I mentioned to a small group yesterday how writing this blog has been such an incredible blessing. It started out as an accountability tool in reading the One Year Bible with my Sunday school class. As I got into the daily process of reading God's Word, desperately needing HIM to open my eyes to HIS precious Word so that I might have something to say, I realized this year was different, HIS Word was penetrating my heart in a way that it had not for some time. I have been reading the One Year Bible through for several years now, but somewhere along the way it just became another box to check in my little list of Christian things I should be doing. I have since repented of that attitude.
As I repented of the sin of complacency, the sin of taking God for granted, the sin of approaching HIS glorious Word with a (I hate to say it, but it is true) careless heart attitude...as I repented and came to HIM and HIS Word each morning desperate for a word to be able to write, but also desperate for a word for the day...remember Matt 4:4 “It is written: Man must not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” As I approached HIM day after day in humility, brokenness, desperation...devoid of Mark, looking unto HIM, some wonderful things began to happen and they continue to unfold before me...glory be to God!
With that in mind the very simple word that continued to leap off the page this morning was the little word "my." I will never forget when "my" daughter, Alexis, began to say "my" Daddy! No longer was it just Daddy, but "my" Daddy! Alexis will be 3 at the end of September. I love to hear her say "my" Daddy! I love the look on her face when she says "my" Daddy! I love it when another child walks up to me, Alexis will run from where she is to my side and say in a loud voice "my" Daddy! It does a Daddy's heart good to hear those precious words.
So hear we are, our first stop in 2 Chronicles 7:14-15, God is tells Solomon at night following the dedication of the temple that "if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land. 15 My eyes will be open and my ears attentive to every prayer made in this place.
In 2 Chronicles 7:20, HE promises devastation if they turn from HIM and pursue idols, "then I will uproot Israel from the soil that I gave them, and this temple that I have sanctified for My name I will banish from My presence; I will make it an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples."
We know that God sent HIS only begotten Son to deliver us from sin, death and Satan...to save us from hell. We know that if we receive HIM by faith we are saved from hell and we are born from above, we are twice born, we become HIS children...we call HIM Abba, Father! We are free and commanded to call HIM Father, Abba, "my" Daddy! This we hold as dear and precious promises through Jesus Christ!
Romans 7:24-8:4 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. 8 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
This is huge, it is impossible to overstate how massive this truth is...you were dead in your sins and trespasses, you were spiritually bound to a decomposing human corpse, you were the most putrid, vile, disgusting spiritual leper, surrounded by the smell of death...spiritually, everywhere you went before coming to Jesus the stench that surrounded you was horrific! I know this is hard to imagine, but your condition and my condition was actually worse than I just described! AND NOW JESUS HAS TAKEN US FROM THAT TO HEIRS OF THE KING! We are now adopted, children of the most high God, HIS Spirit confirms to our spirit that we are children of God...by which we cry "my" Daddy!
Check out the first few verses in Psalm 18, the word "my" is used over and over in 3 verses!
Ps 18:1-3 I will love You, O Lord, my strength.2 The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. 3 I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised; So shall I be saved from my enemies.
1 Sa 2:2 No one is holy like the Lord! There is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.
Ps 18:46 The Lord lives! Praise to my Rock! May the God of my salvation be exalted!
Ps 28:1 I pray to you, O Lord, my rock. Do not turn a deaf ear to me. For if you are silent, I might as well give up and die.
Ps 31:3 You are my rock and my fortress. For the honor of your name, lead me out of this danger.
Ps 42:9 “O God my rock,” I cry, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I wander around in grief, oppressed by my enemies?”
Ps 71:3 Be my rock of safety where I can always hide. Give the order to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.
I often hear people speak of God, Yahweh, as though HE is just waiting and watching for an opportunity to smack them, to hurt them, to keep them in line...they don't feel like they can approach the God. They have a fear, they become anxious when they think about approaching God almighty. I am deeply grieved when I hear people speak this way because I know that there is only one being that would want to keep God's children in fear of HIM, there is only one being that want God children to be filled with anxiety when they think about approaching HIM, that would be HIS enemy, Satan.
You read the story of the prodigal son, you don't see a father looking for an opportunity to beat his son down. You simply see a father yearning and longing for his son to come home and live. Romans 8:32 should put all questions and concerns to rest, it should lay all our fears in the dust and reveal Satan for what he is...a liar and the father of lies. What else can you do but be amazed that God Almighty "did not even spare His own Son, but offered Him up for us all; how will He not also with Him grant us everything?" If God the Father did not spare HIS own son, but offer HIM for us we can trust that HE will work everything for the good of those who love HIM.
"MY DADDY!"
let it be!
love,
m