God Wants You Close
Right now, my family is at a stage when our youngest son has so much confidence in my love for him that if he finds me sitting on the couch, he will, with a running start, leap onto me and expect to be welcomed onto my lap with open arms. He will jump onto me, uninvited, and fully expect to be embraced and delighted in. Sometimes I don’t even see him coming. He has faith that my love for him is so secure that he doesn’t need to ask. He trusts that I’ll catch him. He trusts that I want him close. He trusts that he’s safe with me. He assumes he is wanted. And he is not wrong. In fact, my love for him is so sincere and so substantial and so steadfast that I can’t imagine there will ever be a day when I wouldn’t delight to embrace him and protect him. When he comes close to me now, we cling to each other, not out of fear but out of genuine love. We delight to be by each other.
The remedy for so many of our struggles as parents is found in having faith that we can jump into the arms of God and be welcomed and protected. We can cling to God out of genuine love for one another, God for us and us for God. Assuming we are wanted by God changes our entire outlook on life. If I, an imperfect father, can so thoroughly delight in embracing and protecting my child, how much more sincere, substantial, and steadfast must the love of our perfect heavenly Father be for us?
Jesus prays for you in John 17, and in that prayer, we glimpse his description of the Father’s love. In John 17:23, Jesus prays to the Father, “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, . . . that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” What if you genuinely believed that God the Father feels about you the way he feels about Jesus Christ? How welcome are you in his presence? How cherished are you?
This book provides parents with a gospel-centered perspective to navigate the challenges of parenting. With this hope, they can embrace their role with peace and confidence, trusting that Jesus is renewing both them and their children day by day.
There is relief for every struggle found in knowing and believing that we are safe with God and that God wants us close. Jesus says, “Come to me,” and what the Lord says, he means (Matt. 11:28). He will catch us. He embraces us with compassion like a loving father (Luke 15). He comforts us. As we have faith that God delights in us, we, like sheep with a good shepherd, will not be in want (Ps. 23).
Restoration After Mistakes
He can even cultivate our trust in his love and restore us after our mistakes. Just look at Peter in Luke 5 and John 21. Soon after Peter first meets Jesus, he sees Jesus make the first miraculous catch of fish. After witnessing the power of Christ, Peter drops to his knees and tells Jesus to get away from him. He wants Jesus to go away because he sees himself as a very sinful man and therefore assumes he will be unwanted. This is the voice of shame. Humans crumble under the weight of their inabilities and transgressions. They want to hide.
But Jesus does not oblige Peter’s request. He does not go away. He actually tells Peter to let go of his fears. Then they spend the next three years in close proximity to one another, and after three years of developing this relationship, Peter reacts quite differently when he sees Jesus perform a similar miracle a second time.
This event occurs soon after Peter makes his most notorious mistake—publicly denying Jesus multiple times not long after swearing he would never abandon Jesus. Yet even after this significant misstep, Jesus reveals himself to the disciples after his crucifixion by helping them catch fish, and Peter no longer wants Jesus to go away. Peter has changed. His fear is gone. He trusts the love of Jesus for him now, even considering his own sin.
Peter can’t wait to be close to Jesus. Since he is in the boat with the miraculous catch and Jesus is on the shore a hundred yards away, he dives into the water to get to Jesus as soon as possible. Peter is no less sinful than when he and Jesus first met, but even in his sin, he now assumes that he is wanted and welcomed by God. He trusts Jesus. He has faith that he will be comforted and secure with Christ. Peter is not wrong. Jesus does not condemn and reject Peter when he comes to him. Jesus restores him. They walk with each other, and that bears fruit in Peter’s life.
When we walk with God, Paul tells us, it will produce certain outcomes in our lives. In Galatians 5, Paul describes this as “fruit.” He lists the results of walking with God as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. It’s this fruit that is such a relief to the heart of a Christian parent.
If I, an imperfect father, can so thoroughly delight in embracing and protecting my child, how much more sincere, substantial, and steadfast must the love of our perfect heavenly Father be for us?
Such fruit, says Paul, attests to our freedom in Christ as well. Freedom is one of Christianity’s most basic and beautiful doctrines. Christians are freed from serving sin as master so that they can follow a better master. In Galatians 5:1, Paul says, “For freedom Christ has set us free.” In John 8:31–32, Jesus states, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” And just a few verses later, he says, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36).
By grace through faith, Christians get released from the consequences of their sin. The sacrifice of Christ has satisfied every one of our debts. We are freed from the penalty of breaking God’s law, and we are set free from the evil that would ravage us if we didn’t live according to God’s limits with God as our Master. We are free from trying to earn our righteousness. Now we can serve God and each other, free of the fear of condemnation for our imperfections and trusting in the goodness of his commands.
Freed from Despair
While Christians are not freed from facing trouble, we are freed from hopelessness and despair. Jesus says that even in tribulation we can “take heart” because he has already overcome the world (John 16:33). That same Peter who races to see Christ after his worst public mistakes reminds us that we can cast all our burdens on God. As a Christian parent, you get to cast “all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you” (1 Pet. 5:7). Did you hear that? All your anxieties. All your burdens. All your worries. Because he cares for you, everything that weighs you down can be cast from you to him.
In this passage, Peter is quoting Psalm 55:22, “Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you.” The Hebrew word for “cast” here is shalak. It means to throw, hurl, or chuck something. It’s a great word. Imagine getting to ball up all your anxiety, bitterness, exhaustion, frustration, shame, and stress into a massive ugly ball of weighty negativity and then getting to shalak it! Chuck it all off a cliff. You can take the burdens and pressures that are weighing on you and hurl them down. When you don’t feel strong enough to even lift them, you have permission just to drop them. You are invited to fling your burdens at the feet of God. Your God wants to unburden you. Instead of holding on to all that mess, you get to throw it off.
And that’s not all. Regarding all those struggles, you aren’t only unburdened but also offered a gift in exchange. If you cast off anxiety and cling to the Prince of Peace like a beloved child clings to his mother, you will receive peace in your life. If you chuck your bitterness and cling to the kindness of God, you will grow in kindness. If you hurl down all the undue stresses you feel and cling to the God who loves you, you will grow love in your heart. If you let go of all your inadequacy and cling to the goodness of God, you will become good yourself. What an exchange! Now that is serious freedom.
This article is adapted from Good News for Parents: How God Can Restore Our Joy and Relieve Our Burdens.
