The Heart of the Father is one of LOVE!
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! 1 John 3:1
Tomorrow is Father's Day here in Australia. An opportune time, I think to reflect once more on the Father Heart of God.
When we speak of God, and His Father Heart, we cannot skip over His great love for mankind.
After all is that not his motivation for sending Jesus:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”(John 3:16).
Is that not the motivation for Jesus going all the way to the cross, and suffering in the way that he did?
“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends”. (John 15:3)
How many of you have grown up with the old hymn: “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so…”
I was thinking about this. It’s human nature, is it not that when we hear something often enough, there lurks the dangerous potential that we start taking it for granted, or it starts losing the effect that it once had. Unless one stops, pauses and really soaks it in, there’s a danger of that familiarity creeping in.
One of the saddest statements a pastor or counsellor can hear, are the words spoken by a couple: “I have fallen out of love with my spouse!” I wonder when those words are said – is it really a case of not loving one’s spouse, or could it be more a case of the words and actions of one’s spouse having become so familiar, that they are taken for granted. No longer do they cause the heart to skip a beat or the knees to grow weak – the ‘warm fuzzies’ have dissipated, the butterflies have disappeared – those words that once melted our hearts have become familiar. That’s why there are events like couple’s retreats, seminars and other resources to help couples ‘re-discover’ each other.
That trap of familiarity is one I pray we never fall into, Dear readers, when it comes to God’s amazing love for us. Being reminded of God’s love over and over again – singing about it, reading about it, hearing about it, may it never become something that we are calloused to; may the loving heart of our Father never be taken for granted. May we always be taken up in awe, overwhelmed by his love for us.
PRAYER:
Daddy God, I thank you today and always,
For your many blessings from above;
But most of all I give you thanks,
For your boundless, unfailing love.
Amen