"An evil man is bent only on rebellion; a merciless official will be sent against him" (NIV)
"Evil people seek rebellion, but they will be severly punished." (NIL)
There were many rebellious examples in the Bible:
- Numbers 16:3 - This is an example of a person who is dissatisfied with what he has and stirs up others because of his Ingratitude for what God had given him already.The consequences of Korah's "taking action" are clear: God destroyed all these who rose up against Moses and Aaron—against Him. Does this pattern look familiar? It should. It is the age-old and oft-repeated sin of pride manifesting itself in ingratitude.
- Proverbs 29:15 - An example from the life of David illustrates this proverb. "And [Adonijah's] father had not rebuked him at any time by saying, 'Why have you done so?' David, though a man after God's own heart, did not take an active hand in teaching Adonijah. In this verse God states why Adonijah rebelled. In essence, David actually encouraged his son to rebel by not taking an interest in rearing him. David failed to train him in the way he should go, so that he would not depart from it. Instead, David trained him in a way that was bound to produce rebellion. This flaw of David's shows up in others of his children: Absalom, Amnon, and others. It does not matter whether one is a child of God having His Spirit or not. If a parent does not carry through with the right kind of training, then the results will surface in his children.
- Matthew 21:28-32 - contains the story of two sons, one who said he would not do the work his father asked of him, yet did, and another who promised to work, but did not.Jesus may have taken the theme of this parable from Isaiah 5:1-7, which some commentators call "The Song of the Vineyard." God pictures Israel and Judah as a vineyard. He does all He can for them, planting, protecting, and feeding them, but instead of the vineyard producing wonderful grapes, it produces wild grapes that are good for nothing.
In our daily lives, "rebellious" is mostly used in describing teensagers. As a mom of two teendages; 17 years old boy and 14 years old girl, what I could learn from them? Neither Terence nor Michelle are of any extreme cases, I think herewith are something that I have learned from their lives.
Terence's rebellious period was during 15 to 16 yeards old. His symptom was on giving up of his own self-appearance. At that time, he led a band with his classmates. He was very hard working in learning guitar skills, composing songs, writing lyrics, editing effects and etc. He has had a dream to motivate his band to realize the output of songs for expressing himself or his views about the world for the success of the team. Underlying, he also had a good will in giving an identity to his friends of being a passionate young man by devoting to music.
Yet, his time conflicts between music and study, his immaturity in understanding and managing people, his innocent desire from the self-egoism and his low self-esteem accumulated in the past closetted him in to a slumps of frustration and struggles with no way out. I could see that was the boiling point for his rebellious period. He was lonely, strengthless and full of feeling of failures. There stagged his sense of refusal. He refused to do hair cut, he refused to shampoo his hair, he refused to wear properly to school, he refused to talk to his parents.......he closed up himself............
"foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child" (Proverbs 22:15), a child left to himself brings shame—he is bound to get into trouble if his training is haphazard or undirected, or if he is not drilled or disciplined. Yes, it was very true. Terence's school teacher said to me in his Year 10 Parents Night, "Don't you feel shame about your son?" Yes, I do, I do but what I could do?????
I learned from God of His patience in love to me for my surrender and repentance. I believe it's God's training to Terence to guiding him to let go his egoism and selfishness to become a young adult who has patience, respect and love on others and himself. I did not give him up for his rebellious. Instead, I patiently walked through the path with him silently with prayers and gentle reminding carings.
I found he has ended his rebellious period at the end of 16 years old. Now he is 17 and is heading for another path of his life. How could I know?
Terence said:
- Mom, now I recognize HK$100 bill is just a small money;
- I want to become a movie director but I know this career is difficult to make a living at the beginning. Will you support me?
- I would like to study aboard;
- I want to cut short my hair;
- I begin to teach Year 8 students guitar for free;
- I am the organizer for a charity show in the school;
- Elders are better not to live alone or in a aged home as their mind, body and emotions will deteriorating in a such a routine and without fresh stimulation mode;
- Should I have a gap year before the university?
