Have you ever tried to teach someone something new? It may have been a pet, your kids or a classroom of students, but no matter who it is, teaching is not as easy as it seems.
I once trained a young parrot to be tame and interact with me. God used this to show me the beauty of how He interacts with us, so today I want to share with you 3 things bird taming taught me about God.
1 – God invites He never forces
I adopted a training strategy of inviting my bird to do things rather than forcing him. It is the bird’s choice whether or not to do it. God is the same with us. He never forces us to do something He simply offers us the opportunity to respond. God knows full well that some of us are going to say yes while others of us are going to say no. This is not only true for our initial commitment to Christ; it is also reminiscent of our whole journey with Him. He is always offering opportunities for us to grow but He leaves the choice up to us. Some of us have been forced and controlled by others to do things that we did not want to do. God will never do that to you. With Him you will never feel that you are being forced against your will to do something that you don’t want to do. It is not in His nature.
2 – God is patient when we have setbacks
I could have forced my bird to get him to progress faster, but because I wanted him to trust me I allowed him to take much longer to learn. I had to learn to be patient. That means there was days where it seemed like he took 10 steps backward rather than forward. We do this too! God is inviting us forward yet, we choose to do another lap of the block! How it must break God’s heart and frustrate Him when we move away from Him rather than closer. But He is patient with us.
3 – God delights in us
I think a big part of the joy I had with training my bird is that he wanted to interact with me. He responded when I called him and eagerly wanted to please me. God delights in us when we willingly come to him. He looks at our heart when we do things. Coming to Him out of obligation is not what warms His heart. God rejoices when we come to Him willingly and expectant, wanting to please Him.
God is truly incredible! He has the power and the authority to make us completely subservient to Him yet He chooses to let us respond of our own free will. God will invite you but never force you. He will be patient even when we have setbacks and He delights in our willingness to come to Him.
Lord,
Thank You for being so patient with me. Thank You for all the things You invite me to do. I am so blessed to know You and to be able to completely trust in You.
Amen
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