A More Christlike God

God could not have set the bar of obedient yielding much lower. We are not even called to do anything! We are simply asked to refrain from something while being filled with innumerable delights ("every other tree in the garden" Gen. 2:16). God's command was not about putting us in our place but, rather, lifting us to the image of the divine. He yields power to us by giving us the dignity of choice. Then by consenting to lay that power down, we become like him.

When I intercede, I name the person, situation or need, without dictating how God must answer, and then I pray with real expectancy, "Lord, have mercy." If I sense the Spirit leading me to be more specific (as in the Lord's prayer), then I follow, but I do so with open hands.

I think we can honestly sayo, those in affliction: • Yes, you are suffering. There’s no denying your affliction. • Jesus sees your suffering and cares about your suffering. • Jesus knows your suffering intimately and experientially because he too suffered, and he dwells in you. • Jesus suffered too; he completely identifies with your pain. • Jesus is here with you now. He co-suffers with you, even in your experience of his absence. • His co-suffering love does not mean he’s in the same helpless state of suffering or despair that you are in. • Co-suffering means he wants to graft your pain to the resources of his divine love. • We can welcome his self-giving love to transform your pain and bring redemption, even in the dark night of absence and affliction. Let’s meet him at the Cross.

Notice that I refer to God's felt and practical absence. We might know theologically that God is everywhere and always present, but we don't always feel it. In affliction, God's real presence often makes no practical difference; people still suffer and die in all manner of cruel ways. So in the crucifixion, Jesus shared fully in our experience of absence, assuming it and thereby utterly redeeming it

Unwrathing is the interpretive process by which we recognize wrath as a metaphor for God's consent ('giving over') to the consequences of sin, even when the text describes events as if God was actively provoked into violent retribution (punishing for the sake of punishing

God doesn't actively investigate, arrest, convict, sentence and punish sinners. There's no need and, in fact, that's not God's heart at all. Here's the bottom line: sin carries its own penalty (or 'wages' in Rom. 6:23) because consequences are built into the fabric of the universe.