When we are at the different stages of life, our parents mean different things to us and we allow them to play different roles in our lives as we grow and mature. When we are young, our parents are our protectors and life source. We are fully dependent on our parents for every need we have from the time of conception until we are able to care for ourselves. And by that I mean we are able to obtain employment, purchase our own goods, rent or buy a home, etc. Until that point, our parents are the most important people to us. As we enter our teens we begin to experience some growing pains. All of a sudden our parents are not quite as important as they were. We are trying to spread our wings, make our own decisions, buy our own food, clothes, entertainment through that little part time job they force us to get. Teens believe they know better and that their parents cannot possibly understand what they are going through and dealing with every day at school. We put our parents on the back burner and more or less humor them as we become more invincible each and every day knowing it all about everything. Then we become adults.
As adults we are making our own way. Now our parents play an advisory role in navigating the world of mortgages, work conflicts, bearing and rearing children and so many other areas that are "firsts" for us. Sometimes we receive the advice and guidance and sometimes we don't. But one thing is for sure, we begin to realize that our parents were right all along even when we thought they couldn't possibly understand what was going on with us.
Most, if not all, of us have a relationship similar with God and His Son, Jesus Christ. He is our Savior and He is a Good Father. Like our earthly parents, He has so much more to offer us than we allow Him to give. We talk about salvation as receiving Jesus Christ into our hearts and lives, and yet Jesus only said all who Believe on His name would be saved. When we receive anything it requires us to accept something, be it advice, counsel, crticism, love, etc. But...when we say we receive Jesus as our savior, is that all His name is? God has many names. Some we are familiar with and some we may have....forgotten.
Let's look at the characteristics of Jesus that Isaiah mentioned in his prophecy above.
Everlasting Father - We often place our own earthly experiences with our parents onto our Heavenly Father. We don't look at God as wonderful or an Everlasting Father. We place our damaged emotions directly in front of us as a barrier to experiencing the fullness of His love as an Everlasting Father because our earthly father walked out on the family. Or maybe promises were made and broken. Or maybe you lived in poverty and watched your parents work hard every day to just barely make ends meet. There was just 'never enough' and you began to be resentful and angry and bitter at a God who could allow your circumstances to be so much less than that of others. All the time not acknowledging that His love for you as a Father is so great that He gave up His Son even unto death so that you may be reconciled to Him and be spared the punishment of the lake of fire.
Counselor - I believe the most difficult aspect of His nature for us to grasp is that of Counselor. We live in a world where we take our frustrations, or our need for advice on a matter to Facebook before we take them to God. We seek advice from those that may not give us godly counsel (Psalm 1:1). Just like teenagers we choose to ignore the godly counsel of a Wonderful, Everlasting Father and we get opinions from those around us until we get the one that agrees with us. The opinions and advice we receive may not have our best interests at heart. Yet, we know that God always has our best intentions at His very heart and love for us (Jeremiah 29:11). Why would we not take our every need, request, frustration to someone who we knew would always give us the advice that is best for us?
Mighty God - In many parts of Christianity, we have left out the "mighty" attribute of God's character. We focus on His love and sufficient grace. We leave out that He is Mighty! What does that even mean? "mighty" according to Merriam-Webster means possessing great and impressive power of strength. The same God we worship today reigned fire down onto the soaking wet altar at Mount Carmel at the request of Elijah to defeat Baal (1 Kings 18:20-39). The same God we worship today led the Children of Israel out of bondage and slavery from Egypt after showing Pharaoh His power and strength until Pharaoh released the people. He is the same God that feeds the sparrows. He is the same God that spoke the world into creation. The same God we worship today defeated death, hell and the grave through His death and resurrection. He is not only love and grace. He is mighty!
Prince of Peace - Jesus gives us the peace that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:6-7). In the very midst of what is our chaotic, messy, distressing, whirlwind of a life sometimes, the same God that rebuked the storm and told the winds and waves to be still, fills our hearts and minds with the same peace if we allow Him to have that role in our lives. Sometimes we get so caught up in the looking at the storm around us, we don't call out to the Prince of Peace. We don't let His peace rule in our hearts as we deal with people every day. We allow our expectations and tempers to flare in the checkout line because the cashier is too slow or the person in front of us has too many items for the express checkout. Or maybe the server at the restaurant didn't provide the service we expected or the food fell short of what we thought it should be. If we allow Jesus to play the role of Prince of Peace in our lives then we become calm in the face of whatever storm it is that comes our way. Remember, the Prince of Peace is also Immanuel - always with us; ever present.
There are so many other names and roles God has that we leave out of our daily walk with Him. He is: Jehovah Rapha - The Lord that Heals; Jehovah Jireh - The Lord will Provide; Jehovah Shalom - The Lord is Peace; Yahweh - Lord; Jehovah Mikkoddishkem - The Lord who Sanctifies; Jehovah Nissi - The Lord My Banner/Victory; Alpha and Omega. And there are many others.
So, my question to you all (and to myself) today is do you allow God to be all that He is in your life? Or do you pick and choose what roles you want Him to play? Is He everything to you every day all the time? Or do you just call on Him when the boat is rocking to and fro in the midst of the wind and waves?
Join the discussion on Facebook.
