Reflections

A Bible- based Image of God.

The carry -over from an earthly to a Heavenly Father is seen quite clearly in Matt. 7:11. It calls us that a child can expect to see the virtues of his parents magnified in his Heavenly Father.

J.B. Phillips writes, the early concept of God is invariably founded upon the child's idea of his Father. If he is lucky enough to have a good father this is all to the good, providing of course that the concept of God grows with the rest of his personality. But if the child is afraid, or worse still afraid and feeling guilty because of his own father he is afraid, the chances are that his father in Heaven will appear to him a fearful Being. If a child had experience a good deal of negative feeling in his relationship with the earthly authority figures in his life, then he tends to carry this over into his concept of God later in adult life.

When a person becomes  a christian, although he has access to the true picture of God in the Bible, he retains to a certain extent attitudes and feelings drawn from the past which are difficult to break. The influence of twenty or more years do not just fall away. God doesn't descent on a new Christian, drill a hole in his head and place there a new concept of Himself instead. He encourages that person to delve deep into His Word to gain a picture of what He is really like, so that the expulsive power of the Scripture's truth concerning God can eventually and ultimately cancel out what is untrue and bring that person into a true understanding of what He is really like.