Knowing the Truth – Heavenly Father?

During my childhood years as a Christian, I clung to Jesus. He was the one I knew, prayed to, and felt close to. After all, Jesus was the one who died for me and really loved me. I knew God was the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but it seemed like the Son was the only one really connected with my life. 

My Heavenly Father seemed distant and unapproachable. He was the God of Old Testament, the judge. I lived life based on the New Testament, right? What did God, the Father, really have to do with my life?

For almost 25 years as a Christian the truth about God was poured into my life by those around me, but, I can’t base my relationship with God on what others have learned. I need to have my own relationship with God. Christianity is not a religion it is a relationship. I have to choose to invest time in this relationship.

I have begun to read God’s Word for myself, over the last few years. Through this time of seeking God through His Word and prayer He is changing my view of who He is. He has never changed but my understanding of who He really is, is changing significantly.

I had accepted the gift of Christ and knew my eternity was secure but something major was missing. I was living the religion not the relationship. The time finally came when I could no longer uphold what I thought my relationship with God should be. I was exhausted with all the doing, the religious activities.  

I didn’t know my Heavenly Father. My relationship with God as a Christian began to grow at the end of my efforts. He began building my relationship with Him as I began seeking Him through His Word and prayer.

Reading through God’s Word, the Old Testament and the New, I began to get to know God. Over time His Word is pulling away misconceptions and lies I have believed about Him. He is teaching me the truth.

He is a Heavenly Father who…

·         pursues me

·         diciplines me in love for my good

·         provides for me

·         defends me

·         loves me

·         has great plans for me

·         and desires a relationship with me

(and on and on and on…)

 He wants to be in relationship with me! This is the major reason why God gave His son to die for me. My sin was in the way of our relationship and required a solution. My Heavenly Father provided the only solution by giving His Son to take the punishment for my sin. When I accepted the gift of His Son’s sacrifice I have the privilege of building a relationship with Him. The debt has been paid. The way is clear for me to get to know Him.

He already knows me absolutely and completely. He wants me to seek Him and to teach me about who He is, what He has done for me, and who I am because of Him. He has already given me so much but He wants to keep giving and giving and giving as I am in relationship with Him.

His gifts of grace amaze me. He wants to show me His love. I have done nothing to deserve this. This amazing relationship is through His favor that I have done nothing to earn. Wow. I have a Heavenly Father who loves me so much.

Heavenly Father,

Thank you that You pursue me and love me so much that You gave Your Son so that I can be saved for eternity and have a relationship now with You. Thank you for loving me so much that You discipline me. Thank you for being my Heavenly Father and that I am Your child. Thank you for the good gifts You give. Thank you for valuing me and providing for all my needs. Thank you that I can trust and rest in the good plans You have for me. Thank you for the assurance that if I seek You I will find You. Thank you for choosing me, strengthening me, and helping me. Your forever love is amazing. Your mercy and faithfulness sustain me and give me hope. You are good, compassionate, and steadfast in love. You formed me, redeemed me; You have called me by name, I am Yours. You are always with me. I am precious in Your eyes, and honored, and You love me. You have chosen me to be Your treasured possession. You love me and keep Your promises. You set me free. You are in control. Everlasting God, Creator, Strong, Wise, Strengthener, Renewer, Lifter, Upholder, Equipper, Sustainer, Uniting all to Yourself... I praise You for all You are. Help me to seek You daily in prayer and Your Word. Help me to know You more as my Heavenly Father. I love You, help me to love You more!

In Jesus Name,

Amen    

  

Praying God's Word...

Psalm 14:2

The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man,
    to see if there are any who understand,
    who seek after God.

John 3:16

 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

 

Proverbs 3:12

 for the Lord reproves him whom he loves,
    as a father the son in whom he delights.

 

Hebrews 12:5-6

And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
    nor be weary when reproved by him.
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
    and chastises every son whom he receives.”

Luke 11:13

If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

 

Matthew 6:26-33   

 “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

 

Jeremiah 29:11-14

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

 

Isaiah 41:9-14

you whom I took from the ends of the earth,
    and called from its farthest corners,
saying to you, “You are my servant,
    I have chosen you and not cast you off”;
fear not, for I am with you;
    be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
    I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Behold, all who are incensed against you
    shall be put to shame and confounded;
those who strive against you
    shall be as nothing and shall perish.
You shall seek those who contend with you,
    but you shall not find them;
those who war against you
    shall be as nothing at all.
For I, the Lord your God,
    hold your right hand;
it is I who say to you, “Fear not,
    I am the one who helps you.”

Fear not, you worm Jacob,
    you men of Israel!
I am the one who helps you, declares the Lord;
    your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

Lamentations 3:22-33

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
    his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
    “therefore I will hope in him.”

The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
    to the soul who seeks him.
It is good that one should wait quietly
    for the salvation of the Lord.
It is good for a man that he bear
    the yoke in his youth.

Let him sit alone in silence
    when it is laid on him;
let him put his mouth in the dust—
    there may yet be hope;
let him give his cheek to the one who strikes,
    and let him be filled with insults.

For the Lord will not
    cast off forever,
but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion
    according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
for he does not afflict from his heart
    or grieve the children of men.

 

Isaiah 43:1-4

But now thus says the Lord,
he who created you, O Jacob,
    he who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
    I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
    and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
    and the flame shall not consume you.
For I am the Lord your God,
    the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
I give Egypt as your ransom,
    Cush and Seba in exchange for you.
Because you are precious in my eyes,
    and honored, and I love you,
I give men in return for you,
    peoples in exchange for your life.

 

Deuteronomy 7:6-9

 “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,

( “for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.”Galatians 3:26-29)

 

Lamentations 3:37-41

Who has spoken and it came to pass,
    unless the Lord has commanded it?
Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
    that good and bad come?
Why should a living man complain,
    a man, about the punishment of his sins?

Let us test and examine our ways,
    and return to the Lord!
Let us lift up our hearts and hands
    to God in heaven:

 

Lamentations 3:57-59

You came near when I called on you;
    you said, ‘Do not fear!’

“You have taken up my cause, O Lord;
    you have redeemed my life.
You have seen the wrong done to me, O Lord;
    judge my cause.

 

Isaiah 40:28-31

Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
    his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint,
    and to him who has no might he increases strength.
Even youths shall faint and be weary,
    and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
    they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
    they shall walk and not faint.

 

Ephesians 1:2-10

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.