Articles – Page 8

God the Good Parent

God is a good parent. A good parent recognises that every one of their children is different and therefore a good parent will not treat all their children in the same way or expect them to behave in the same way. A good parent rejoices in the differences between their children. We are all on different paths but we are all the children of the one true God.

A good parent is not afraid of questions. In fact a good parent rejoices in their children’s inquisitive minds. God is not afraid of any question that may come up in his childrens’ minds, because God knows the answer to every question. If God is not afraid of any question then we do not need to be afraid either. If a Christian feels that a particular question should not be asked, then I would suggest that they may be afraid of the answer. If God is not afraid there is no reason for us to be afraid.

A good parent loves their child at every moment of its childhood, but always wants to see the child grow. I believe that God loves us at whatever stage we may be, but he also wants us to grow and mature. As his children we should not stop growing. We should always be growing, every moment of our lives. How do we grow? We pray, we listen to God speaking, we reflect, we share our thoughts with other Christians and we listen to their thoughts. Then we pray, listen and reflect some more. This enables us to find the individual path along which God is leading us. And God promises us that if we stray to the right or left we will hear his voice telling us the right way to go. (Isaiah 30:21)

The State of the Heart

I think that our motives for doing the things we do are really important. I think that God may be less interested in what we do and more interested in why we do it.

We know that when God looks at us He looks at our hearts (1Samuel 16:7) and we know that Jesus even criticised people for praying if they were doing so from the wrong motive (Matthew 6:5). If we can have pure and impure motives for praying then we can have pure and impure motives for everything else we do.

Of course, it is very difficult for me to assess my own motives. I am likely to have an unrealistically positive picture of my own motives. But God sees me as I really am. Therefore I can rely on God to guide me. But what is the state of my heart? Do I really want to be guided by God? Do I really want to serve him? For me the best indicator that I do really want to serve him is whether I can really, truthfully, sincerely pray one specific prayer. “Your will be done.” Can I quietly and humbly come before God and say “Your will be done” and mean it?

Being a Christian is Simple and Easy

Being a Christian is simple and easy.

I feel very sad when I hear a fellow Christian saying that serving God is burdensome or complicated. God never meant it to be burdensome or complicated and it shouldn’t be.

God wants to be reunited with his children. He has already done everything that needs to be done. He doesn’t want to make it complicated for us.

We are called to be servants and the role of a servant is not difficult. A servant’s job is just to be obedient. All the servant has to do is obey the orders. To take another example; soldiers taking part in a great campaign don’t know the grand strategy. They don’t need to know it. The soldiers’ job is to obey orders.

So… What are God’s orders?

Jesus said that all the law and the prophets could be summed up in two commands – “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” and “Love your neighbour the same way that you love yourself.” (Mark 12:30) One of the best things about these two simple rules is that they are positive. They start with the word “Love…” which is a whole lot better than “Thou shalt not…”.

Jesus criticised the church leaders of his day for making life complicated for people who want to serve God (Luke 11:46). We need to be very sure that we do not do the same thing.

Jesus says “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3)

God is a good parent – he loves his children. God is the good shepherd – he takes care of his lambs. There is no reason for us to get stressed, downhearted, perplexed or worried about our walk with God. If we do feel worried then all we need to do is to tell God about it and trust him to sort it out.

“He tends his flock like a shepherd. He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart. He gently leads those that have young.” (Isaiah 40:11 NIV)

Jesus says “Come unto me all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11.28).

The Importance of Prayer

Is it just me, or is the church losing its emphasis on prayer? Are Christians focused on worship rather than prayer? Are pastors focused on leadership, management and programs rather than prayer? I’m certain that the devil wants to distract us from prayer – simply because it is the activity that Jesus taught as being so important.

Jesus’ most concentrated teaching on prayer is found in Matthew 6:5-15.

The first thing that Jesus teaches us is that we must not pray in order to impress others. We pray to God – and Jesus says it’s best to do so when we are completely alone.

Jesus goes on to warn against just using empty words when we pray. God loves his children and, like any good parent, God loves to hear his children talking to him about what really matters to them.

Jesus follows this warning by introducing the Lord’s Prayer and this must be the most repeated prayer in the Christian world. Yet the words are so familiar that it is very easy to say the words while thinking about something else. The Lord’s Prayer can easily become the empty words that Jesus told us to avoid.

I think that the first half of the Lord’s Prayer is one of the most important, and neglected, of Jesus’ teachings. Here is what he says he wants us to pray to our loving Father:

May your name be thought of as holy
May your kingdom come
May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven

Do we pray these prayers? I mean do we really pray them? Do we really ask God to bring these things about? Imagine what the world would be like if we really prayed these prayers and God answered them. It may be that these prayers will only be answered by the second coming of Jesus. It may be that God is ready to answer these prayers today. In either case we need to be asking God, right now, to answer them. In any case we should be praying these prayers, really praying them, because Jesus tells us to.

The rest of the Lord’s Prayer is concerned with our personal needs. Jesus places God’s agenda before our agenda.