Romans Chapter 8 cont'd
Genuine children of God are characterized by their commitment to following the leadership of the Holy Spirit. And this makes the Christian life a great adventure; not enslaving or intimidating, but an intimate association with God as a loving Papa. And it's our intimacy with the Holy Spirit that makes God's fatherhood real to us. Now if we are his children, then we have an inheritance from God; in fact, we share in the very same one that Christ has received. But don't forget of course, that we must endure our share of suffering for Christ if we expect to be exalted with Christ.
Comments:
The matter of knowing God as "Father" or "Papa" is very central to a healthy spiritual life. Most of us naturally project and transfer on to our conception and image of God aspects of the relationship we had/have (or didn't!) with our earthly fathers...kind, engaged, affectionate, wise, available, good, sensitive, firm, legalistic, tough, distracted, harsh, unjust, abusive, absent, negligent, unaffectionate...you can add to the lists. (It's a good exercise and discussion for a small group of friends.) Often, it is a combination of the good and the bad characteristics that become blended and imprinted on our souls in regard to our thoughts and feelings about "father". Dad's have great power in the lives of their kids.
Thankfully, much has been said and written over the last 25 years in the church world about how to process, pray and break through so that we can receive the good that our fathers gave us and yet not confuse, deep in our hearts, our heavenly Father's nature with that of our dads'. I find it interesting that, long ago, the writer of Hebrews was in touch with this very issue:
Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Hebrews 12:9-11
The main point that the author of Hebrews makes about God's fatherhood and our lives in this passage (and also the final sentence in the Romans 8 paragraph above) relates to how we process trials, adversities and sufferings. As a spiritual director, I have found that many of us have great difficulty holding on simultaneously to our image of God as a loving Papa and his allowance of difficulties and negative situation to intrude upon our lives. This seems to me like one of the greatest challenges in our spiritual lives that we must surmount...how well do we process legitimate sufferings in our hearts, emotions, minds and relationships? Are we able to hold on to our strong belief that God is good when life becomes a bear?
May the Holy Spirit, himself, help us all in the deep regions of our hearts to know God's loving fatherhood in the midst of our fallen world and challenging life circumstances.
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