Watch a three-year-old. At that tender age, everything is about them. They have no true concept of others except as a fragment of their own world. Mommy goes out the door, and Mommy is gone. Mommy walks back in, and Mommy is there again.
At three, a child is just beginning to see past who they are, but it’s not real for them yet. We want our three-year-old to love us, and it’s endearing when they say so, but it often comes only when we prompt them. It’s how kids are. They have to mature before they can truly understand us as individuals and express mature emotions that are meaningful in a deep way. Their world is all about them, and everything else is part of the glittering kaleidoscope that makes up their days.
It’s the same with a new Christian. It’s all about them. They feel good when they come to Christ, and that makes their new walk of faith wonderful. However, when God steps away for a time, God is gone forever, it seems. Then when God walks back in, all is wonderful again. Even their praises are interconnected with what God does for them. It’s the way new Christians are. They have to mature before they can truly understand God as a true heavenly father and express love to him in a meaningful way.
The first part of 2 Chronicles 20:26 says that the children of Israel gathered in the Valley of Beracah, and there they blessed the Lord.
Read that again. They didn’t ask the Lord for anything. Rather, they offered something to God.
How often are our prayers filled with hurt, pain, and demands for God to do something for us? Then when he doesn’t come through, he becomes our punching bag?
Maybe we’re still immature Christians. Maybe we’re still three, and God is waiting patiently for us to mature into adult Christians who can understand God as our heavenly father, and not as one fragment of the kaleidoscope of events that makes up our days.
Paul’s words in Romans 11:36 show his maturity in his walk with the Lord:
“For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”
When we grow up in Christ, our prayers will become more than repeated requests for gifts from God. We will want to bless him with our words, our love, and our lives, simply because he’s there.
When we become mature Christians, we want God to feel loved, too.
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Code: FGO.D.19.15b.vp.esv