Same With God - Lenten Devotional 15

Always be glad because of the Lord! I will say it again: Be glad. Always be gentle with others. The Lord will soon be here. Don't worry about anything, but pray about everything. With thankful hearts offer up your prayers and requests to God. Then, because you belong to Christ Jesus, God will bless you with peace that no one can completely understand. And this peace will control the way you think and feel. (Philippians 4:4-7 CEVDCUS06)

One of the hardest things in life is to be patient and wait. We want it and we want it now. To take it a step further, we want it our way. 

Often I compare our relationship to God to that of a parent and child. We struggle to guide and train our children, set rules they don't understand, discipline when they don't follow, yet love them all the more. Isn't that what it is like with God? Children are impatient with their needs and wants, but we eventually meet their needs and probably most of their wants. It just takes time. Same with God. 

We want our children to follow our example and to trust in what we tell them. The big difference is that God is a holy and perfect example where we are flawed. Still we try, don't we? And we should. We don't give up on our children. Same with God. 

Our children sometimes run too fast and are clumsy, fall and hurt themselves. Do we expect them to stay on the ground to cry and wallow in despair? No! We go to them, helping them up, wiping the dust, kissing the pain away. Same with God! He is there to pick us up when we fall to love the pain away. Then He tells us to go a little slower next time and watch our step. 

So if you are a parent, think of your relationship with your child and the enormous amount of patience you have with that child...same with God as He thinks of you! If you are not a parent, I imagine you can still relate to the comparison. We are all children of God and He is watching over us, ready to help us shake off the dust and love the hurt away.