Posture

What does a bitter posture look like? Arms crossed. Eyes narrowed. Torso turned away slightly (or not so slightly). Lips tightened.

We've all seen this posture, haven't we? It's closed, cold, and distant.

And it's one that we often think God has towards us when we mess up.

This is damaging in two ways. It is painful enough when someone we are close to is embittered against us and takes this posture with us. It is even more painful to us if we think that our heavenly Father is embittered towards us.

But this is also damaging to our understanding of who God is, which needs to be corrected if we are to accurately represent Him and portray Him to the world around us.

So let's consider a few things:

1. If we want to know what God's like, we need only to look at Jesus because He is the image of the invisible God (Col 1:15).
2. The believing church is referred to as Jesus' bride (2 Cor 11:2, Eph 5:25-27, Revelation 19:7-9).
3. Husbands are to love their wives in the same way that Jesus loves His bride (Eph 5:25), not being bitter (or speaking harshly) towards them (Col 3:19).

Husbands are exhorted to love their wives in the same way that Jesus loves the church, not being embittered against them. And Jesus is the image of the invisible God, showing us who He is and what He's like. So it follows that the Father is not embittered towards us. 

If we have trusted Jesus as having satisfied the righteous requirements of God's law as our substitute, then we are no longer objects of God's wrath and He has nothing to be embittered towards us about.

He is not standing with His arms crossed, His eyes narrowed, His torso turned, and lips tightened. Instead, His arms are wide and He runs towards us, falling on our neck and kissing us as a Father does with a lost child who has been returned.