Father God

A Minute In It - Our Good Father

A minute in Gods' word will change your life.  Read through the Bible text and as you are reading, take in all the ways God shows up and then Praise Him!

Psalm 91

1 Those who live in the shelter of the Most High
    will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 This I declare about the Lord:
He alone is my refuge, my place of safety;
    he is my God, and I trust him.
3 For he will rescue you from every trap
    and protect you from deadly disease.
4 He will cover you with his feathers.
    He will shelter you with his wings.
    His faithful promises are your armor and protection.
5 Do not be afraid of the terrors of the night,
    nor the arrow that flies in the day.
6 Do not dread the disease that stalks in darkness,
    nor the disaster that strikes at midday.
7 Though a thousand fall at your side,
    though ten thousand are dying around you,
    these evils will not touch you.
8 Just open your eyes,
    and see how the wicked are punished.

9 If you make the Lord your refuge,
    if you make the Most High your shelter,
10 no evil will conquer you;
    no plague will come near your home.
11 For he will order his angels
    to protect you wherever you go.
12 They will hold you up with their hands
    so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.
13 You will trample upon lions and cobras;
    you will crush fierce lions and serpents under your feet!

14 The Lord says, “I will rescue those who love me.
    I will protect those who trust in my name.
15 When they call on me, I will answer;
    I will be with them in trouble.
    I will rescue and honor them.
16 I will reward them with a long life
    and give them my salvation.”

Musings About Fathers

Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him. Psalm 103:13 (NASB)

A few weeks ago I asked folks on Facebook and through email to answer these two questions:

What is one character trait you like about your father?
What is one character trait you don't like about your father?

I received quite a few answers! After reviewing the answers, I realized a couple of things. 1) Most of us could/would provide an answer for each question. 2) While we were being honest about our father's character traits, in most cases I could tell that not liking a character trait didn't mean that we didn't love our fathers, it meant we could see things we didn't like and loved them anyway.

This made me wonder about our relationship with God. Many people blame God for things and think he doesn't love them because things don't work out the way they want. We want the good from God but not necessarily the bad. Why is that?

I began to think about our relationships with people. If someone we know well, we've shared life with, experienced ups and downs and loved each other through it all does something to hurt us, we are more likely to forgive or overlook the offense. We are more likely to do that because there are memories we've shared, things we've walked through, we know the person really well and we know their heart.

I think it's the same with God. If we don't have a relationship with him, if we haven't walked with him and shared experiences with him, we haven't been able to learn to trust him. Trust is built through experiences and time. So let me ask you,

What is one character trait you like about God?
What is one character trait you don't like about God?

I'll tell you my answer. I love how intimate he is. He talks to us about what is important to us so that we can be in a relationship with him. And the one thing I don't like? I don't like it when he is growing me and he asks me to wait to see what the plan is.

Are you having a hard time answering those questions? That's OK. God wants you to know him so well that the answers will rattle off your tongue. He wants you to trust him so deeply that even when things go wrong you are OK because you know he's got this. He is taking care of it even if you don't know the plan.

It's never too late to build a relationship with your Heavenly Father. Never. Start by having a conversation with him. He's listening.....