Today's Word - "Father" Part 2
When his disciples asked Jesus how to pray (Luke 11:1), this is what He said;
"This, then, is how you should pray:
“Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.
May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us today the food we need,
and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.
And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.
Matthew 6:9-13(NLT)
Today's Reflection
Father. This is a very, very, very powerful word. It brings images to every human mind, images of love and strength, images of horror and abuse and everything in between.
It is almost certainly true that the image that each of us carries of God as Father starts with the relationship we had with our earthy biological or adoptive father. If it was a good experience God will look good to us. If our father was critical, we may tend to view God as “mad at me” most of the time, which means your life may end up a perpetual guilt trip.
But the book of Galatians tells us that each of us has a “heavenly Father”.
“God . . .sent his Son to set us free from “slavery to the law” so that he could adopt us as his very own sons and daughters. This means we are his sons and daughters. God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, so now we can rightly speak of God as our dear Father. . . we are no longer slaves but God’s own children . . .everything he has belongs to us” Galatians 4:4-7
It seems to me that the journey of the believer starts and ends with believing/trusting that God is your father and that you are his precious child. If you are a parent, begin to envision God as the source of your best instincts as a parent. Envision your love of your child, your willingness to sacrifice yourself, your desire to protect and nurture as only a shadow of the depth and fullness of His love for you. If you are not yet a parent and you find the image of God as father full of baggage, your step will be to place yourself into a loving, faithful community of believers who love you unconditionally and in that communicate to you the Father’s Love.
Today's Prayer
“Our Father, yes I accept you as my father. I accept you as my creator, my protector, my corrector, my friend, , my advisor, my provider, my example and role model for life, my teacher and as the One who sacrificed and continues to sacrifice all for me. I love you Father. Amen”
Excerpt from the book titled, "God's Words for Mothers" author is Hannah Whitall Smith:
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine told me that her childhood was passed in a perfect terror of God. Her idea of Him was that He was a cruel giant with an awful 'Eye' which could see everything, no matter how it might be hidden, and that He was always spying upon her, and watching for chances to punish her, and to snatch away all her joys.
With a child's strange reticence, she never told anyone of her terror; but one night Mother, coming into the room unexpectedly, heard the poor little despairing cry, and, with a sudden comprehension of what it meant, sat down beside the bed, and taking the cold, little hand in hers, told her God was not a dreadful tyrant to be afraid of, but was just like Jesus; and that she knew how good and kind Jesus was, and how He loved little children, and took them in His arms and blessed them. My friend said she had always loved the stories about Jesus, and when she heard that God was like Him, it was a perfect revelation to her, and took away her fear of God forever.
The little child had got a sight of God "in the face of Jesus Christ", and it brought rest to her soul."
"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." John 14:7
What gratitude we can have knowing that not only did God give us himself in the person of Jesus, but He gave us also, through His Holy Spirit the enabling to know Him and love Him.