Our Conception of God Very Dangerous -- God as Father

The idea that we can conceive of God right away creates problems.

For many people, our conception of God is informed by our parents.

I have since learned that dysfunctional families are the norm, not the exception.

Throughout the Bible, I have read about one bad father (and mother) after another in the Bible. From the strife between Abraham and Sarah, to Isaac's favoritism and Rebekah's conniving, and then Jacob and his wives (four wives!) plus the rebellious children and their bitter envy of the favored Joseph, dysfunctional families are the  norm, not the exception.

And let's not forget David: great shepherd, poet, warrior, prophet, king, but he was a bad father.

So, our conception of God, if based on our experience, will set us up for nothing but frustration in our proper standing before God the Father.

He is the best Father out there, and we cannot understand how great He is based on our experience with our parents.

At one point in my life, I was so frustrated with what I saw in my life, with what my parents had done (or not done) and I was not afraid to pray:

"I want a new family."

Then as I read more of the Bible, I found out that everyone of us needs a new family, a new identity in Christ Jesus:

We need a spirit of adoption, a recognition of how good God is, and how much He loves us because of all that His Son Jesus has done for us.

No one had ever told me how good God is -- how great He is because of all that His Son Jesus did for me.

No one.

On this Mother's Day, I want to leave this post, about the mother whom we all receive because of our Loving Father God through His Son Jesus:

21Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? 22For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. 23But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. 24Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. 25For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. 26But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. (Galatians 4: 21-26)

 

In Christ, we receive grace as our mother, the Jerusalem above, because we are all lifted up in Christ above all setbacks, principalities and powers (Ephesians 2: 4-6)