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Children are trusting

Mark Gyde — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 01:00:38 +0000

To children everything seems to turn up on demand. Their parents often seem to be able to discern their needs and provide everything at exactly the right time.

Young children particularly have a simple, yet profound, level of trust. We lose this quality as we grow older and become more aware of the need to question and be suspicious of others’ motives.

Psalm 22:9 reminds us that God made us with this simple childlike trust. As a child trusts in his parents, so God wants us to trust in him for all our needs. He, as the perfect Father, can supply everything we need, when we need it. He is completely consistent and completely trustworthy.

A childlike heart

Mark Gyde — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 01:00:04 +0000

Jesus is full of surprises! He taught with gentleness and compassion. He spoke about a new kingdom of love rather than one of aggression and force. He spent time with the marginalised and the poor rather than with leaders or those with power and influence.

At the end of one of his teachings he gives us a vital clue about how we can enter this new kingdom. We have to change, humble ourselves and become as little children (Matthew 18:3-4). This must have shocked Jesus’ listeners! How liberating! No longer are there endless requirements of “do’s” and “don’ts”; no longer are there impossible regulations to be fulfilled. All we need to do is to come like little children.

Inheritance, freedom and identity

Mark Gyde — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 01:00:20 +0000

As sons and daughters we receive an inheritance from Father. All that is his becomes ours. We no longer need to strive for possessions or position. We no longer have to ‘work our socks off’ for something to hold on to. An inheritance is given freely to us through Jesus and all that was his (by right) he gives to us through grace.

When Jesus was in the temple announcing his ministry, he declared that he had come to set the captives free. He sets us free from the yoke of slavery (whether it’s addiction, lust, performance, people-pleasing, fear, pride, or religious duty) and leads us into a wonderful easy yoke of relationship. Jesus waves a banner for freedom and declares that the children of God shall be free!

The most important thing to Jesus was not his function or duty but this relationship. He was a true son. That relationship is ours to enjoy as well. We are sons and daughters of the Father and can enjoy the same relationship with God that Jesus enjoyed. This is not an add-on or optional extra. It was what we were made for.

Our heart of sonship

Mark Gyde — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 01:00:07 +0000

Jesus shows us the tremendous difference between being a son of someone and being a son to someone. We are all somebody’s son or daughter. You may not know or live with your natural father but nonetheless you are his child (whether you like it or not). Being someone’s son or daughter is a natural fact we cannot get away from. Being a son to someone is an entirely different matter, as this is something that we have the power to change. It is a choice we make and once made it can influence our lives in very significant ways.

The heart of sonship opens the door to three wonderful things which a slave or orphan never receives - inheritance, freedom and identity.

The heart of a son

Mark Gyde — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 01:00:58 +0000

There is an amazing passage in Luke 2 when the twelve year old Jesus stays in the temple at the end of the Passover feast to talk to the teachers and leaders. When Joseph and Mary eventually find him he says: “How is it that you had to look for me? Did you not see and know that it is necessary for me to be in my Father’s house and about my Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49-51 AMP). To Jesus, it was the most natural thing to be in his Father’s house doing what his Father was doing. Mary and Joseph could not understand this, and despite his desire to start his Heavenly Father’s business, Jesus submitted to his earthly parents, returned to Nazareth and went back to work in the carpenter’s shop. He served them faithfully for another eighteen years until he started what we call his ministry.