Share your prayer requests with and let us stand united in prayer with you. Share your praise reports with us, too! Let us rejoice with you! We would love to hear from you. Email here.
As adults we are making our own way. Now our parents play an advisory role in navigating the world of mortgages, work conflicts, bearing and rearing children and so many other areas that are "firsts" for us. Sometimes we receive the advice and guidance and sometimes we don't. But one thing is for sure, we begin to realize that our parents were right all along even when we thought they couldn't possibly understand what was going on with us.
Most, if not all, of us have a relationship similar with God and His Son, Jesus Christ. He is our Savior and He is a Good Father. Like our earthly parents, He has so much more to offer us than we allow Him to give. We talk about salvation as receiving Jesus Christ into our hearts and lives, and yet Jesus only said all who Believe on His name would be saved. When we receive anything it requires us to accept something, be it advice, counsel, crticism, love, etc. But...when we say we receive Jesus as our savior, is that all His name is? God has many names. Some we are familiar with and some we may have....forgotten.
Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.
He is Immanuel, which translates "God with us." Don't we forget sometimes that He is always with us even though He said He would never leave us nor forsake us? What an advantage unbelievers do not have as we make our ways through this lost and dying world to have Jesus walking with us. (Deuteronomy 31:6) We couldn't take our earthly parents with us everywhere we went when we were younger. We didn't have them always with us to warn us of a bad decision we were about to make or to give us strength and encouragement to face whatever it was that day that was difficult to tackle. How much trouble could we have stayed out of as a teenager if we had made decisions as though our mother or father was standing next to us?
Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Let's look at the characteristics of Jesus that Isaiah mentioned in his prophecy above.
Everlasting Father - We often place our own earthly experiences with our parents onto our Heavenly Father. We don't look at God as wonderful or an Everlasting Father. We place our damaged emotions directly in front of us as a barrier to experiencing the fullness of His love as an Everlasting Father because our earthly father walked out on the family. Or maybe promises were made and broken. Or maybe you lived in poverty and watched your parents work hard every day to just barely make ends meet. There was just 'never enough' and you began to be resentful and angry and bitter at a God who could allow your circumstances to be so much less than that of others. All the time not acknowledging that His love for you as a Father is so great that He gave up His Son even unto death so that you may be reconciled to Him and be spared the punishment of the lake of fire.
Counselor - I believe the most difficult aspect of His nature for us to grasp is that of Counselor. We live in a world where we take our frustrations, or our need for advice on a matter to Facebook before we take them to God. We seek advice from those that may not give us godly counsel (Psalm 1:1). Just like teenagers we choose to ignore the godly counsel of a Wonderful, Everlasting Father and we get opinions from those around us until we get the one that agrees with us. The opinions and advice we receive may not have our best interests at heart. Yet, we know that God always has our best intentions at His very heart and love for us (Jeremiah 29:11). Why would we not take our every need, request, frustration to someone who we knew would always give us the advice that is best for us?
Mighty God - In many parts of Christianity, we have left out the "mighty" attribute of God's character. We focus on His love and sufficient grace. We leave out that He is Mighty! What does that even mean? "mighty" according to Merriam-Webster means possessing great and impressive power of strength. The same God we worship today reigned fire down onto the soaking wet altar at Mount Carmel at the request of Elijah to defeat Baal (1 Kings 18:20-39). The same God we worship today led the Children of Israel out of bondage and slavery from Egypt after showing Pharaoh His power and strength until Pharaoh released the people. He is the same God that feeds the sparrows. He is the same God that spoke the world into creation. The same God we worship today defeated death, hell and the grave through His death and resurrection. He is not only love and grace. He is mighty!
Prince of Peace - Jesus gives us the peace that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:6-7). In the very midst of what is our chaotic, messy, distressing, whirlwind of a life sometimes, the same God that rebuked the storm and told the winds and waves to be still, fills our hearts and minds with the same peace if we allow Him to have that role in our lives. Sometimes we get so caught up in the looking at the storm around us, we don't call out to the Prince of Peace. We don't let His peace rule in our hearts as we deal with people every day. We allow our expectations and tempers to flare in the checkout line because the cashier is too slow or the person in front of us has too many items for the express checkout. Or maybe the server at the restaurant didn't provide the service we expected or the food fell short of what we thought it should be. If we allow Jesus to play the role of Prince of Peace in our lives then we become calm in the face of whatever storm it is that comes our way. Remember, the Prince of Peace is also Immanuel - always with us; ever present.
There are so many other names and roles God has that we leave out of our daily walk with Him. He is: Jehovah Rapha - The Lord that Heals; Jehovah Jireh - The Lord will Provide; Jehovah Shalom - The Lord is Peace; Yahweh - Lord; Jehovah Mikkoddishkem - The Lord who Sanctifies; Jehovah Nissi - The Lord My Banner/Victory; Alpha and Omega. And there are many others.
So, my question to you all (and to myself) today is do you allow God to be all that He is in your life? Or do you pick and choose what roles you want Him to play? Is He everything to you every day all the time? Or do you just call on Him when the boat is rocking to and fro in the midst of the wind and waves?
Join the discussion on Facebook.
Share your prayer requests with and let us stand united in prayer with you. Share your praise reports with us, too! Let us rejoice with you! We would love to hear from you. Email here.
