He Rescues in Delight

Yesterday my girlfriend Heather asked me a very simple question: "What's the first thing you think of when you think of God?"

Without the slightest hesitation I answered: "An angry father."

My response came to mind and rolled out of my mouth so quickly that it even caught me off guard. An angry father? What on earth was going on in my heart to cause me to associate God with an angry father?

I couldn't stop thinking about it all that evening and all day today, and the more that I gave it thought the more I realized how true it was in my own mind. I really do view God as an angry father who is horribly disappointed in me as a son and who must therefore be convinced that I am somehow worth loving.

This wrong view of God causes me to behave in one of two ways:

1. Hiding from him in fear

2. Doing things (or not doing things) that I think will earn me good standing (righteousness) with him

God, the "angry father", therefore becomes someone who is to be feared for his discipline and hidden from whenever possible - and when hiding is not an option, it is best to attempt to bribe yourself into his good graces through works.

As a result, my life reflects:

1. A great deal of fear and anxiety about the future, because every decision I make could lead to my undoing with an angry God.

2. A lack of trust in God and what He has promised, which fuels point #1.

3. Total paralysis at any decision point or fork in the road of life out of fear from points #2 and #3.

4. A lack of obedience out of love and instead obedience out of fear - if obedience at all.

5. A lack of grace for those around me who, just like me, are sinners needing to be shown mercy.

6. A lack of a desire to spend time with or talk to God in prayer or Bible reading

What a sickening, horrible way to live! And what a horrible God that would be if it were true of him! Yet this is the default mode of my heart.

Tonight in my Bible reading time I was in Psalm 18, which David wrote as a psalm of gratitude to God for rescuing him from the hand of Saul. Verse 19 was like a bucket of cold water in the face:

"... he rescued me because he delights in me."

I stared at it for what must have been a good 30 seconds. He delights in me? He rescues me because he delights in me?

The Holy Spirit, seeing his opportunity, was there in an instant, feverishly whispering to my heart. Yes! Don't you see? He loves you! Why are you wasting all this energy trying to make him happy? You already have his love!

And then, the way a wave breaks and crashes onto the beachhead, relief came rushing in. It was as though the world was taken off my shoulders.

Relief from the lie that I have to do something to make my Father God love me.

Relief from the burden of guilt for the things that I have done and will do in the future.

Relief from the paralyzing fear of the future and the weight of risk in my decisions.

The whole Bible is a letter from a Father who rescues His wayward children because of His great mercy and delight in them.

Scripture corrects the "angry father" paradigm of God:

"My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights."

-Proverbs 3:11-12

"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

-Romans 6:23

"I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake."

-1 John 2:12

"See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God!"

-1 John 3:1

Our life, therefore, is to be lived primarily as a response to what He has done - a response to His daring, selfless rescue and the love that He pours out on us - not a scorecard that earns us our righteousness in His eyes.

Tonight I'm experiencing freedom from lies, burdens, and fears in repentance of a false view of God.

So. Ask yourself: What's the first thing you think of when you think of God? Then ask: Who does the Bible say God is?