Walking With the Lord: The child/Father relationship with our Lord and how we confuse it.

Photo Credit

This is a topic that has been on my mind for a long time and one that I received no greater understanding of until I had children of my own, because then for the first time I understood the love of a parent and the role the parent plays in a child's life.

When my son was born I was just beginning a journey back to knowing God and following His Word. In that first year as I held my son, cared for him, gave him everything he needed, a love for him developed that could never be broken. It was a love that as a child I could never have understood that my parents had for me. It's not that my parents didn't show love, its that the love was beyond my understanding until I had children of my own. With that love came the fact that I would do the best I could to protect him, to care for him, to provide for him and ultimately teach him what it means to be a man of God.

Now I am no one except a flawed human being who makes mistakes and sins daily, who does her best to follow the Lord, but in the end is far from perfect. Now on the other hand we have our Father, our TRUE Father in heaven, who is perfect, is all knowing, is our creator and designer, and ultimately the greatest parent who knows how to perfectly raise us. For me, while I called God my Father, I never really understood His true role in my life until I understood what it meant to be a parent.

As "mature" adults we naturally elevate ourselves to a position of knowing, for certainly we know more than children do. We have experience under our belt, we've been educated, we have greater understanding of how the world works. As we think this way, which isn't untrue, a danger can and does arise. We begin to put our understanding on the same level as the Lords. We think that we can break down His Word, the Holy Bible, and put new meaning into it and change it to fit our times, our needs, our wants. We begin to change the role of God and instead of keeping Him in the elevated position which He not only deserves, but demands, we bring Him down to our understanding.

Where is the problem in this? We are infants, if that, in our understanding of who God is and why He created the world as He did. He has given us amazing glimpses into understanding Him through the Bible and as we develop our relationship with Him and seek Him out in prayer and reading his Word it reveals to us greater and greater wisdoms, but we are no where on the same level as He.

What's amazing about our Lord is He does come down to us and He walks along side of us and helps us and encourages us, just as I will go along side my children and help them. I hold their hand as they take those first steps, I don't leave them to do it all on their own, not caring if they fall. I walk along side my children as I raise them, helping them and encouraging them.

Once you realize that you don't know it all and you won't know it all in this lifetime, the baby steps can be taken to recognizing that the "laws", the "rules" the "commands" that God has laid out for us in the Bible, both in the Old and New Testaments, have a place in our lives and should govern us in our thinking and the choices we make. As my children grow they gain understanding, part of that understanding is innate to them and part must be taught. When they were very young I told them to not touch the top of the stove where they could get burned. One of two things can happen once they've be told this, they can go ahead and touch the stove and get burnt and deal with the consequences, while learning first hand that mom really did have a good reason for telling them to not touch the stove in the first place or they learn to trust mom even though they don't fully understand the reason for the rule.

These small very early lessons turn into greater lessons as the child continues to mature and gains more understanding for themselves. No matter how old the child and ultimately the adult becomes there will always be someone who knows more than they do, there will be someone with more experience, someone with greater understanding. It's why, at one point, we respected our elders. For they knew more than we did.

When God placed the laws, commandments, rules in the Bible, He did not place them there to make our lives difficult. What GOOD parent places unneeded rules on their child just because they feel like it? Why then do we think that our Father in Heaven would do the same? Why do we challenge the writing of His Holy Word? Why do we try and modernize and update the Bible to fit a new time? It's interesting, we have a God who created this entire universe, who knows the number of hairs on our head, who knows the past, present and future, YET some believe that He is not capable of creating a text that could bear the test of time. That no age could put it into outdated nonsense, because the words are so profound, so full of wisdom that they will live the test of time?

When we dumb down the Bible to fit into our human ideals, we dumb down God, the God who created us, the God who knows all, the God who will ultimately judge us when we stand before Him. When we call ourselves educated and scholars (or follow those who call themselves this) and thus believe that we truly have greater understanding than what God's Word says and can change that Word to fit modern times, we then try and elevate ourselves to His level. Both ways are wrong, both ways will cause us to stumble and both ways will leave us on a path that doesn't ultimately lead to Christ.

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow is the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. 

Matthew 7:13-15 (NIV)

The greatest way we can understand how we are to live, to understand the wisdoms of the Bible, to understand how to apply them to our lives is by READING the Bible - daily. Dive into God's word and read it and most importantly READ ALL OF IT. Know the Word of God from the front to the back. There is not a single paragraph, sentence, word that is not of utter importance to help our understanding and knowledge grow. It's very easy to take the Bible out of context if all the words are not read. But what one verse can say to one who is not familiar with whole Bible, will say an entirely different thing and far more accurate to the one who has full knowledge of the Word. That doesn't mean it must all be memorized, but reading through the Bible in it's entirety will provide a far better foundation to understanding God's word as a whole.

Finally as we read the Bible we must also be in prayer to God. Ask for understanding. Ask for wisdom. Ask for knowledge. I guarantee that if we set our own fleshly desires or own preconceived notions aside and seek our Father God with an open heart, He will provide us with the answers we are looking for. You don't need to be a scholar, you don't need a seminary degree, you don't need to be or have anything other than willingness to be lead and an openness to understanding and wisdom will fill your heart, mind and soul. 

Psalm 119:34
Give me understanding, that I may observe Your law And keep it with all my heart.

Psalm 119:73
Your hands made me and fashioned me; Give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments.

Psalm 119:130
The unfolding of Your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple.

Proverbs 2:2
Make your ear attentive to wisdom, Incline your heart to understanding;

Proverbs 3:5
Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding.

Proverbs 3:13
How blessed is the man who finds wisdom And the man who gains understanding.

Proverbs 7:4
Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” And call understanding your intimate friend;

Psalm 111:10
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all those who do His commandments; His praise endures forever.

Proverbs 1:7
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs 16:16
How much better it is to get wisdom than gold! And to get understanding is to be chosen above silver.

Walking with the Lord series by Artistta: 
-  "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it."
-  My meandering thoughts for this Monday morning.
-  His blessings this week.
-  Faith and trust in Him with our decisions.
-  A glimpse at the perfection of our Father.
-  Having the right response towards others.
-  Reading God's Word the Holy Bible.
-  Taking time to pray.
-  My testimony.