We're not able to limit or destroy God
To think differently is akin to insanity. We can only sabotage him.
God’s power relationship to us, decisively so, is modeled by our parents. A “love God or hate God” premise isn’t a power struggle, but a decision. Our parents are supposed to “image” God in our lives. Varying percentages of success by our parents’ collaboration and cooperation with God form our attitudes about the goodness of God. Those attitudes may be adopted by us, but we make our own way. We adapt them to fit how we choose to deal with God.
Memorial of Saints Martha, Mary, and Lazarus
Exodus 33:7-11; 34:5b-9, 28
John 11:19-27
Psalm 103 tells us things about God that need to be kept at the front of our minds.
Not according to our sins does he deal with us, nor does he requite us according to our crimes. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him. (Psalm 103: 10-11)
The entirety of Psalm 103 could be all that we need to know in this life. It forms our basis for loving God. The ugly truth, assured, and ultimately lovely, “is his kindness toward those who fear him.” God understands, knowing we naturally operate from fear of power, which only he can translate into love. We surrender to holiness to be like him, or plow down hard-hearted roads, abandon God, dismiss his power over us, and imagine our plans make more sense.
Our fear of the power that made us strangely means we are allowed to be free to choose — to embrace the creator and true power of the universe and our lives in it, or reject him. Yes, fear is a clue to the powerful presence of God. Rejection is a fool’s path. We cannot steal power from God. We cannot limit it. We certainly cannot destroy God’s power. Fear should stop us from doing so. To do otherwise is to initiate our doom, tying our destiny to the consequence of this short existence and sabotaging his plans for us.
As for man, his days are like the grass; he blossoms like a flower in the field. A wind sweeps over it and it is gone; its place knows it no more. (Psalm 103: 15-16)
Recognition of our finality establishes our sanity. We should fear the consequences of rejecting God’s place in our existence because any future after this life depends upon a divinity that chooses us. We didn’t create ourselves. Can God love us enough to keep us forever?
Who redeems your life from the pit, and crowns you with mercy and compassion. Who fills your days with good things, so your youth is renewed like the eagle’s? (Psalm 103: 4-5)
Sabotage God, and we condemn ourselves. There is no other outcome. To think differently is akin to insanity. Those who insist there is no God to catch us and take us to an afterlife do not understand fear. Fear draws us to God.
This is the same power relationship, decisively so, which exists between parents and their children. The “love God or hate God” premise isn’t a power struggle, but a decision. The power already exists in God. He hands it to us to unite back to him.
Our parents are supposed to “image” God in our lives. They see our sins and dismiss them. They feed us, hold us, and sacrifice even as we flail about and cause ruin. Varying percentages of success by our parents’ collaboration and cooperation with God form our attitudes about the goodness of God.
A healthy upbringing means that our parents or caretakers raised us in a cycle of love and hate heavily weighted towards love. But it’s not a scale. It’s a pattern.
Parents should raise children by displaying the same sense of fearing God and returning to him, bowed and repentant. Their transgressions must end in God’s mercy, or how can parents expect obedience and repentance from us? That is, parenting models that weep at their sins and express joy in God’s acceptance of their return to him establish the holy pattern of who’s really in charge and how good that power is.
But the LORD’s mercy is from age to age, toward those who fear him. His salvation is for the children’s children of those who keep his covenant, and remember to carry out his precepts. (Psalm 103: 17-18)
We may adopt attitudes formed in our upbringing, but we make our way forward. We adapt our parental notions of power to fit how we choose to deal with God. God helps us with that journey through revelatory interventions. The Church, gathered believers, built upon witness and testimony, assists us, embraces us, and loves us. Godless affiliations cannot explain suffering and fear, and do not collaborate with God. By design, they sabotage God’s mercy and cut off the path of rightful fears. They can try mightily, even with deep compassion. Yet, what do they deliver after death?
At the front of our minds, we model and witness to the world. As with God, it is never too late to witness healthy and holy parenting through our constant return to God. Then, we can be like him and hear the power of God tell us, “Do not be afraid.” It is God who disperses our fears.
Merciful and gracious is the LORD, slow to anger, abounding in mercy. (Psalm 103: 10-11)