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- Apr 25, 2006
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First Steps
'Be transformed by the renewing of your mind' Romans 12:2
Imagine a one-year-old child is trying to take his first footsteps. He feels for his balance, steadies his arms, places one foot in front of the other and then crashes down on his nappy.
Now imagine his dad rushes straight over, steam hissing out of his ears, and barks in his face, 'Pathetic! That's the second time you've failed this morning! Will you ever learn? It's easy - just place one foot in front of the other. Oh, and another thing; stop pooping in your pants. It's so immature!' There's something wrong with the picture, isn't there? Any father worth his weight in Pampers wouldn't dismiss a learning child so flippantly.
Well, perhaps some of us need to repaint our mental picture of God as our loving Father. Some of us get so frustrated when we fall on our spiritual backsides; we think God is steaming at the ears with us. We convince ourselves that God must've lost patience with us by now.
We believe that we've somehow made ourselves unlovable and that God is either blanking us, or at the very least, just humouring us. Your heavenly dad isn't fuming that you've fell over; He's proud that you tried a few steps.
So rather than fixing your eyes on everything that you can't do, everything you can't seem to change, 'Instead fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out' (Rom. 12:2 TM).
written by Bob Gass
'Be transformed by the renewing of your mind' Romans 12:2
Imagine a one-year-old child is trying to take his first footsteps. He feels for his balance, steadies his arms, places one foot in front of the other and then crashes down on his nappy.
Now imagine his dad rushes straight over, steam hissing out of his ears, and barks in his face, 'Pathetic! That's the second time you've failed this morning! Will you ever learn? It's easy - just place one foot in front of the other. Oh, and another thing; stop pooping in your pants. It's so immature!' There's something wrong with the picture, isn't there? Any father worth his weight in Pampers wouldn't dismiss a learning child so flippantly.
Well, perhaps some of us need to repaint our mental picture of God as our loving Father. Some of us get so frustrated when we fall on our spiritual backsides; we think God is steaming at the ears with us. We convince ourselves that God must've lost patience with us by now.
We believe that we've somehow made ourselves unlovable and that God is either blanking us, or at the very least, just humouring us. Your heavenly dad isn't fuming that you've fell over; He's proud that you tried a few steps.
So rather than fixing your eyes on everything that you can't do, everything you can't seem to change, 'Instead fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out' (Rom. 12:2 TM).
written by Bob Gass
