Your Father Loves You
Yesterday I had a revelation of God's love for me. I can't really explain it any other way, but I had been praying for it for a long time. It's given me new life when I was just making the best of it. I'm very thankful for my Heavenly Father who loves me. As I was processing all these thoughts, I wrote a devotional for the volunteers I work with (we try to send one once a month or so, and post it on our HeSaidGo Blog). Thought I'd share it on here too.
Your Father loves you. Maybe you don’t hear that enough. Or maybe you do, but it doesn’t really mean much. You know it’s important, it should mean something, but somehow, it hasn’t quite touched your heart yet. You get a warm feeling when you sing songs about His love, and as you listen to stories of good fathers who offer their children grace—you recognize it as a good and right picture of God. But has that good Father become your own?
Because when He is your Father, when you know His love is really for you—not just for the rest of the world—it changes everything.
Take a minute and imagine yourself as one of the people Jesus healed and talked to while He was on earth. There was something in the interaction that was more than just freedom from an illness or burden. It was knowing that you were seen. You were loved just because you existed. And even though your community and religious leaders said you were too far gone, that you didn’t matter, Jesus was here telling you…You do matter. I do love you, and your Father loves you.
Maybe you can’t look into Jesus’ face and hear His voice like the paralytic lowered down in front of Him, but Jesus is for you just as much as He was for that guy. If you don’t understand that or haven’t experienced the power of His love for you in a long time, seek Him on this until He opens your eyes to this. Be willing to wait for Him until He shows up. It may be minutes, days, or years, and it may be a lot more about a process than an instant revelation. But seeking to know His love for you is the best investment of your time with Him, because everything else you could possibly do for Him or others flows from the unquenchable belief that you are loved by Him.
Your Father loves you. Take it in, and live it out.
“For the Father himself loves you dearly because you love Me and believe that I came from God.” John 16:27 (NLT)
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Your Father loves you. Maybe you don’t hear that enough. Or maybe you do, but it doesn’t really mean much. You know it’s important, it should mean something, but somehow, it hasn’t quite touched your heart yet. You get a warm feeling when you sing songs about His love, and as you listen to stories of good fathers who offer their children grace—you recognize it as a good and right picture of God. But has that good Father become your own?
Because when He is your Father, when you know His love is really for you—not just for the rest of the world—it changes everything.
Take a minute and imagine yourself as one of the people Jesus healed and talked to while He was on earth. There was something in the interaction that was more than just freedom from an illness or burden. It was knowing that you were seen. You were loved just because you existed. And even though your community and religious leaders said you were too far gone, that you didn’t matter, Jesus was here telling you…You do matter. I do love you, and your Father loves you.
Maybe you can’t look into Jesus’ face and hear His voice like the paralytic lowered down in front of Him, but Jesus is for you just as much as He was for that guy. If you don’t understand that or haven’t experienced the power of His love for you in a long time, seek Him on this until He opens your eyes to this. Be willing to wait for Him until He shows up. It may be minutes, days, or years, and it may be a lot more about a process than an instant revelation. But seeking to know His love for you is the best investment of your time with Him, because everything else you could possibly do for Him or others flows from the unquenchable belief that you are loved by Him.
Your Father loves you. Take it in, and live it out.
“For the Father himself loves you dearly because you love Me and believe that I came from God.” John 16:27 (NLT)
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