Daily Devotion for September 25, 2006

A Father’s Response

 

“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” Luke 11:11-13

 

The Holy Spirit is a way the Father is with us, continually. Sometimes I feel like it is the very voice of God whispering to my soul. Some people tell me they don’t hear God’s voice, and I wonder if it’s just because they don’t recognize it.  Sometimes it is because they don’t recognize his voice because they are not daily reading his word.

 

There was a time in my life when I didn’t realize that God could speak to me. I remember a time when I was a youth that I was emotionally hurt by the actions of a coach.  I was angry at God on how he could allow something like that to happen.  I was hurt, angry and turned my back on everything I thought God was, because I felt He’d turned his back on me.

 

I’m older now and I realize how untrue that really is. God didn’t make the person that hurt me do the things he did.

 

When I confronted this person twenty-some years later, I found out he was totally unaware that he had injured me so deeply. God did not cause the pain, human sin did.
My Heavenly Father would not hand me a scorpion or even a snake when I was a youth crying out to him and asking him for help. Instead he sent his Holy Spirit to bring healing, courage, and strength to a frightened and confused youth. Never did He abandon or forsake me. He provided gentle and loving Christians, to be His flesh in my life even while I was angry at Him. How is that for loving and merciful? As I kicked and screamed and denied Him, He was busy wrapping his arms of love around my screaming soul.

 

It is all so clear to me now exactly how loving and merciful God is. I think that is why He calls us to love those who are so difficult to love. God knows their hurts. He knows their confusion. He has the big picture, and all we can see is a “flash” in a moment in time- their screaming and spitting, their anger and their fear all seething in confusion.

 

This Father loved us so much that even while we were behaving badly, he sent his one and only son to die for us. (Romans 5:8) That is a Father’s Response!

 

Prayer
Father God, I thank you that you loved me first, that you never leave me nor forsake me, and that your heart is to love me and for me to know you and your love. It is all so simple and I try to make it so difficult. Thank you for your patient love that quiets my soul. Amen.

 

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