Last week Steve, Brad, and I had the opportunity to take a Pastor's College class taught by CJ Mahaney, president of Sovereign Grace Ministries. The topic was pastoral ministry, but during the course of the discussion the doctrine of adoption came up, and I wanted to pass along one of the quotes.
In his book, Communion with the Triune God, Puritan pastor John Owen wrote an encouragement to Christians to commune with God the Father in His love for His children - in other words, an encouragement for us to fully enjoy the reality in our relationship with God that He does indeed love us. Here's the quote:
"It is exceeding acceptable unto God, even our Father, that we should thus hold communion with Him in His love - that He may be received into our souls as one full of love, tenderness, and kindness, towards us. Flesh and blood is apt to have very hard thoughts of Him,-to think He is always angry, yea, implacable [i.e., cruel or hard to please]; that it is not for poor creatures to draw nigh to him...Now, there is not any thing more grievous to the Lord, nor more subservient [i.e. helpful] to the design of Satan upon the soul, than such thoughts as these...
"How unwilling is a child to come into the presence of an angry father! Consider, then, this in the first place-receiving of the Father as he holds out love to the soul, gives Him the honor he aims at, and is exceeding acceptable unto him...Men are afraid to have good thoughts of God. They think it a boldness to eye God as good, gracious, tender, kind, loving...Assure yourself, then, there is nothing more acceptable unto the Father, than for us to keep up our hearts unto Him as the eternal fountain of all that rich grace which flows out to sinners in the blood of Jesus." *
What would characterize the way you think about God during the course of a day? Or, more specifically, this day? Hard thoughts about Him, thoughts that view Him as dissatisfied with you, angry with you, or just uncaring about you? Or good thoughts, biblical thoughts like, "As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on me today!" (Psalm 103:11), or "Like a bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so does God rejoice over me!" (Isaiah 62:5)? Sin and Satan tempt all of us - yes, even pastors-in-training! - to have hard thoughts about our Heavenly Father. But that doesn't mean they are accurate and true thoughts about Him! If hard thoughts of your Heavenly Father have kept you from enjoying His love or entering His presence, I would encourage you to spend some time in passages like the ones quoted, or Romans 8:31-39, Galatians 4:1-7, or Ephesians 2:1-10. May we be a church full of people who "eye God as good, gracious, tender, kind, loving" - towards us!
- John Owen, Communion with the Triune God (Crossway Books, 2007), p. 127-128.
