The Heart of Father God

Sort of continuing on from the previous note…

A theme emerged as I pray my love for God to be increased daily.

Nancy Wilson once said “To love is to know and to be known is to be loved”. When we fall in love with somebody, we want to know as much as we can about that person. Also being understood and appreciated for who we are is such a precious aspect of being in a loving relationship. I think it’s tenderly beautiful that the Bible uses the verb “to know” to refer to love making.

Physically, emotionally, and spiritually, “knowing” is elemental for deepening of one’s love for the other.

So I want to know God more. The majority of difficulty I experience with my walk with Christ stems from my mistrust towards God, which is generated by the twisted perception of His character. By being better acquainted with who He is, whatever misconception I have about Him will be replaced by His true nature - Love. Then I cannot help but fall deeper in love with Him…

Speaking of misconception, I had an interesting moment of realization at the Central Conference about how I view my relationship with God. We were discussing this topic during the small group. Sadly my image of “God and I” relationship resembles that of a somewhat bigoted master and his second-rated apprentice. Do you remember Pai Mei, the elderly martial arts master from the movie Kill Bill? Yeah, that’s my image of God a lot of times. You get the sense that he is probably not a bad person, but you just never know what he’s thinking and his training seems unreasonably cruel (like keep punching a wooden board until your knuckle skin’s gone).

Not so cool.

Since Father’s day last week, I’ve come across several writings and conversations that dealt with paternal God. One of which was the story Sarah told me of her prayer.

A few days ago she woke up feeling absolutely miserable. She had been having particularly difficult issues at work on top of several other things that made her life very complicated. Then she thought about her own dad and how he would want to make his daughter feel better if he knew her situation.

Yes, a father’s heat would go out for his little girl.

Sarah prayed “God, I know you wouldn’t want your daughter to go through her day feeling miserable. Do something about it…!”

Nothing external changed that day. She still had crap going on at work and various other vexations in life. But according to her own expression, she had “a river running through” her all day. It washed away her anxieties and overflowed to people she came in contact with. Talk about peace beyond understanding!

I feel like I got a glimpse of the heart of Father God through Sarah’s story.

My prayer is to know You, and be never hesitant to make my heart known to you, Abba Father. This I ask in the name of Jesus Christ, whose atonement gave me the right to be Your child. Amen.

- Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7 -

Experimental Prayer (As a Communal Experience)

For the last month or so, I’ve been praying with my small group and my accountability partner Sarah that God will increase our love for Him every day. To me it’s kind of an experiment. I pray this with the expectation to see tangible changes in our walk with Christ. It may sound oxy-moron to expect the result when you pray, but truthfully my prayer life has been rather timid in the past. For the fear of being disappointed and/or my concerns not mattering to God, I always had reservations when I prayed. That way if my prayer is not answered, I can put up my proper Christian façade and say “I guess that wasn’t in God’s will. It is well with my soul (NOT!)”

Anyway, praying collectively works pretty well for this situation because;

1. If I forget to pray one day, somebody else’s praying for me so I’m covered.
2. I can’t very easily quit praying even when I don’t see the result right away and get discouraged.
3. We can witness the changes in each other’s lives.

I believe the basis of our walk with Christ should be the personal relationship with Him. But it is also essential for our spiritual growth to have a community of people, who we can love, encourage, accept, learn from, and bear burden for each other FOR REAL. Since human is created to be a social being, I think it’s natural that the experience we share with others can be in some ways more solid and intense than what we experience in solitude. Great things God does in my life do not remain just “my” personal story, but they become “our” story in the community. My joy becomes our joy.

It’s ideal if you had a community of people who you can physically spend time with, but especially through my experience with JCFN, I came to appreciate communities that form online as well.

In any case I pray that everyone who took time to read this note is a part of a loving community. May our love for God increase in us daily, and it would overflow and bless those around us =)

Peace,

-Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Mark 11:24-