It would seem natural that we would long to be close to God, our heavenly father…for every child wants to know the security of being close to their parents:
…the familiarity of their faces, the security of their strength, the assurance of their words.
This is a good model for our relationship with God; except to one degree or another the model has been marred a bit:
…sometimes mom and dad weren’t really there.
…even if physically there, many of us may have known emotional estrangement…left uncertain about our place/value…left without finding help in terms of direction/vision.
We wonder if we really can get close to God.
• If we seek, we find a wonderful surprise.
• If our souls can clear away the debris of disappointment, we find a very present and relentlessly pursuing Father, a God whose fatherly love said:
…I’ll create an environment that testifies of my love and care.
…I’ll inspire writers to capture all that is fundamental about myself.
…I’ll come and show you what I’m like in person.
…I’ll even impart my own spirit to be placed in you.
That is a father who wants relationship.
The scripture authoritatively declares that God’s love longs to listen to our hearts, comfort us, counsel us, and challenge us like a father. As the Psalmist declared:
(Ps 145:18) “The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.”
(Ps 32:8) “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will counsel you and watch over you.”
Jesus, in presenting the coming role of the Holy Spirit, said, “If anyone loves me they will obey my teaching. My Father will love them and we will come to them and make our home with them.” (John 14:23)
So, how can we experience this constant companionship? How can we get closer to our Divine Father?
Obviously, that’s a broad question whose answer is equally broad…and touches upon many facets of our faith. This morning I simply want to focus on some of the challenges faced in any parent-child relationship.
It’s helpful for us to realize that God not only relates to us with all the desire of a parent to a child, but also with all the dynamics of a parent to a child.
• For as many parents have learned, all the parental desire possible cannot determine intimacy with a child.
• Authentic relationship cannot be forced.
• With that in mind I believe God would remind us of the parent-child dynamics that relate to our intimacy with Him.
• As I’ve reflected upon the Scriptures this week, four dynamics in particular have stood out to me in regard to our lives:
The first factor involved in God’s fatherly interaction is:
1. OUR MINDFULNESS – God will relate to us according to our attentiveness.
- Every parent knows the importance of getting a child’s attention
… so does God.
- So it is, He states most simply in Ps. 46:10 “Be still and know that I am God.”
- Often times we think of merely the need for a quiet place to be with God, and certainly silence lends itself to stillness. But stillness of soul is more than silence. It refers to quieting the inner activity of our souls.
- I find this is one of my greatest challenges to enjoying constant closeness with God.
- Finding a relatively silence place isn’t so difficult, but quieting my soul is.
In fact, silence often seems to unveil all the stirrings & voices in my soul.
- Have you ever found that to be true? Just as you get quiet, your mind is flooded with competing thoughts and concerns … as you initially try to focus, you find your soul suffering from Attention Deficit Disorder?
- I can even begin to pray about things without really being still and focused yet … and I begin to spatter off my concerns to God with no real inner attention on Him.
- I might add that I think the things we’re most concerned about may be the hardest because our own thoughts and emotions are so involved; our own desires and reactions fill our attentiveness.
At these times, we’re like a wound up child rambling before a parent who waits to really gain our attention.
- God says “Be still” … come let your thoughts and agendas be still before me. Let them rest … get centered … die down.”
- The full attention of God’s heart is always there for us as our Divine Parent … but we cannot really know His attention until we bring Him ours.
-
And so, the first question I would pose in getting closer to our Divine Father is: DOES YOUR FATHER HAVE YOUR ATTENTION; NOT JUST SILENCE, BUT THE STILLNESS OF YOUR SOUL?
The second factor in any parent-child relationship is:
2. OUR MATURITY – for God relates to us according to our UNDERSTANDING.
- Again, every parent understands that they can only relate to a child according to their maturity and understanding.
- Parents begin with “baby talk” and use simple statements that fit within the child’s conceptual realm.
- Is it communication? Yes … as real as any other. But it’s from the sophisticated to the simple; from the all-knowing to the only partly perceiving.
- So it is in our relationship to God, as the apostle Paul described:
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
I Corinthians 13:11-13
- Two important implications in this text:
1. The reality of a distinction of knowledge between ourselves and God
- We don’t see the whole picture. Everything God has shown us of Himself is real, but much is still beyond us (… just as a parent’s communication is real, true, valid, but doesn’t attempt to be full).
- As Paul says “we are fully known, but we do not yet fully know God.”
GOD SEES ALL, BUT WE DON’T
This needs to affect our approach to being close with God, our Father. Oftentimes we use OUR PERCEPTION of needs as the reference point of being close with God, rather than GOD’S PERCEPTION of our needs.
- No good parent will respond simply according to their child’s limited perception of their needs. Their response will take into account their greater understanding.
- … I need more cookies … to not go to school anymore … to get this person out of my life … to get this guy/girl in my life … to succeed in this endeavor …
If we make our reference point of need the center of our approach to God, we may not sense his involvement. We must not confuse his agreement and acquiescence to our needs with closeness and intimacy. WE MUST SURRENDER TO HIS HIGHER KNOWLEDGE.
