{"id":379,"date":"2017-09-28T11:02:33","date_gmt":"2017-09-28T11:02:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/?p=379"},"modified":"2017-09-28T11:02:33","modified_gmt":"2017-09-28T11:02:33","slug":"the-one-little-word-that-can-revolutionize-your-relationship-with-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2017\/09\/the-one-little-word-that-can-revolutionize-your-relationship-with-god.html","title":{"rendered":"The One Little Word That Can Revolutionize Your Relationship With God"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Tim
Tim Mossholder<\/span><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Many Christians grow up thinking that God wants something from<\/em> them. God is up in heaven, deserving and demanding our worship. He wants us to sing, He wants us to read our Bibles, He wants us to give money, He wants us to teach Sunday School, He wants us to go on a mission trip.\u00a0God\u00a0wants something from<\/em> us, and when we don\u2019t give it to Him, He gets angry and zaps us with lightning.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s a jacked up way to look at God and if that were my understanding of God, I would rebel against it like many other Christians have.\u00a0<\/span>When Jesus came to earth, the Jewish people had twisted their religion to think that way about God. God was all about getting something from His people. And then Jesus came along and helped humanity rediscover God. He taught humanity to view God as our Heavenly Father.<\/span><\/p>\n

Again, maybe you grew up with a selfish or absent earthly father, so that\u2019s how you naturally think of your Heavenly Father. But God is heavenly, He\u2019s a good father, He\u2019s a perfect father.<\/span><\/p>\n

And what does a good\/perfect father want from his children? Nothing. If you love your kids, you don\u2019t want anything from<\/em> them, you only want things for<\/em> them. That’s the one little word that can revolutionize your relationship with God, when you realize that God doesn’t want anything from<\/em> you, He only wants things for<\/em> you.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

When\u00a0my wife\u00a0and I had our four kids, (I\u2019m a flawed, selfish person), but even I never thought \u201cwe’re\u00a0going to have these kids so they can take care of my needs and give me what I want and work for me.\u201d We had kids because we wanted to give what we had to them!\u00a0<\/span>And that\u2019s what we\u2019ve done. The amount of money we\u2019ve spent on ourselves over the past ten years is infinitesimally small compared to what we\u2019ve spent on our kids. It\u2019s the same for most parents. And we wouldn\u2019t have it any other way. Why? Because we\u2019re not psychopaths. We’re good parents.<\/span><\/p>\n

A good parent doesn\u2019t want anything\u00a0from<\/em> their kids, they only want things\u00a0for<\/em> their kids. God doesn’t want anything from<\/em> you. He wants things for<\/em> you. Let that truth blow your mind today.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many Christians grow up thinking that God wants something from them. God is up in heaven, deserving and demanding our worship. He wants us to sing, He wants us to read our Bibles, He wants us to give money, He wants us to teach Sunday School, He wants us to go on a mission trip.\u00a0God\u00a0wants…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":607,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[40,215,27,216],"class_list":["post-379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-next-steps","tag-child","tag-father","tag-god","tag-want"],"yoast_head":"\nThe One Little Word That Can Revolutionize Your Relationship With God - Next Steps<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you can change this one little word about your relationship with God, instead of running from Him you'll start running toward Him.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The One Little Word That Can Revolutionize Your Relationship With God - 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