I discovered some patterns after working with the teenage ministry for some time: many kids complain that their parents don't get them and forbid them from doing various things. However, the parents may be saying no to protect their children from getting hurt.
Many puzzled teens came to me complaining their unhappy life in a home without freedom or democracy.
Clearly, their parents love them very much, so why do they still have such misunderstandings? Then I realized it is the difference in their ways of thinking and perspectives that caused parental conflicts or any other interpersonal problems. Is our relationship with God caused by the same kind of misunderstanding?
It is undeniable that our Heavenly Father knows us very well.
"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." (Psalms 139: 13-16)
Jesus knew Peter, so He told him in advance "Truly I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times." (Matthew 26:34)
He also knew how Thomas felt, so He specifically appeared to him.
Our Heavenly Father knows everyone that He's chosen, including you and me.
God's children often fail to understand His will. Despite His good intention for us, we still have no clue. It is because we think differently. People do things to satisfy their flesh, while God has an eternal plan.
Our ideas are often associated with our body. We put our benefits as the priority and twist the Word of God subjectively to satisfy our own needs. We take in everything that suits our taste and logic and reject things that don't. Although this is wrong, there are many Christians like this. They attend services and sing hymns but are not worshipping and praising God or living to glorify Him, but use these as means to gain satisfaction.
Moreover, the secular ideas are messing with Christians' lives.
A lot of Christians share the same principles and ideas as non-believers. However, when they apply them to spiritual matters, they find it hard to understand God's will or please Him.
The world influences Christians today unceasingly and many of them are assimilated. Though they still follow God on the outside, they've lost the exceeding testimony and power deep down.
We don't belong to this world in the first place, so what's the point of gaining understanding from the world? Should we give up our faith to please others? Of course not!
"The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him." (John 3:1)
If problems between a Christian and God spring up, it must be our incomprehension of the word of God. Our Heavenly Father is full of wisdom and glory while our thinking is slow and immature. We have too many incompatible ideas with the Bible and this causes us to stumble following God.
-Translated by Grace Hubl
