Some time ago I did some reading in John Eldredge’s Walking with God. Didn’t really want too. Had avoided buying the book several times from the discount book rack. But then someone who I barely knew handed the book to me and said “I thought you might enjoy reading this.” (Sigh)
(Click for book information)
Eldredge writes about God’s desire to communicate with us. I have to be very honest here. I feel uneasy about what God might want to say to me. Guess that means I don’t fully trust Him. Have a hard time believing that He wants to communicate anything beyond telling me how much better I need to do. (While of course reassuring me that the reason I need to do better is because of how much He loves and cares for me!)
Eldredge comments, “What would you think about a father if you asked him, ‘What have you been talking to your children about lately?’ and he said, ‘Nothing. I don’t talk to them. but I love them very much.’ Wouldn’t you say that relationship is missing something?”
During a recent Celebrate Recovery meeting, a man related having to call his dad from jail, after being arrested for DUI. (His dad just happened to be a leader of a Celebrate Recovery group!) The son feared his father’s reaction. But his father’s response was “tender and gentle”. I wrote those two words down on my note pad and found myself gazing at them later, with a familiar ache.
That’s when God spoke.
Not with an actual voice. But in my spirit He communicated: “Mark, look at the friends I’ve drawn around you. They are tender and gentle in the way they treat you. You trust them, even when they need to say hard things, because you know they care about you, and love you. Mark, that’s Me treating you with the tenderness and gentleness you long for.”
“The King will reply… “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” Matthew 25: 40 (NIV)
Leave a Reply