We all have our good days and we all have our bad days, this morning was the start of what feels like a really good day. In fact this past week has been a really good week...God is great, my wife is amazing, things are good. Back to this morning ...
Making the long journey home from work (Greenslopes) to our temporary home for the next few weeks (Gold Coast) I decided to put on a sermon, to assist in alertness more than anything else. Toward the end of my travel down the coast my eyes did more than just stay open however, they welled up with a watery substance some apparently refer to as "tears"...
[I will, for the sake of manliness, simply refer to this phenomenon as liquid emotion...something that only occurs in a male when extremely tough male-creation meets extremely tougher male-Creator.]
Now, the reason for this phenomenon played out with a brain-busting Bible passage, followed by a heart-melting exposition...the following is the layout of this play...
Luke 18
1ALSO [Jesus] told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not to turn coward (faint, lose heart, and give up).
2He said, In a certain city there was a judge who neither reverenced and feared God nor respected or considered man.
3And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, Protect and defend and give me justice against my adversary.
4And for a time he would not; but later he said to himself, Though I have neither reverence or fear for God nor respect or consideration for man,
5Yet because this widow continues to bother me, I will defend and protect and avenge her, lest she give me intolerable annoyance and wear me out by her continual coming or at the last she come and rail on me or assault me or strangle me.
6Then the Lord said, Listen to what the unjust judge says!
7And will not [our just] God defend and protect and avenge His elect (His chosen ones), who cry to Him day and night? Will He defer them and delay help on their behalf?
8I tell you, He will defend and protect and avenge them speedily. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find [persistence in] faith on the earth?
...and the thought that followed is so simple, yet so profound....
Jesus here contrasts us with a widow, and our big-"D" Dad with the judge...
How we, unlike a widow, who is the lowest in the society, are not poor, are never alone, are not looked down upon, and not outcasts...but children of the King, the bride of Christ, who not only promise we'll never be alone, but says that we're rich in spirit, high in humility, a part of an eternal community.
How God, unlike the judge, is not impatient, not short with those who come to him, not stingy...but caring, and giving, and tender-hearted, and good, and fair, and just.
Therefore we get to go to a judge who calls himself our Father, our Dad. A God who cares deeply, and loves intimately, and gives freely.
And so when we go to our big-"D" Dad and ask for something like healing, we do not have to go and go and go and go and persist because he's stingy or because we'll change his mind...no...we keep going to God in prayer to request, to plead, to ask, not out of negative pestilence, but out of a loving heart. A heart that doesn't keep going back because we're afraid he won't listen otherwise, but a heart that keeps going back because he's all we have!
We are far worse than we think we are, and God is far greater than we think he is.
And we are not orphans or widows, but adopted children and brides. And God is not a stingy judge or abusive partner, but a loving dad, and a caring husband.
We get to go to God freely, any time, any place, any how. So don't just go to him, but run frequently and often. Ask and ask and ask again, and know that He is good, and know that you are loved.
Our God is a good God, and he has inclined his affections towards us. Like I said, today is going to be a good day.
