Good morning!
Welcome to your morning coffee! May our Heavenly Father teach us and grow us and guide us today by the power of the Holy Spirit! God, we need your constant, unfailing, grace-full love. We are desperate for you, for your presence. And if we're not desperate, if we have forgotten our undeniable dependence on you, today remind us. We need you Father, in the name of your son Jesus, by the Spirit living with us, to love us today. Please love us today God! On your terms, not ours. Thank you Father.
Your Morning Song: "Yahweh" by Rend Collective Experiment
Your Morning Scripture: Proverbs 3:11-12
My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline
or be weary of his reproof,
for the Lord reproves him whom he loves,
as a father the son in whom he delights.
Leaving the house.
One of the most difficult things to do when you have young children. Every time I go to work I hear one of my children shout, "I want hugs and kisses!" And then, like a flock of seagulls, they're all yelling, "hugs and kisses!" Even my youngest, the baby, joins in, growling and smiling and scooching after me across the floor.
And so even though we were just in Proverbs 3 yesterday, it calls out to us, wanting just a little more time with us.
But that image of a child clinging to a father, delighting in their father's love, can be applied even further.
Do we treat God this way? Do we delight in him? Do we love him with the trusting, desperate love of a child?
Because it is hard sometimes. Because sometimes God's love for us seems hard to understand. Because sometimes what he does and allows to happen in our lives seems hard to accept as love.
Let's make a clear distinction. I am not talking about the fallenness and evil in the world, a worthy, rich, fruitful discussion for another time.
I am talking about discipline. Do you think God cares more about your happiness? Or your holiness?
Our God is very, very good Father. The best! And he longs to grow us and nurture us into the most full, complete, mature son and daughter that we were meant to be. And he does not demand this growth of us and leave us to do it ourselves.
No.
He does it for us, in us, with us. Making us evermore into the image of his beauty-full, wonder-full Son, Jesus.
God's discipline and testing in our lives is for our good! For our growth! And we should delight in this kind of maturing, enriching love. As we come to him in prayer, in reading his word, in worship, and in fellowship with others, why should it be a surprise that we must grow? Is it so offensive that we should be transformed?
No. It is a deep, abiding, delighting love.
Rejoice in our Father who loves us enough to teach us and grow us evermore!
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