Representing God Well

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12 But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.” Numbers 20:12 (NIV)

 Many of us know the story of Moses when Israelites asked for water for the second time and Moses was so angry with them because of their constant murmuring. The second time they asked for water, God asked Moses to SPEAK to the rock. However, in verse 9 it says: 

 9 So Moses took the staff from the Lord’s presence, just as he commanded him. 10 He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” 11 Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.

It looked like the problem was solved with the result water was coming out from the rock from whichever ways Moses used. To struck or to speak, why a big fuss? We must be wondering why our God is so strict with the method Moses had to use? Why did God have to punish Moses by not allowing him to enter the Promise Land just because of a “small matter”?

 The answer is that Moses failed to represent God well in the eyes of Israelites. God was being loving and kind to His people. He wanted Moses to show His loving character to them. However, Moses was so angry with His people because of their ungrateful behaviour towards God and He scolded Israelites as if God was angry with them. I am sure most of you already know this.

 However even though I already know about this story since a long time ago, I still sometimes fail to represent God to others until one day God allowed me to learn this important lesson that I would like to share with you.

 When Faith was a little girl, I had a hard time feeding her. She was a fussy eater. If she didn’t like her food, she didn’t want to eat it. I am not a very patient mum who is willing to wait for hours for my child to finish her food. Many times when I lost my patience, I always used the name of Jesus to threaten my child when she didn’t listen to me. I would simply say Jesus is angry if you don’t finish your food. Even though Rical has reminded me that I shouldn’t misrepresent God to our kids, but I didn’t listen because I wanted her to quickly finish her food.

 I kept doing it for sometimes until one day when she was 4 years old something happened. It was in the evening when she was about to sleep. She was in our bedroom and suddenly she cried hysterically for no reason. I was puzzled why she was not settled, and she kept crying. I asked her what happened. She said Jesus was angry at her. I asked her again how she knew that Jesus was angry at her. She pointed at the corner of our room and said, “There, he was standing and looking very angry.” I was shocked to hear that. That was the very first time I heard this kind of thing. I straight away called Rical and told him about what she said to me. He then asked Faith if "that man" was still there, and Faith said yes. Calmly Rical asked Faith to repeat after him, “you go away In Jesus Name!”. Faith did what she was told to do for a couple of times. After that Rical asked her if the person had gone? She said yes and she was calm. 

 That moment I realized that it was my mistake I used the name of Jesus inappropriately and I didn’t represent God correctly to my child. That night I asked for forgiveness from God and since then I never threaten my kids with the name of Jesus.

 My children need to know that our God is loving and He is full of mercy and grace. They need to grow up knowing that God is always on their side and they shouldn’t be afraid to come to God at any time. This is one of the biggest mistakes I have ever done to my children. The devil can steal this truth and destroy the relationship between our children and their heavenly Father. 

 In our relationship with friends, families, and with anyone, make sure we represent God well to them especially to those who are not strong in their faith or who have not known Christ yet. If they know this truth, it will bring a breakthrough in their journey with Christ. 

 Thank you for reading my blog and I hope we all can be good ambassadors for Christ.

 


Comments

  1. Pit Djan9 February 2022 at 15:55

    Indeed, what our children hear and see has a very big impact beyond what we expected.

    ReplyDelete

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