen to me. Not exactly.
What I learned (and will hopefully be willing to apply the next time) is that my son is a kind hearted young man who loves His Lord.
Just when I thought I had reached the end of my sanity with his relationship, I tried talking with my son (which was more of my trying to force him to do what I thought he should do). After I had run my mouth for as long as he could endure he asked if he could be alone for a little while and walked away. I just knew that he would go to his room and think about what I had said, only to emerge 20 minutes later, more wise and ready to put my “wisdom” into action. What God blessed me with instead was a picture that I will treasure for the rest of my life.
My son didn’t emerge as I thought he would. Twenty minutes passed. Thirty minutes passed. After 45 minutes I could no longer contain my anticipation and went to his room to receive his gratitude (in complete humility of course). As I approached his door I was surprised to not hear anything coming from inside. Could he have fallen asleep? What I found was much more beautiful than I could have imagined. He was on his knees in prayer. I left him alone but continued to wait anxiously for him to come and tell me that he believed it was time for the relationship to end.
Have you ever been so wrong that what you assume to be true isn’t even in the same universe as the actual truth?
My son came out of his room an hour and a half later and hugged me but went straight to his dad who hadn’t tried to tell him what to do. My husband had listened and advised our son only when he was asked. My heart was broken and yet more grateful than words can express. I’m grateful that God blessed me with a husband who is so rich with wisdom and for a son who is so much like his dad. I’m grateful that God chooses to bless me in spite of myself and that God’s handiwork is becoming more and more evident in the lives of my children.
He didn’t “break-up” with her that day or the next. He didn’t break up with her that week. He chose to trust her even when every piece of evidence said that he shouldn’t. He took his concerns to her and lovingly asked her to help him be a better friend to her and he only did this after seeking God’s guidance. What a marvelous friend he is and a true man of God he is becoming!
God’s mercy is defies description. He knows that we’re guilty and yet He chooses to pardon us? He has all the evidence that He needs to lock me up and throw away the key and yet He purchased the key that set me free from the bondage to sin eternally.
“Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. Remember, O LORD, your great mercy and love, for they are from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you are good, O LORD.”
Psalm 25:4-7
Our Father
from Tabletalk magazine, June 2007
by R.C. Sproul
The next time you attend a prayer meeting, pay close attention to the manner in which individuals address God. Invariably, the form of address will be something like this, “Our dear heavenly Father,” “Father,” “Father God,” or some other form of reference to God as Father. What is the significance of this? It would seem that the instructions of our Lord in giving the model prayer, “The Lord’s Prayer,” is emulated by our propensity for addressing God as Father. Since Jesus said, “When you pray, say, ‘Our Father,’” that form of address has become the virtual standard form of Christian prayer. Because this form of prayer is used so frequently, we often take for granted its astonishing significance.
The German scholar Joachim Jeremias has argued that in almost every prayer that Jesus utters in the New Testament, He addresses God as Father. Jeremias notes that this represents a radical departure from Jewish custom and tradition. Though Jewish people were given a lengthy number of appropriate titles for God in personal prayer, significantly absent from the approved list was the title “Father.”
God has only one child, His only-begotten Son, the monogenēs, which restricts this filial relationship to Christ. We do not have the natural right to call God “Father.” That right is bestowed upon us only through God’s gracious work of adoption. This is an extraordinary privilege, that those who are in Christ now have the right to address God in such a personal, intimate, filial term as “Father.” Therefore, we ought never to take for granted this unspeakable privilege bestowed upon us by God’s grace. We note in the Lord’s Prayer that Jesus instructs us that now when we pray, we are to refer to God as “Our Father.” Again the “ourness” of this relationship is grounded in the unique ministry of Jesus by which, through adoption, He is our elder brother and He gives to us those privileges that by nature belong only to Him. Now, by adopting us, He says that we may regard God, not only as His Father, but as our Father.
The first petition of the Lord’s Prayer is found in the words, “Hallowed be Thy Name.” The opening address, “Our Father, who art in Heaven,” is simply that, an address. From that address, Jesus instructs His disciples to offer certain petitions in prayer. The first and chief of those petitions is that we pray that the name of God will be hallowed. This is also extraordinary in that as the prayer continues, we ask that the will of God be done on earth as it is in heaven and that His kingdom would come on earth as it is in heaven. Both of these desires can only be met when and if the God of the kingdom of heaven and of earth is treated with supreme reverence, honor, and adoration. When we fail to observe the third commandment, when we fail to honor God as God, and use His name as a curse word, or in a flippant, careless manner, we fail to fulfill this first petition. Perhaps nothing is more commonplace in our culture than the expression that comes from people’s lips on many occasions, when they say simply, “Oh, my God.” This careless reference to God indicates how far removed our culture is from fulfilling the petition of the Lord’s Prayer. It should be a priority for the church and for every individual Christian to make sure that the way in which we speak of God is a way that communicates respect, awe, adoration, and reverence. How we use the name of God reveals more clearly than any creed we ever confess our deepest attitudes towards the God of the sacred name.
When I found this article, I was actually hoping to find an article to coincide with the broadcast that I heard this morning by R.C. Sproul at oneplace.com about architecture and its importance and significance in the church. This article caught my attention, so I decided to share it here.
How often do we, possibly as a sign of intimacy, attempt to bring God “down to our level”? Yes, God longs for intimacy and relationship with us but I believe that our interpretation of that intimacy can be incorrect. God, in His Holiness, cannot possibly come to our level. He did though, by way of His only Son Jesus Christ, provide the way for us to enter the Holy of Holies but I believe that our communication with Him is more about our being lifted to His level. We may only call Him Father because He chose to adopt us. He isn’t “daddy”, He is God of the universe. We call Him Father and He calls us (those who have accepted His free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ), His children.
