[2.] We should also take encouragement from hence, to hope that he will hear and answer our prayers, though very imperfect, so far as it may tend to his glory and our real advantage. Thus our Saviour says, If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him? Matt. vii. 11. Do we pray for spiritual blessings, such as the increase of grace, strength against corruption, and to be kept from temptation, or falling by it? we have ground to conclude that these shall be granted us, inasmuch as they are purchased for us by Christ, promised in the covenant of grace, as we have the earnest and first-fruits of the Spirit in our hearts, whereby we are sealed unto the day of redemption. And when we pray for temporal blessings, we have reason to hope they shall be granted, if they be necessary for us, since our Saviour says, Our heavenly Father knoweth that we have need of all these things, Matt. vi. 32.
[3.] This should excite in us those child-like dispositions, which are agreeable to this relation, not only when we draw nigh to God in prayer, but in the whole conduct of our lives. And it includes in it,
1st, Humility and reverence, which is not only becoming those who have an interest in his love, and a liberty of access into his presence, with hope of acceptance in his sight; but it is what we are obliged to, as his peculiar people, and a branch of that honour which is due to him as our God and Father. Thus he says, by the prophet, A son honoureth his father, Mal. i. 6. whereby he intimates that this is the character and disposition of those that stand in the relation of children to him. And the apostle argues from the less to the greater, when he says, that we have had fathers of our flesh, which corrected us, and we gave them reverence, shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of Spirits, Heb. xii. 9.
2dly, Patience under rebukes, considering our proneness to go astray, whereby we not only deserve them, but they are rendered necessary; and especially when we consider that they flow from love, and are designed for our good; as the apostle says, Whom the Lord loveth he chastneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth, ver. 6.
3dly, Another child-like disposition is being grieved for our Father’s frowns; especially that we have incurred his displeasure by our misbehaviour towards him; and it contains in it a readiness to confess our faults, and a carefulness to avoid them for the future.
4thly, Contentment with the provision of our Father’s house, whatever it be. We shall never, indeed, have the least cause to complain of scarcity, as the returning prodigal in the parable says, that even the hired servants of his father, had bread enough, and to spare, Luke xv. 17. It can hardly be supposed that he who is at the fountain head, can perish for thirst; nevertheless, though we are not straitened in God, yet we are often straitened in our bowels, through the weakness of our faith, when we are not inclined to receive what God holds forth to us in the gospel; and then we are discontented and uneasy, while the blame lies at our own door; whereas, if we behaved ourselves as the children of such a Father, we should not only be pleased with, but constantly adore and live upon that fulness of grace that there is in Christ; and whether he is pleased to give us more or less of the blessings of common providence, we should learn, in whatsoever state we are, therewith to be content, Phil. iv. 11.
5thly, Obedience to a father’s commands, without disputing his authority, or right to govern us, is another child-like disposition. Thus when we draw nigh to God as to our Father, we are to express a readiness to do whatever he requires, whereby we not only approve ourselves subjects under a law, but, as the apostle styles it, Obedient children, as being holy in all manner of conversation, 1 Pet. i. 14, 15.
6thly, Another disposition of children is, that they have a fervent zeal for their father’s honour, and cannot bear to hear him reproached without the highest resentment. Thus the children of God, how much soever they may be concerned about their own affairs, when injuriously treated by the world, are always ready to testify their utmost dislike of every thing that reflects dishonour on him, or his ways.
7thly, Another child-like disposition is love, which the relation of a father engages to. Thus when we draw nigh to God as our Father, we express our love to him, which is founded in his divine excellencies, which render him the object of the highest delight and esteem.
8thly, He that has a child-like disposition, retains a grateful sense of the obligations that he is under to his Father. Thus we ought to be duly sensible of all the favours which we have received from God, which are more than can be numbered; the contrary hereunto, is reckoned the basest ingratitude and disingenuity, altogether unbecoming the temper of children. Thus Moses says to Israel, Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? Is not he thy Father who hath bought thee? hath he not made, and established thee? Deut. xxxii. 6. A believer’s obligations to God are so very great, that he cannot look back upon his former state, or consider what he was, how vile and unworthy of any regard from him, how miserable and unable to help himself, when he first had compassion on him, without seeing himself under the strongest engagements to be entirely, and for ever, his; which is a becoming behaviour towards such a Father.