My family and I had a rare chance to attend a church service on Christmas Eve this year. This is something that we’ve only had an opportunity to do a few times and is – admittedly – something I’ve only done a very few number of times. The subject of the service was about barriers and the various reasons people use as excuses to keep from attending church or getting to know God/Jesus. Among these reasons/excuses are:
1. I’m not perfect and church is only for those who are perfect
2. I don’t want to be like the rest of the hypocrites who attend church
3. I’ve done too much. There’s no way God could forgive me
4. Church is too far away
5. I’m too busy
and many others. I could likely write a blog entry for most of the above, and may in the future, but the thing that got me thinking during this service was a question the pastor asked at the end of the service. It was something similar to “How do you see God? Is it as an almighty judge who is just waiting to bring judgment when we step out of line OR is at as a loving father?”
I’ve spent a good bit of time thinking about this question the last couple of days and have determined the answer to this question has a large impact on how we view our relationship with God. For example, if you see God as an almighty judge who is waiting to bring judgment any time we “step out of line,” then we likely only doing the right things out of fear. We tend to follow the “rules” because we are afraid of angering Him and being punished. This living in constant fear can lead us to think that we are never good enough – that we could do something so terribly wrong that we are destined to Hell with no way to return.
However, if we see God as a loving father, then we realize that He knows we aren’t perfect and we are going to mess up. We can then go through life do the best we can to live a moral life and get to know him. We can take comfort in knowing that He will forgive us. This is the God that Jesus spoke of in the New Testament and is one that knows you and provides comfort. He loves you regardless of your shortcomings and is interested and loves each of us individually. From this point of view, you live out your faith freely and without fear.
I think God wants us all to see Him as the loving Father. This is the one area that – as a parent – I understand more as each day goes by. Regardless of how much my kids “screw up” or “don’t follow the rules,” I will always love them and will forgive them. Just as God does me. We know that regardless of how hard they try, our kids will make mistakes as they grow up and mature. I think that God knows the same thing about us. Regardless of how hard we try, we are imperfect and will make mistakes as we grow and mature in our faith.
God wants us to live a life that demonstrates and responds to His love not live in fear of punishment.
