God the Father - MY Father...

It seems as though the one thing you can count on in life, is change... My life has changed so drastically within the last five years that when I stop to take a look at it, sometimes I'm floored by all the changes I've weathered...

Except for one.  One constant in my life and that is Jesus.  I stopped for a moment when I typed that - I was going to put "God."  But I found myself feeling more comfortable writing Jesus' name and I had a revelation that God sent Jesus for that very reason.  To make Himself more personable to us... I know that there is one God in three - God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.  Three in One.  But I just had a revelation that I'm more comfortable acknowledging two of the three.  Jesus - because He is God manifested in man and the Holy Spirit - because I am comfortable with Him.  I FEEL Him, I know Him personally because He  resides in ME... But God the Father - wow... I need to work on that side... The Father side... That is the one I have a  hard time identifying with... I suppose it is because depending upon how your relationship has been with your earthly father affects how your relationship is with your Heavenly Father.

We live in an imperfect world.  As a parent myself, I am aware of ALL my imperfections. There is no perfect parent.  I pray every day that my kids will see through my weaknesses, my faults, my imperfections that they have a mom who loves them with all her heart to the best of my capability.  As a parent, I know that God has only loaned them to me for a while, but they belong to Him.  I make sure I point out to them that I am imperfect, and that while I love them - God loves them MORE and that they should keep their eyes on Him and not on me. God is perfect and will never disappoint them - I am not, and I will.  I have noticed that a lot of people when it comes to faith have given up on God because of what "people" have done in their lives.  They blame God for the actions that people have done.  They turn away from God because of people. God gets the brunt of our disappointment and anger.  When all along, it wasn't His actions, it was ours...  He has been the scapegoat.  When all He has been, has been honest since the very beginning...

In the book of Genesis God clearly gave Adam direction and rules - like any good parent does.  He spelled it out for Him.  He blessed Him abundantly with ALL that was around Him.  Yet He told Him the one thing He shouldn't do.

"The LORD God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die." (Genesis 2:16-17)

He gave Adam everything - but one thing, because He knew what was best for Adam.  He was Adam's Father. Adam walked with God.  He fellowshipped with Him.  God allowed Him to name ALL the animals in the world.  God showed Adam such love from the very moment He created Him and blew he breath of life into his nostrils and when He saw that Adam was lonely.  He made him woman...

The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." (Genesis 2:18)

Once again an example of how thoughtful and caring "God the Father" is.  Anticipating Adam's needs before Adam was even aware what those needs were.

When we are young, we are so self-involved that we (especially in this society) take our parents for granted.  We think "you were never young, you don't understand!" Or because we are so self-involved we don't see the wisdom in what our parents say... Until we grow up and have children of our own...  And we make our own mistakes and we see our own faults and we come into the knowledge of how valuable our parents are.  (If you grew up in a healthy emotional home). 

When Adam and Eve fell - sin entered into the world.  There were no longer "perfect" relationships.  In a sinful fallen world, you have sinful fallen people.  And that is what we are.  But again, "God the Father" loved us.  In spite of the pain we caused Him.  Can you imagine how hurt and devastated  He was over Adam and Eve's fall?  Now I know that God knows everything and He knows what is going to happen before it even does!  But maybe somewhere He was hoping that Adam and Eve wouldn't give into the temptation to do what He had told them not... Maybe somewhere He was saying, "Come on now, don't do it... I know what pain this will cause you... Don't do it! Heed me!  Don't do it! I know the results that will  throughout the course of time - Choose me!  Choose me!!!"

But Adam and Eve did not. They listened to the lies of the devil and were deceived.  But our wonderful God.  God the Father, already had another plan in place - in case using the "free will" that He had blessed them with, they chose otherwise and although I'm sure it pained Him from having to follow up with the consequences He had indicated would occur if they ate from the tree He had clearly told them not to, He followed forth with what He told them would occur. The results of their willful, disobedient actions.  He sent us Jesus.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)

How often in our own lives have we chosen to go against what God has told us to do?  The Bible is our instruction manual.  It is filled with guidance and wisdom and direction.  Yet we often choose not to follow what it says... We listen to our flesh, we decide to go with "If it feels good - do it." Or we rebelliously think we know more than God. I'm old enough to know and to see how much I do not... Regret?  Regret is when you realize that you should have listened to God and His direction all along.  Knowledge - is when you recognize the wisdom of His direction... Wisdom - is when you choose to follow it and realize that throughout your life, it will be a struggle... And that it is truly nothing but God's mercy, His grace, His love, His forgiveness and His overwhelming patience with us that allows us to "get right back up" when we miss the mark and try again. 

He loved us enough to manifest as man.  To come down as man - He made it personal.  He "lowered" himself to our level.  He came down from Heaven - to meet us where we were at... He didn't have to do that - but He did... Why?  Because He loves us...

He loves us... Individually, specially, fully, totally, completely, unselfishly, mercifully... YOUR FATHER - GOD THE FATHER loves YOU. 

At the beginning of this post, I felt closer to Jesus and the Holy Spirit ( our comforter) than I did God the Father - but now, having re-thought this.  I can honestly say, I love you Father.  Thank you so much for loving ME in spite of  my self... Hopefully you who are reading this - are feeling the same...