| “Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.” |
| —Ecclesiastes 5:2 |
I can hear a sassy child talking to his teacher, or an impertinent teenager talking to her mother, each one complaining and wanting his or her way, NOW! And, I can also hear the response from the adult, “Look who you’re talking to!”
I ask myself if God feels like the adults feel in this situation. Does He wonder who we think we are when we speak to Him in the manner of a spoiled child. We need to be reminded that God is in heaven and we are on earth. He is God and we’re not.
When the mother says, “I carried you for nine months and spoiled my figure over you! I buy your clothes and clean up your messes.” We see the teen respond by rolling her eyes and not really changing her mind.
But, when we think about our Heavenly Father, we should know better. He simply does not react to our impertinence the way a parent might. Yes, He indeed deserves our deepest respect and our trust in His plans for us. After all, He created us, maintains us, provides everything for us, and, through His Son, He even carried our sins on His back to the cross. He chose us to know Him and anticipate heaven with Him. Look who we’re talking to! Indeed.
I like the way that the Puritan writer William Gurnall puts it:1
Who are we praying to? Is he not the great and glorious majesty of heaven and earth? Would it not be insufferable sauciness in a servant to complain that his master sat too long and required too much waiting at his hands? Is he not a righteous, holy God? Surely he does you no wrong to make you pray, and that long, for a mercy which you do not deserve when it comes at last. Is he not wiser to know how to time mercies? Will you have God overthrow the course of providence, which he thinks fit, to gratify your impatient spirit?
We are wise to take this reminder to heart when we get impatient and testy in our prayers, stomping our spiritual feet and demanding immediate answers: “Look who you’re talking to!”
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| 1 Gurnall, William and Richard Rushing, editor. Voices From the Past, Volume 2. Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2016. p. 261 |
