Moments with My Father
It’s a summertime Saturday in Idaho and I am thankful this day for so much. I am especially grateful as I read in the Psalms today about how our Father does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities, even though He hates sin and desires for us to live holy as He is holy. As high up above the earth as the heavens are, that is how great His love is for those who fear Him or stand in awe of Him. It is pretty easy to stand in awe of Him just by looking up to the heavens. His creation alone cries out how great He is and worthy to fear. He is perfect in every way and the only One who is qualified to be a judge of any of us and He is capable of taking any of us out at any moment into non-existence anywhere. Yikes!! I could be scared, but because He is perfect love, His perfect love drives out ungodly and unhealthy fear. Because He is compassionate towards us as His children, He has proved His love to us in sending Jesus into the world to make the sacrifice needed to cover our sin so that we can be reconciled to Him, the Holy God He is, who has no association with sin. He did what it took to have a healthy relationship with you and me instead of just writing us off. I am so thankful for that! As imitators and models of Him, so we should put forth the effort to go the extra to have a healthy relationship with others. We all struggle in life with imperfections. It seems that in this day and age, people repay people by giving up on relationships far too quickly when someone doesn’t live up to their expectation(s) or desires all the while they are forgetting their own falling short. A whole new perspective comes to view when we reflect on how our Father treats us and His Word that tells us to love our neighbor as our self. While I do not take lightly His desire for me to be holy as He is, as my self, it makes me very thankful to know my Father loves me and accepts me as blameless through Jesus even though on my own I’m not perfect as He. If two people both look to the cross work done for each one personally, it greatly provides the humility and the comforting love needed to keep a relationship going. I stand humbled and blessed by the cross. “Thank you, Father.”
Psalm 103:8-22; 1 Jn 4:13-21; Jn 3:16; Col 1:21-23