What is Your Perception of God?

Think of some of your favorite people, the people you most want to be with, the people you will go out of your way to meet, rearrange your schedule to spend time with. What is it about them that make them so desirable to you? I’ll bet that they share some of these characteristics.

1. He makes you feel welcome. He’s the kind of friend that waits out in the driveway for you to arrive and greets you with a handshake or a hug.
2. He makes you feel intelligent. He’s the guy that appreciates your take on the situation. He makes you feel like what you have to say is worth hearing.
3. He’s powerful. He is self sustaining. He isn’t needy, she isn’t clingy.
4. He’s good company. He understands you. He has those two qualities so necessary to a real friend: He takes your concerns seriously but he knows when not to take you too seriously. He knows the difference between the real you and the cartoon you – taking the first one soberly and the second like Bugs Bunny doing the Barber of Seville.

How many of us would have a problem with prayer if we felt as comfortable and attracted to God as we do to our best friends? There is certainly much more to a relationship with God than that, more than what we would ever have with a good friend. But it’s never less than that. And we lose out - we miss all that is there for us in prayer because we are convinced that it is less, that God is more to be feared than to be loved.

Jesus went a long way to dispel that rumor, to show it up for a lie. He did it by teaching us about God as Father. Look at the emphasis he puts on understanding God as our Father.

Matt 6:6-9 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 "This, then, is how you should pray: "'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,…(NIV)

Matt 6:14 For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.(NIV)

Matt 6:17-18 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (NIV)

Seven times in seven sentences, four short paragraphs, Jesus repeats this phrase “your Father”. Do you think he’s trying to tell us something?

"If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God's child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all." J. I. Packer

It is the special privilege of believers in Jesus Christ to address God, to know God, as Father. As a king’s son has access to the throne that is unknown by others so Jesus makes it clear that we have an open door to the presence of God and a right to familiarity with him that is unknown to people outside of the kingdom. So spend some time today in prayer. Your Father in heaven is waiting to hear from you.