Is anyone out there listening to me? (Part 1)

I believe a recurring analogy in the Bible is a father reaching out and longing for a relationship with his children. In the beginning, God the Father created Adam and Eve for the purpose of enjoying a relationship with them. That oneness of relationship was lost when they listened to the first spiritual orphan, Satan, who sowed seeds of doubting God. The Father’s loving and generous character was called into question, and the children chose to turn their hearts away from Him, and leave His house. Although their disobedience broke the Father’s heart, it wasn’t the end. Instead, His relentless pursuit of adoption and redemption began. Thus, we find at the end of the Old Testament His promise to “…turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers…” (Malachi 4:6). Genuine parenting is rooted in the sharing of hearts - relationship. Although that was His original desire, it was not reciprocated. His children stopped listening, so the Father stopped talking, and the period between Malachi and Matthew marked 400 years of God the Father’s silence. 

I’ve been relating more and more with God on this level. The pain and grief of His heart has gripped me on many occasions. Especially when I find out my spiritual children have been committing sexual immorality. I’ve done everything I can to guide them towards the truth of their value, others’ value and God’s value. I preached messages, wrote a book which included chapters such as “The Preciousness of Purity” to help them understand what God says in His Word about this area. Hours have been spent in prayer asking God to open their eyes to see how worthy He is of all their spirit, soul and bodies. I have spent countless hours weeping for, talking to, listening to their hearts, and still choices are made not to listen to the voice of Truth, but rather to the lusts of the flesh. It seems the god of this world has deceived the children of God as much his own? I had started watching a TV series that I found very interesting and engaging. It started out very innocent, but with each successive episode and series, it became more and more suggestive. What shocked me as I watched the final episode was the 17 year-old daughter of the main character telling him that the reason she dumped her boyfriend was because, “He doesn’t believe in sex before marriage.” The father chuckled as if to say, “Who in the 21^st century doesn’t have sex before marriage?” Not having it has become the abnormal now both in non-Christian, and sadly, in Christian settings. 

So I’m identifying with the cry of the Father’s heart, “Is anyone out there listening to me?” We have His Word, and His heart and ways expressed in it regarding everything that pertains to life and godliness. After those 400 years of silence, the appropriate time came for the Father to speak—speak He did! It was not like in the beginning, with the powerful declaration of, “Let there be light.” Rather, He chose to break the long silence in the most quiet, unobtrusive way. His voice became the innocent cries of an infant born to a young, unassuming couple. The message that rang out from a messy manger would demonstrate to the world the Father’s relentless pursuit of His children. We were in a mess and He was the message. This time, He would share His heart, by coming in the flesh through Jesus Christ. Throughout Jesus’ earthly ministry, He would

continually make reference to the truth that He and His Father are one, and if they had seen Him, they had seen the Father. That cry, for the return of His children’s hearts, was heard once again, as Jesus wept over Jerusalem. With deep compassion, He compared Himself to a mother hen longing to gather her brood under her wings. I’m wondering what it’s going to take for us to finally tune into the questions God is asking, and answer them with lives bent on unadulterated love and devotion?