Hosanna Restoration Church

As I visited with a man recently whose family was in need of prayer, he proceeded to tell me that we do not deserve anything from God because we are all sinners and God does not need to do anything for us, and as he went on, my heart ached and I felt such despair. I tried to encourage Him with what the bible says, but ended up just telling him I would pray.

Now to a certain extent he told the truth. We in ourselves do not deserve one thing from God. However, with Jesus in us, that makes it a whole different story. Add to that the fact that we really should not be sinners any longer. We may sin, but we have in fact been set free from the power of sin and death. Not only that, but He watched over us long before we ever knew Him. We certainly should not forget the fact that God forgives us and cleanses us from unrighteousness when we repent.

Anyway, this continued to trouble me. I found myself thinking about it when I woke up in the night. As I prayed I felt like God revealed that this kind of thinking comes from people who treat God like an idol rather than their Father. They see Him much like worshippers of false gods see their idols. We must remember that He is not like other Gods. He is the one true God.

God said that He would be our personal God and we would be his people. He said He would be a Father to us and we would be His children. He does not want us to see Him like He is some fire breathing God that we need to sacrifice our children to in hopes that we might appease His wrath.

He said that it is impossible to please Him without faith. That would imply that faith pleases Him. We have plenty of proof of that in what Jesus told people when they spoke their faith. We must have faith in His love and promises. We must also follow His commands.

I really think that we hurt God when we set Him way out there somewhere and imply that He is unfeeling toward us. How can we think that He could care less, when he has already shown such love by giving His son to die on the cross for us? I would feel like I had done something very wrong if my children came to me and said that they felt like they did not deserve anything from me.

If you happen to see God in this way, I encourage you to consider allowing Him to renew your mind. Or maybe you know someone who sees Him this way and like me you just feel like you don’t know what to say. Perhaps you can encourage them by telling that God is not an idol. He is our Father and He should be treated like the great father that He is. He should be loved and respected.