JOURNEY TO THE FATHER

Journey to the Father

By Bob Mumford www.lifechangers.org


I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
Jesus’ job description is to lead us into an intimate love relationship with God. At the same time, God, the Father, is reaching for us through His Son–Jesus Christ. Ponder for a moment an inconceivable thought–God, Himself, passionately desires an intimate relationship with each of us! The path that leads to an open connection with God is called the Agape Road. It is a path of Love He laid out to bring us to Himself, one that Jesus pioneered during His earthly life. He invites us to journey this path to knowing and loving God as Father, but the choice is ours. It is important to understand that heaven is not the goal.
If you are a Christian and you die, you have to go to heaven, there is no place else to go! The goal is knowing the Father Himself!
When we choose to follow Jesus and we give our hearts to Him, we do experience some intimacy with God. However, it is often sporadic and inconsistent. Let me illustrate this from my own life. I was sitting on my back porch when I heard God clearly say to me, I want you to love Me with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and I want you to love others. This will require spontaneity and risk.
The more I thought about God asking me to love others, the more I felt resentment, discomfort, and anger. I felt it was unfair for God to ask me to do what I could not do and, really, did not even want to do! I believed I might be able to love God—but not His kids! I was simply too immature to know how to receive or give love on God’s terms.
Without realizing it, I was initially attracted to God as Father because I wanted to use Him for my own comfort and success. Essentially, I wanted Him to do what I wanted, not have a free hand to do what He wanted with me. When you think about this, it summarizes most people’s initial experience with God. As I began to realize how much of my prayer life was centered on getting things from God, I was devastated. I found that I did not even know how to pray without attempting to control God. When my prayer life crashed, I took a pendulum swing to the other extreme and became afraid that if I really loved God and opened to Him, He would send me to some forgotten backwater to rot. In an effort to please Him, I basically lied to Him—I vowed, committed, and promised what I knew I could not give Him—my whole heart. Like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, I ran, hid, and shifted blame—the essence of sin. Eventually, discouragement made me feel like Peter who said to the Lord, “Depart from me for I am a sinful man.” But, Jesus was faithful to take me up the Agape Road where I found the grace to say, “Abide with me for I am sinful man.”
When God tells us to love, the ability to give and receive love begins to grow. As we discover our real motives and attitudes and come to terms with the “real” us, Jesus will begin to walk us up the Agape Road toward genuine Love.
QUESTIONS & THOUGHTS
• In what ways has your intimacy with God been sporadic or interrupted?
• How do you feel about developing an intimate relationship with God?
• In what ways are your prayers aimed at getting God to do what you want?