Look at the birds of the air, they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? (Matt 6:26)
Just because George Muller was in seminary and training to become a pastor, it didn't mean he was following God. He had spent his youth fulfilling his own desires--desires that none of his earthly father's riches (and they were substantial) could satisfy. He was a wealthy seminary student on the way to becoming a pastor of a large and comfortable congregation when he heard the call of Jesus to give up a life centered on pleasing himself.
When George came to understand his identity as a son of his heavenly Father, it was his natural father who opposed him on the grounds that he couldn’t make a good living unless he looked after himself. Then came almost continuous disappointments as he left his homeland for England where he was to prepare for a life of gospel with Jews in Persia. After disagreements with the missions board had been overcome he was forced to withdraw due to his health. He began to preach and pastor in England instead and there his life began to prove the truth of Jesus' words--that he had a loving Father in heaven.
Muller's work was characterized by almost continuous self emptying: he took no regular salary in order that church members give from love of God rather than duty; he and his new wife sold her trousseau and gave the money for the gospel; he forbade pew rents in the church as it scandalously favored the rich over the poor. And all of this was of a piece with what he later became known for: opening his home to orphans. He and Mary opened their lives to 30 children.
When George came to understand his identity as a son of his heavenly Father, it was his natural father who opposed him on the grounds that he couldn’t make a good living unless he looked after himself. Then came almost continuous disappointments as he left his homeland for England where he was to prepare for a life of gospel with Jews in Persia. After disagreements with the missions board had been overcome he was forced to withdraw due to his health. He began to preach and pastor in England instead and there his life began to prove the truth of Jesus' words--that he had a loving Father in heaven.
Muller's work was characterized by almost continuous self emptying: he took no regular salary in order that church members give from love of God rather than duty; he and his new wife sold her trousseau and gave the money for the gospel; he forbade pew rents in the church as it scandalously favored the rich over the poor. And all of this was of a piece with what he later became known for: opening his home to orphans. He and Mary opened their lives to 30 children.
Then they built homes for 130 then almost 2000. By the time he died he had clothed, fed, educated, and housed over 10,000 orphans. But the most miraculous thing about the Muller’s ministry is that God the Father provided for all these children without George or Mary ever asking any human for anything. “Your heavenly Father knows what you need before you ask,” Jesus said. Muller believed this, and took his requests only to Him. “I want the people of England to know that they really do have a heavenly Father so I resolved never to ask for our needs from men”
When you pray, do not heap up empty phrases like the gentiles do for they think they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your heavenly Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this, “Our Father…”(Matt 6:7-9)
“Our Father:” while perhaps no two other of Jesus’ words are as easily recognized as coming from him, it is more certain that no two others are as ignored. And although ignored, none have the power to change us like these. He puts these two little words in our mouth to radically reorient us from estrangement to sonship, death to life, and darkness to light. “Father” is a word of personal address, a word of family relationship, and a word of love. This one simple word identifies us as sons and is a token of the special audience we are granted with the master and creator of the universe. Though God is worthy of all praise, Jesus did not teach us to flatter him. This would be manipulation. Instead, Jesus has us address God person to Person, child to Parent.
Though we had become estranged from God, Jesus rebuilds our relationship to him stone by stone starting at the foundation: trust. On the human level, we see broken trust all the time; interestingly, it is most often the one who broke trust who has the hardest time entering back into the relationship and becoming reconciled. And it is so often left to the one who was betrayed to work on the rebuilding. It is just so with God and man. Though God had done nothing to destroy our relationship with him, he takes action to restore it by teaching us, the betrayers, how to trust him again. As a token of his trust and a pledge of his love, he sends his Only Son to live among us, the rebels. Emptying himself of divine prerogatives (glory, perfect freedom and power and health) and becoming a servant, his Son Jesus shows us God’s love simply by his life among us. And as prayer is the medium by which we relate to God person to Person, it is here that Jesus takes care to instruct us how to trust: he teaches us to pray to the God who is our Father.
This writer notes with embarrassment his former lack of understanding concerning the Father’s love and the reality of joyful interaction and intimacy with Him. Though I knew my heavenly Father as a child, I lost this simple awareness as a young adult. Searching the scriptures to find out the character of my heavenly Father has been more valuable than anything else in my restoration to a joyful walk with Him. The gospels of Matthew and John are particularly helpful in this respect for in them the words of Jesus concerning the Father show us his very heart. Both books are, among other things, sustained meditations on what it means to be a son by adoption of our Creator. As sons, our needs are known[i], we can talk to our Father[ii]; and we are loved[iii]; provided for[iv], and seen and heard and rewarded by him[v]. God values us so much that he offers the greatest gifts we could possibly be given, fellowship with the Himself in the Persons of the Trinity—with the Father and the Son[vi] and the Holy Spirit[vii].
As we come to know him as Father, we become like him[viii]. The family resemblance begins to show as we grow more mature. Jesus is the measure of this likeness. The church has been given to us as a school until we reach mature manhood (and womanhood), until we grow up into “measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ[ix]” What a gift he gives us when he makes us his sons!
Father of Jesus, our Father: thank you for sending your Son to teach me who I am in you. Thank you for re-establishing me as a member of your family and teaching me to trust you in Jesus. Continue this work of restoration in me that my words in prayer to you, "our Father," might not be in vain but find fulfillment through your grace. Help me live into my identity as a son who you love. Where I have doubted your love, I ask your forgiveness; where I have pretended to be my own provider and protector, I ask your pardon. You want me to grow so that I look like you; I give you myself. Let me know the length and the breadth and the height and the depth of your love through your Son Jesus. In his name I pray, Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment