How to Talk with God! Part I
Bible Study Notes – 06/13/18
Pastor Washington, Pastor/Teacher
How to Talk with God! Part I
Scripture reference:
- Matthew 6:9-13
Keeping in mind that the model prayer begins with, “Our Father…” we can approach the Throne of God as His Child. As such, He is our Parent. And in the Parent-Child relationship, there is delight on the part of the parent in hearing from His Child, and there is Difficulty, as well as His Decision.
Do we really get the idea of what Jesus means, when he says we can call Him, FATHER?! In order to understand we must look at the dominant ideas of who God is in His Word, which, He, Himself reveals.
- In the Book of Genesis, He is Creator: Here God demonstrates absolute power by speaking the word and things happen. He doesn’t describe to light what He wants light to be. He never has to explain to darkness, water, or trees, because they come exactly into existence that He calls them to be.
- In the Book of Exodus, He is The Redeemer: His redemptive power is demonstrated after He brings His people out of captivity, after they have been in for such a longtime. After centuri3es of bad treatment, He brings them out. No matter how long, how strong the treatment is- when God gets ready, I’m coming out!
- In the Book of Leviticus, He is Holy: Holiness means God is different from every other god. There is not another like Him. He lays out all that is necessary to tell them how to treat Him.
- In the Book of Numbers, He is forgiving: God forgives. Israel messed up continually; always doing the exact opposite of what God tells them to do. With evidence of God’s word, they continue to disobey, and He does not hold it against them.
- In the Book of Deuteronomy, He is Faithful: Faithfulness. God is so faithful to His word that by the end of Numbers, the entire nation who came out of Egypt is now dead. Moses talks to children born in the Wilderness. God is faithful to the children of those He promised to keep.
This Creative, Redemptive, Faithful, Holy, Forgiving God….is my Father. Consider that I can call Him “Abba,” “daddy”, because He is my daddy. He delights in the fact that grown people, with children of their own, call Him Father. There is great delight in calling our God, Father, but it causes difficulty for some. Some issues that arise out of the Father-Child relationship, can center on abandonment (Total absence in the life of the child; ad absentee (Can be present and not involved); Abuse is a factor, because of the damage caused by the Father in the life of the child.
With this history and background, it is difficult to embrace the True & Living God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The “child” can apply to God all the struggles of the bad experience in the Father-Child relationship, and therefore, it becomes difficult to build the relationship. Our heavenly Father and our earthly father are not the same. God has not done what the earthly father has done- so we should not blame God. No matter what your history, to reap the benefit of this relationship, you must forgive your earthly father. If not, you will be unable to honestly trust God the way He’s calling us to do. We must make a commitment to forgive…
In light of Who He is and What He had done, we have a decision to make, and that is to allow the Spirit of God to operate in this area of our lives. In forgiveness, we can have the memory of the pain and it won’t hurt anymore. Forgiveness does not mean forgetting. It means remembering without pain. God can do that for us, if we let Him.
God, our Father, is able to sound-proof our lives so that there is no noise; no bother. On God’s side, and on our side there is a will involved. We can do anything that we want, if we are willing- in the area of forgiveness. God, Our Father made a decision. He wills Himself to want to be our Father. Amen