KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN
Watch what God does and then you do it…
But how many of us actually know what God does? And, how do we learn to watch? JB Phillips puts it like this; “As children copy their fathers you, as God’s children, are to copy him.” Paul uses the analogy of parent and child to encourage us to live as God lives.
This is quite unlike the relationship between the people and the Pharisees. Jesus warns the crowd, “so you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.”
The relationship between Father and family is established through ‘new birth’ – fellowship is a participation in that relationship that encourages experiential intimacy. When religion has a foot-hold in our lives there is ‘hard-heartedness’ and Jesus wants to free and gently lead us into His fear-free wonderful purpose. Jesus goes on to expose the motive of the Pharisee heart . “Everything they do is for men to see.”
THIS IS FOR YOU!
The heart captured by grace finds an amazing energy to love God because it ultimately realizes it is all about knowing Him. A heart set on God is freed from performance oriented living and finds a deep rest and peace in knowing that He is with us. Let me encourage you to find that space!
Contrary to current opinion amongst many church goers our relationship with God is not about us getting our own way or even seeing how much we can achieve for Him. No, it is all about going His way and enjoying what He has already done for us.
WHAT DOES GOD DO?
“Mostly what God does is love you.” Some would find this hard to understand but being loved by God restores my life to such an extent that I begin to see more clearly than ever His plan for my life. It is the call of God to embrace what He does for us rather than what we want to do for Him that restores the soul.
I find that some Christians may be quite bewildered by the thought of ‘copying God’ and want only to know ‘how this works’ Well, here are some pointers from Paul as to how we can experience His love. Quite simply…
“Keep company with Him and learn a life of love?”
“Observe how Christ loved us.”
“His love was not cautious but extravagant.”
“He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of Himself to us.”
The challenge for us is to –“Love like that!”