God Views June 2000

by Dawn Sandquist

“Then Jesus prayed this prayer, ‘O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding the truth from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing it to the childlike. Yes Father, it pleased You to do it this way.’” Matthew 11: 25,26 (NLBT)

What an interesting prayer! There is so much to learn here. Jesus is showing us the way of humility and its benefits as well as showing us the way of pride and its results. He is also giving us a clue into what pleases Father.

First of all, I believe Jesus is showing us here, as well as in the Lord’s prayer and other prayers, that the position of the one praying to the One we are praying to, is important. Whenever He starts out He always acknowledges who God is – Lord of heaven and earth. He knows who God is and He knows who He is. This kind of positioning helps us in our prayers – it gives us proper perspective and helps alleviate anxiety or presumptuousness. He is Almighty God and we’re not! He has it all under His governing power and we don’t! He’s Dad and we’re His children and He cares: what security!

How we begin our prayer is also very important because it often sets the tone for how we relate to God throughout our prayer. Is He our servant or are we His? If we start out with our list of demands we just might begin thinking of Him as a genie who will magically give us our three wishes. When things don’t turn out the way we like then we can become upset and wonder where our “butler” is. Why didn’t He run to me when I called and why didn’t He do it like I wanted it done? Our view of Him can work against our faith unless we rightly position who He is and who we are right from the start!

After Jesus acknowledges who God is, He launches into thanksgiving. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 that we are to ‘give thanks in all things because it is the will of God for us in Christ Jesus.’ There are only a few places in Scripture where it clearly states that something is the will of God for us and thanksgiving is one of them. We aren’t told to thank God for horrible things that happen, but we are to thank Him that He is greater than sorrow or pain. He is a good Father and will always work life into good paths. He can and will ‘buy back’ or redeem hurtful situations because of His steadfast love. There is always great cause for thanksgiving and Jesus knew that in His life.

It’s interesting that Jesus thanks God for hiding the Truth from the proud. He shows us through this that it is God’s pleasure to reveal His secrets to the humble because He can trust them. Psalm 25: 9,14. The childlike are humble. The child-ish are foolish. There’s a difference. Children think their Daddy is the smartest and bravest person in the world! And a child trusts Daddy’s decisions! Our Father wants to reveal His will to trustworthy children because He trusts they will pray it into the earth!

All of this makes Father smile. It pleases Him when we see Him as our Father, when we are humble children, and when we thank Him. It pleases Him to lavish His truth, grace and plans on the childlike and to hide it all from the proud. When our God View is aligned like Jesus’ was, then great things will happen when we pray.