Friday 20th April 2007

Proverb: In all your ways acknowledge Him
Jesus saying: I only do what I see my Father in heaven doing

Proverb: He will make your paths straight
Jesus saying: I (God) will build my church

Jesus was teaching us the leadership model "My Job vs. God's Job!" If we stop playing God's job, ie building, filling & path straightening, and allow Him to do it, whilst we acknowledge God, then perhaps the building, filling & path straightening will take place at a lot quicker & relatively stress free pace.

Your Job!

Your job according to proverbs 3 and Jesus teaching is simply to, "Acknowledge God!"

There are many different ways that we acknowledge each other. Phrases like; "Alright? Hiya, Ey up (Yorkshire) are a few of the verbal expressions, whilst; guys nodding & girls hugging are some of the physical expressions of acknowledgement. Your acknowledgement of God needs to take place on a much deeper level. The statement, "...in all your ways acknowledge Him" is in fact a summary of how to acknowledge God, the previous five verses outline how to "acknowledge Him." In principle there are four ways to do this.

1. Behave like a son

Proverbs 3:1a reads; "My son."
To be a son and to act like a son are two very different things. I am the son of a man called Bryn Barrett. But unless I take on some of my dad's characteristics & attributes, I have the name son but not the character of the son. God wants us to be more than Children in name, ie Christian, but he also wants us to be children in nature, ie carry the characteristics & finite attributes of Jesus.

Every mother at some time or another has said to the father, "that's your son, you deal with him!" What was mum really saying by that? (What my son just did was an embarrassment & he did not get it from me. He must have picked it up from you, so you deal with it!") I remain convinced that at times God watches our actions & thinks to himself, "What he just did, he didn't learn it from me".

My mother and Father come from the valleys of South Wales. They left Wales about 40 years ago to follow the call of God for their lives into ministry. About 4 years ago, I was walking down the main road of the little village that my parents come from, when a lady in her sixties ran up to me and declared, "you must be Beryl Rogers son!" Rogers was my mother's maiden name. She hadn't seen my mother for decades & yet something about my nature, perhaps characteristics of the way I walked showed me for who I was - The son of Beryl!

When people in your church & more importantly your community watch you, are there enough characteristics about you that show you up for who you really are? A Child of God.
How do you acknowledge God? By behaving like His son/daughter. By taking on his; priorities, characteristics, nature & by living to honour Him!

2. Follow His advice!

Proverbs 3:1 says, "...do not forget my teaching."This suggests three things: