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THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – STOP FUSSING

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STOP FUSSING

“’Has anyone by fussing before the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? If fussing can’t even do that, why fuss at all? Walk into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They don’t fuss with their appearance – but have you ever seen colour and design quite like it? The ten best dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them. If God gave such attention to wildflowers, most of them never ever seen, don’t you think He’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do His best for you?’” Luke 12:25-28.

Once again it’s all about God being our Father. But here’s the real issue. God once asked Jeremiah, ‘Why are you so suspicious of me?’ I’m afraid that this is often the case with us as well. We worry and fuss about ‘things’ because we aren’t convinced that God really means what He says. When bills and needs stare us in the face, we retreat into worry mode because we can’t physically see and hear God. Our faith evaporates in the face of everyday demands and we slip back into our old ‘orphan’ mentality.

But there is something much bigger at stake than what is on the surface. If a child is abused or neglected, it always reflects back on the parents. What really caring father would allow his child to dress in rags or go hungry while stuffing himself with food? Jesus’ argument was, ‘If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!’ Matthew 7:7 (NIV). It’s the father’s reputation that suffers if his children are neglected.

God is far more concerned than earthly fathers about the needs of His children because, in the end, it’s His glory that is at stake. He is the model of perfect fatherhood and He keeps revealing Himself as the model. Why would He ruin His own reputation and betray our trust if He is concerned about His glory?

Jesus called attention to wildflowers as an example of the extravagant beauty of transient creation. As temporary as they are, they are there to reflect God’s glory. When God faithfully meets the needs of His children, He is being who He is, He cannot deny Himself. His promises are a reflection of who He is. He reveals Himself to us as He honours His word so that we can reflect His glory back to Him.

What is the missing element, then? It is our confidence in His faithfulness. Why are we so suspicious of God? Our trust in God as our Father is tainted by our experience of our own fathers. We might have had an abusive father, a harsh father, a cold father, or an absent father and we interpret God through the grid of our own experience. Even a good father falls short of perfection.

There are at least two steps we must take to help us adjust our perception of God as our Father. Firstly, we must acknowledge that our fathers are as imperfect as we are. They have issues just as we have and, therefore, we have no right to judge them. Secondly, we must forgive the unpayable debt they owe us, and set them free from their guilt, just as God has forgiven us and released us from ours. Now we are free to embrace God as our perfect Father without the grid of our father’s failure. God will then be ‘Abba’ in our hearts and not only in our heads.

What’s The Key?

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WHAT’S THE KEY?

 “‘My food,’ said Jesus, ‘is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work.

“‘Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest?’ I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.’

“‘Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying, ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work and you have reaped the benefits of their labour.'” John 4:34-38 (NIV).

Jesus had just had an astonishing encounter with a Samaritan woman who had been married and divorced five times and was now shacked up with a sixth man to whom she was not even married. That says something about the woman, doesn’t it? There could not have been a worse candidate for a response to Him! At least that’s how we would have judged her.

But Jesus never viewed any person as too far gone. Underneath her hard exterior was what He saw – potential. One just had to know where to find the weak spot to gain access to the heart. This woman’s weak spot was her longing to be loved. She tried five times and five times it didn’t work because she was being used, not loved.

Perhaps marriage wasn’t even an option any more. Just shack up and, if it didn’t work, move on and keep searching. But the problem was that the only ones who wanted a soiled garment were those who were soiled as well. By this time she was so hardened that she expected to be used and abused because she was worth nothing more than that in her own eyes.

To be treated with respect by a Jewish man brought her up short and got her attention, and we know the outcome. Jesus broke down her wall and touched her heart. When the disciples returned and saw Him in conversation with her, unheard of for Jewish man, they could not fathom what was going on. They saw her joy when she abandoned her water jar and rushed back to town and their eyebrows went up!

Jesus had to straighten out their thinking once again. Using imagery with which they were familiar, He challenged them. ‘You guys are thinking, ‘It’s too soon to start harvesting these Samaritans for the kingdom of God. They aren’t ready for it yet. Sometime in the future we’ll preach to them.’ This woman’s response is proof that it’s time for the harvest right now.’

‘I have harvested this woman in a very short time, but there’s a huge harvest out there waiting to be reaped and I can’t do it alone. We have to work together. It’s not important who does the planting and who does the reaping. It’s team work and both sower and reaper get the wages for doing the job.’

What was Jesus getting at? Was He saying that it was not important who did the work but rather that it was important to get the work done. Those who worked together to sow and reap were guaranteed their share of the profits. There were many who had already done the sowing. How else did this half-breed woman know that Messiah was coming? She may not have had it all straight but she was not entirely ignorant of God’s Word

In the natural world there is a time lapse between sowing and reaping but, in the lives of human beings the time for harvesting is always now. Like Jesus and the woman, it’s a case of finding the soft spot. Why did she have this emptiness in her soul which she tried to fill with human love only to be disappointed again and again?

Although she did not know it, she had a craving for a father’s love. We know nothing about her father, and she knew nothing about the perfect Father. He was the key to unlock her heart. Jesus was the mirror of the Father to her. When He introduced her to the Father, everything fell into place!

It is only the Father’s love that can fill your empty heart.