2. The second thing Paul notes is the we are to progress in our thinking. Paul recognized that in his own lifetime he had naturally come to think differently … what was natural as a child he had progressed from.
Our maturity of understanding must naturally progress in our understanding of God.
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2
- In my childhood years, whenever I wanted something, my father would say, “Well, write it down and if you still want it in three months, we’ll pursue it.” … Needless to say, my dad saved a lot of money on drum sets I forgot about … on animals we’d never carry through on. He was teaching us a lesson on being impulsive.
- Teenage years … car … split cost of 1st car … taught us lesson of saving, of delayed gratification.
- On and on the lessons progressed.
My dad doesn’t take me back to those essential lessons in life because I understand them. I’ve accepted them, my maturity has progressed.
God’s fatherly interaction works with us in the same way … second question I’d pose in your journey of getting closer to God is ARE YOU ALLOWING YOUR MIND TO MATURE ACCORDING TO ALL THAT YOUR FATHER HAS MADE KNOWN TO YOU? Are you learning to take on His perspective rather than demanding your own?
A third dynamic involved is:
3. OUR MOTIVATION – we must recognize that God relates to us in ways that reveal our hearts.
- There are those times when a child is making their requests / case before their parent, and the parent pauses and then asks a question back … that infamous “Let me ask you something, son…” followed by a question that really gets to the heart of the matter.
- So does God, with insight more powerful than any parent, for, as the writer of Hebrews described:
“… the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12
When we think of being close to God, we so often think of God answering our questions, but what we find in scripture is that God’s most penetrating interaction came when He asked the question.
- Can you think of the first question God is know to have asked? “Where are you?” … Adam and Eve hiding in their shame.
- Obviously he knew physically. Rather, it was a question of deeper meaning … a question he asks each of us.
- God engaged many with revealing questions:
To Cain after killing his brother: Where is your brother?
To Moses as he went on trying to convince God he was the wrong man to lead the people: What is that in your hand?
To a man paralyzed for 38 years, He asked, “Do you want to be well?”
To His disciples when they shared what others were saying about Him, He asked, “Who do you say I am?”
Today God is still asking questions to reveal the things of our hearts. “…some time ago … angry … God had to do something.”
- “Are you now unable to continue in what you’ve been called to?”
- I was quick to say “Sure, I can still do all I’m doing in serving you, but …” and my “but” fumbled about
Many of the real answers for our hearts are found in God’s questions.
And so I pose this 3rd question: ARE YOU PREPARED TO FIND ANSWERS IN GOD THE FATHER’S QUESTIONS?
Finally, God relates to us according to
4. OUR MOVEMENT – that is, Gold relates to us according to our responsiveness.
- Consider Abraham: “He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. Galatians 3:6-7 (Explain).
- God is not interested in our academic agreement, only in our active agreement.
- As James described, “Faith without deeds is dead faith” … belief without action is not meaningful belief.
- Jesus offered little to those who lifted up their creedal (?), faith but were not willing to step out; while He always came close to those who came tossing “safety” aside and …
- The faith God responds to isn’t an issue of denying our doubts … he honored the one who came saying “We believe, but help us in our unbelief.”
- It’s not doubt of the mind that’s a problem, but the doubt of the will; the unwillingness to act.
- Illustration: Yesterday … privilege of performing the marriage of … they waged their bet, tossed their hat in the ring … it’s a part of the development of closeness … if Leah and I were still dating … after all these years, would we feel closer?
- Many of us are dating God … with our sins … money … priorities. (He’s coming back for his bride, not his uncommitted dating relationship).
So that the final question I’d pose is: ARE YOU ACTIVELY BELIEVING WHAT GOD THE FATHER HAS SHOWN YOU?
… going to have the opportunity to share in communion now.
Represents God’s most powerful statement to you of his desire to be close, and of his life-giving commitment.
IN GETTING CLOSER TO GOD,
Have I offered Him the stillness of my soul?
Do I need to mature in my mind?
Do I need to let him provide the deep questions?
Does my faith need to act on …
CLOSING PRAYER / COMMUNION
Series: Living In Response to God’s Love – Part 3
GETTING CLOSER TO OUR DIVINE FATHER
Date – Brad Bailey
God related to us all the desire of a parent to a child … and all the dynamics of a parent to a child. What factors are involved in God’s fatherly interaction?
1. OUR MINDFULNESS – God will relate to us according to our attentiveness.
Be still and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10
Does your Father have your attention … not just silence, but the stillness of your soul?
2. OUR MATURITY – God relates to us according to our understanding.
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. I Corinthians 13:11-13
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2
Are you allowing your mind to mature according to all that your Father has made known?
3. OUR MOTIVATION – God relates to us in ways that reveal our heart.
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrows; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12
Are you prepared to find answers in God the Father’s questions?
4. OUR MOVEMENT – God relates to us according to our responsiveness.
Consider Abraham: “He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. Galatians 3:6-7
Are you actively believing what God the Father has shown you?
