Daily Devotional
Word of the Day
Who Is God To You?
Pastor Scott
Sunday, February 08, 2004
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"Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a-preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water."
Who are you praying to when you pray, "Our Father which art in heaven"? Jesus wants you to understand that you have a Father who knows what you have need of (Matt. 6:8). Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all of these other things that the pagans are concerned with will be provided for you according to the love of your Father (Matt. 6:33). Do you understand who your Father is? Are you seeking first your Father, or are you seeking things? Do you want God to explain Himself to you as to why you're in the trial that you're in? Or will you express love, joy and thankfulness for who God is? Do you know that where you are, He will make you what you need to be for His glory? Beloved, you will never give God His proper glory until you can begin to free yourself from a wrong image of who your Father is.
There's a powerful spirit in this day and age that influences and vexes us. Our minds are inundated constantly with the spirit of humanism. The strongest spirit that you and your children will face in our generation is humanism--the deification of man. It has always been the premiere power, from the time the devil told Eve, "The minute you eat, your eyes will be opened and you will become as gods!" Man's eyes were opened, that knowledge entered in, and man became as God to himself.
When you pray, "Our Father," what are you really praying? Is the God that you serve a god who's been created to serve you? Who is God to you? What role does your Father play in your life? Is your heavenly Father no different than your earthly father--someone who stood in your way from doing your will? Or is your Father someone to be honored, reverenced, and acknowledged as knowing more than you do? Do you acknowledge Him as someone who's not trying to hinder your life, but setting a course for your good?
"...Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name" (Matt. 6:9). Holy is His name. Who is God to you? Do you understand who He is? Do you understand His love? Do you understand the accessibility you have to your Father? So many of us have had such lousy, performance-oriented relationships with our parents that we have never known absolute, unconditional love. Perfect love will never come from the natural realm in a parent or in a spouse. So as you pursue your Father and look at who He is, He reveals Himself in a number of absolute statements in the Word--"God is love," "God is light" (1 John 4:8, 1:5). This phrase that "God is light" speaks of the fact that God is pure and accessible; it refers to His holiness, to His majesty, to His accessibility. He said, "Of those that come to Me, I will turn none away" (John 6:37). "Come unto Me all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28). "No man can pluck you from My hand" (John 10:28). "Of those that the Father has given Me, I have lost none" (John 17:12). Do you understand how secure you are in the love of your Father? This plan of redemption has reached out to embrace, engulf and secure you. As long as you abide in His love and believe the love that God has to you, you are inaccessible to eternal death.