- Parents should not spoil their children without discipline because that will harm their courageous to encounter difficulties;
- If I could not live on a life as a farmer, I would not deserve a live of today;
- Take a 6-hour part time job right after school is quite harsh for the body.........
These days, Ben also begins to appreciate Terence's talent in music and media.
Michelle is always having a good girl image at home and outside. Yet, she has her way of rebellious. These days, she keeps on asking for changing school: from local school back to international school. She began to criticize school's policies; frequent teachers changes; low English standard of some teachers...........
Well, what is underlying her heart and mind? Instead of the subtle expression as Terence did, Michelle is in a more compelling mode. Her self-egoism in individual thinking tingles her sense of judgmental. She begins to identify the best suppportive environment in achieving what she wants, so as to elimate whichever blocks her way. She cried for losing her good friends who left this school. She frustrated for the classmates who irritates her for their selfishness, narrow-minded thinking and immature characters. Michelle knows what she wants and is bold enough to express and negotiate with the father.
She wants to get ride of 3 things:
- resign from the school basket ball team, purposely to concentrate her time in studying for better school result in order to change back to international school, or get in to a good Canadian university;
- leave the current group of school friends;
- leave the current school
I had followed God's patient love to have overcome Terence's rebellious period. Then, how about Michelle? I know her rebellious period will be over sometime but how should I walk with her? I think first of all I should not judge her but respect her expressiveness. Secondary, I should let her know that she should not solely depend on her own will and strength. To have faith in God's good plan for Michelle should be always in my heart.
A truly humble and grateful person will never rebel against God because he knows that even the very breath he breathes is a gift and calls for praiseful thanksgiving to the Father. How could I help Michelle to understand what is Ingratitude and be thankful to her blessed everything.
God will forgive any sin that is repented of—even if, through weakness, temptation, or habit, the sin is repeated. As long as a person's intention, attitude, and desire is to obey God, he will repent, and God will forgive him (I John 1:9). Jesus said we ought to forgive 70 times seven times (Matthew 18:21-22). God is even more willing to forgive than that!
I sincerely thanks my children for giving me a chance to learn about God's forgiveness. It's may be a matter of rebellious for teenagers, moreover it's a matter of patent love and forgiveness for every parent to learn. Because that not only helps our children to learn but to change their attitude prepare for the rest of their lives.
God gives everyone all the help, encouragement, and opportunity for success they need to inherit eternal life.
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Terence: rebellious on giving up himself (requires patience in love from parents) -->> from pride (poor in spirit) to become humble
Michelle: rebellious on judgmental on others (requires foregiveness from parents) -->> from ingratitude (I deserve better) to become grateful
Poor in spirit is contrary to that haughty, self-assertive and self-sufficient disposition that the world so much admires and praises. It is the reverse of an independent and defiant attitude that refuses to bow to God—that determines to brave things out against His will like Pharaoh, who said, "Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice . . .?" (Exodus 5:2). A person who is poor in spirit realizes that he is nothing, has nothing, can do nothing—and needs everything, as Jesus said in John 15:5, "Without Me you can do nothing."
In his commentary, The Sermon on the Mount, Emmett Fox provides a practical description of what "poor in spirit" means:
To be poor in spirit means to have emptied yourself of all desire to exercise personal self-will, and, what is just as important, to have renounced all preconceived opinions in the whole-hearted search for God. It means to be willing to set aside your present habits of thought, your present views and prejudices, your present way of life if necessary; to jettison, in fact, anything and everything that can stand in the way of your finding God. (p. 22)
Poverty of spirit blooms as God reveals Himself to us and we become aware of His incredible holiness and towering mercy in even calling us to be forgiven and invited to be in His Family—to be like Him! This understanding awakens us to the painful discovery that all our righteousness truly is like filthy rags by comparison (Isaiah 64:6); our best performances are unacceptable. It brings us down to the dust before God. This realization corresponds to the Prodigal Son's experience in Luke 15:14 when "he began to be in want." Soon thereafter, Jesus says, he "came to himself" (verse 17), beginning the humbling journey back to his father, repentance and acceptance.
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