Concept of God ........................ Parables 122

When I was five, my mom could do the most amazing things. She could hold a hot hard-boiled egg in her bare hands or knit a sweater. I couldn’t do that. And my father could repair my bridle reins or make a sling shot. I couldn’t do that. I thought those things were impossible.

But I changed. When I was twenty-five, my small children looked on with open mouths when I picked up hot hard-boiled eggs, knit sweaters, made them a sling shot or even mended harness. And now they have changed - they can do things they once thought only dad or mom could do.

What seems so far beyond a child’s mind changes when they have an adult’s perspective. It’s the same in the family of God. When I was a new Christian, a babe in my faith, I read that my Heavenly Father could “do exceeding abundantly above all that we could ask or even think . . . ” (Eph. 3:20).

This verse had about the same impact on me as a five-year-old watching dad do the impossible. I thought God would answer my little prayers with big answers, blowing me away with His skill, wisdom, and especially His generosity. I believed He would take my dreams and expand them in glorious technicolor on a giant screen. So I began praying for many things that a typical spoiled child might pray for . . . and God graciously responded - sometimes.

After a while, I realized that He was not the “genie” that I thought; I didn’t pull His strings. There were many things I wanted that He would not let me have. I even thought for a time that God, instead of being able to do more than I could ask, didn’t even care about my requests.

Then I began to grow up. From His Word, I saw that He never changes - but He wanted me to change. He is all-powerful; there is nothing too hard for Him; nothing o no one can stop whatever he determines to do - but there were many things I couldn’t do. Now that I belonged to Him, He could and did stop me, especially when I tried to thwart His purposes in childish rebellion. Like pushing on a mountain, I couldn’t budge Him an inch.

The Bible also says that God knows everything - the number of hairs on my head, my every move, my thoughts and my words before I even say them, and all my needs. The palmist says, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me!” I agree, and now I see that his knowledge is part of what it is that enables Him to do abundantly above what I ask or think.

God wasn’t about to reward my selfish view of Him as an indulgent Father. He didn’t say “no” to my grand schemes because He wasn’t able to fulfill them, nor had He changed His style since the bible was written. He can still do whatever He likes. It was just that he knows what I don’t know. So often what I requested was simply not good for me.

I learned that “doing abundantly above all that I ask or think” means more than bigger and better answers to my small prayers. God doesn’t simply add on to my ideas and expand them. Instead, He gives the very best answers. His responses promote inner peace, lasting joy, Christ-likeness, and my greatest eternal good. My childish ideas would not do those things.

I also had to learn that His answers bring Him glory. They are not designed primarily to give me temporary personal pleasure but to reveal His nature and to draw me to Him in praise and worship. My childish ideas may have brought me some glory, but not the Lord.

As I grew, the Lord did not change. Instead, He has altered my perspective and motivation. I will never be able to do what he can do, but my prayers are different from they used to be. Besides, His ideas work “abundantly above all I can ask or think” anyway.

Aging? ........................... Parables 106

While celebrating our oldest son's 25th birthday, we wound up in the school playground in Red Deer where his wife played during grade one. We slid down the slides, bounced each other up and down on the teeter‑totter, gave one another under‑ducks on the swings and did gymnastics on the playground equipment. At one point I decided to see if I could still do chin‑ups and discovered to my dismay that my arms are no longer strong enough to pull myself up to the bar.

Later on, my husband (the only one in the group that comes close to sharing such symptoms of growing old) and I discussed how we felt about such discoveries. It would be nice to be young and strong forever, but unfortunately, if I ever want to do chin‑ups again, it will not happen all by itself. Not that chin‑ups are all that important to me, but any reader over 40 will understand what it feels like to suddenly realize that the body is not what it used to be ‑ and never be that again, unless of course we go for an extensive program of exercise, weight lifting, and so on.

Is it worth it? The Word of God says, "Bodily exercise profits for a little while..." (1 Timothy 1:8). How long? Maybe a lifetime of vigor and good health? That would be profit, yet the clock is never turned back and eventually this temporary dwelling place gets worn out, wrinkled, and quits. The only people who say they look forward to it have not yet felt the stiffness and heard the creaks that herald its oncoming!

Paul wrote to the Corinthians about the universal reality of aging. He had preached the gospel and was persecuted to the point of extreme distress and even loss of life (2 Corinthians 4:8). But he said he was not distressed or in despair. He realized that death was not avoidable, that our "outward man" will indeed perish, but he saw beyond this life.

Paul's message was not a gloomy one. He had a hope that erased the fears and concerns of life ending too soon and of life withering with age. He knew that as his feeble human life faded, the inner life that he had through faith in Jesus Christ was being renewed day by day. In fact, that inner life would never grow old and die ‑ because it is eternal.

He proclaimed, "We also believe, and therefore we speak; we know that He which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up also by Jesus.." Paul was confident that death is not the end. Jesus' resurrection proved it.

He went on, "Therefore we do not lose heart; though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen (including the wrinkles and feebleness), but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." With that, Paul encouraged an eternal perspective.

No one escapes the aging process (unless they die young) but faith in Jesus Christ brings assurance of knowing there is more. "Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house not built by human hands..." Paul, with all believers, looked forward with indescribable yearning to an eternal dwelling place.

Bodily exercise may "profit for a little time" so I am going to continue long walks, swimming and cycling, but I agree with Paul; "Godliness has value for all things, holding promise both for the present life and the life to come..." Therefore, the priority is direct towards the eternal ‑ with enough moderate exercise to produce the strength and energy needed to do other things, things that, by His grace, will last forever.