This time of the year, I love to walk past playgrounds and to hear the happy laughter of children. Picture with me the beautiful sight of a Dad holding the hand of his young daughter. She gazes up at him with all the love you can imagine written all over her tiny face. Then also picture with me the expression on the face of the Dad. He looks down at his daughter with a deep tenderness and we can tell that he would do anything to protect and care for this small person who is his very own. He adores her. Do we recognize that this and so much more is how our loving Father God feels toward us. We read in I John 3:1 “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God.” This speaks of the immense generosity of God in the love He expresses for us. God our Father absolutely lavishes his love on us. He calls us His children because that is who we are. We all know that human fathers are imperfect and their love is imperfect. Contrast this limited view of love with the infinite love of our Father God that is poured out on us. Evidence of God lavishing His love on us is that He thinks of us in such a tender way as His much loved children. We can hold on to this understanding of God our Father loving us to this extent when we pause for our WEDNESDAY PRAYER TOGETHER tomorrow June 15th at 1 pm.
Praying that we will grow ever closer in relationship with our loving Father God in heaven, Pastor Lola
Our Father God, knowing how You regard us as Your children is a remarkable gift. You have given us this gift of life here and now. And beyond that, You love us with an everlasting love. Thank you that You consider us Your children. We recognize that we are Your very own, dearly loved children. It is only because of Your Son Jesus that we are brought into Your family and become Your children. How can we respond to this kind of love our Father God? We want to respond by declaring our love for You and our commitment to You. We experience the embrace of Your great love for us and we want to love You in return. Thank You God that You love us as we are and we never have to be good enough to earn or deserve Your love. Our God, as we consider the depth of Your love for us, we thank You both for answered and as yet unanswered prayers. Thank You God our Father for the assurance that You do know what we need. You understand every detail and so we continue to turn to You as Your children and to ask You to care for us and those we love. And God we pray for families. We think of the extreme pressure that families are under. Please God remind all of us that we do not face the challenges of family life alone. In our thoughts now we pray for fathers. We thank you for loving fathers who have reflected Your kind of love. For families where fathers have fallen far short of your kind of love, we pray for healing of brokenness and damaged emotions. For fathers who long to have wisdom in the ways they guide and care for their families, we trust You loving God to provide this. Thank You God that our families and homes can be places of Your love and grace. Please help us to love with the same kind of generosity that You possess. Our God, we want to lavish Your love on our families and on people who do not feel as if they belong and matter to anyone. As we pray today, we ask that this Fathers’ Day weekend will be a time of blessing and a time of acknowledging our dependence on You. We want to carry our name as Your children with gratitude and pleasure. We do not ever want to be ashamed that we belong to You. Our prayer is that people will look at us and see the family resemblance. We want to be recognized as Your children by the love that we both know and show. We trust You Father God, for all these things we pray in Jesus’ Name. AMEN.