God’s Love WILL Overwhelm You and Cause You to Love Him MORE! If You’ll Let it.
Isaiah 11:6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
Jesus at times used children to express the mindset we should have in approaching our Heavenly Father and the Father’s Love for His children.
Matthew 18:1-3 At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
Sometimes we get a little to “grownup” and mature to think like a child and miss the simplicity of things God desires us to understand. When a child brings an issue to us that’s important to them we find it easy to say, “Oh that’s nothing” but to them it is something big. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for discounting children crying out for Jesus to “Save Them.”
Matthew 21:14-16 Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant 16 and said to Him, “Do You hear what these are saying?”
And Jesus said to them, “Yes. Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise’?”
Hosanna G5614- “oh save!” is a Greek word coming from 2 Hebrew words, “yasha” H3467- to be safe and “na” H4994- to incite, entreat, “I pray”
Three of our grandchildren ages 7, 6, and 3 spent most of the day yesterday and slept over last night while their mom and dad left for 2 days to celebrate their anniversary. They had slept at the other grandparents house the night before last. My wife told me that last night after I went to bed the 7 yr old, with tears in his eyes, said he was really lonesome for his mom and dad. She told him, “they’ll be back tomorrow”. She continued to play a card game with the 6 yr old while the 7 yr old quietly played on his tablet. She said after a little while the 7 yr old showed her a “selfie” that he had took and edited with a photo app on the tablet. It was a pic of his face. On top he wrote Mom and Dad and from his eyes he drew 2 blue lines, “tears” streaming down.
She then told me the 6 yr old said, “that picture makes me want to cry” but he didn’t. Her telling me the story this morning made me cry and want to write about the lesson Father God desires to teaches us through his tender eyes and heart.
The 6 yr old is the “macho” of the 2 boys liking to only wear muscle shirts and holds back crying too often. The 7 yr old is so very tenderhearted. He sometimes asks if he can pray for an injury he sees or hears about and is attentive to the needs of others. Sometimes we ask him to pray for us as we have seen his prayers get answered. Without being asked last night he brought out the buns, hot dogs and marshmallows as I got the fire pit ready.
God is definitely doing something special in the 7 yr olds heart and life but their parents deserve credit too because they are raising them in the biblical way that Deuteronomy 6:6-7 and Deuteronomy 11:18-21 expresses. They are home schooled and each day starts with both parents there, one of them reads a chapter from the bible to the children and 3 worship songs are listened to.
So what does God desire to “lead us” to understand through the 7 yr olds picture. How many days does it take for us to become so lonesome for God’s Presence in our life that it brings us to tears. Many professing Christians find it easy to go a week without seeking God’s Face or even giving Him another thought. Some can even go almost a year without attending church except on Easter and Christmas. Most Christians say they Love God but how deep does that love go. I have said before that there were many things I did wrong in my life that I could have never done in the presence of my mother out of love and respect for her. But I did them in Full View of my Heavenly Father, (remember verses 7-10 of Psalm 139?) never giving a thought of how much it grieved Him. Now as I read when Paul writes “for the love of Christ constrains us” in verse 14 it’s with a new understanding. God’s Love for us should compel us to Love Him with “at least” the love I found natural to express for my mother.
From today’s devotional reading we see that even after the cruel death of Jesus, those who had a great love for Him longed to be near Him, even His severely beaten and mangled body.
DailyPlan : one-year-tract : 2019-08-03 #Bible https://www.mydailybible.org/dp/esv/one-year-tract/2019-08-03.htm
Mark 16:1-3 When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. 2 And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. 3 And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?”
God will never force us to seek or follow Him but the cords of Love are so strong. Jesus, in His Omniscient Divinity, only a few days before He too was killed by them said this of His Love for their children.
Matthew 23: 37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!
The bible says if we judge ourselves then God won’t judge us. We need to sincerely ask God to show us the hindrances that get in our way of spending the quality time in God’s Presence we desperately need. Ask Father God to place a desire in your heart to truly have a hunger and thirst for Him. It’s one of those prayers He will NEVER close His ears to. A lot of my relationship with God comes from a prayer I believe He put in my mind years ago that even when I’m tempted to be lead astray brings me back to Him.
Psalm 37:4 Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
I add, “Lord put into my heart the desires that you want me to have”.
I found this video yesterday that says almost the same thing in a different way. “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled” Matthew 5:6
Ephesians 3
The Mystery Revealed – verses 1-7
Purpose of the Mystery – verses 8-13
Appreciation of the Mystery
14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, 21 to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
In The Word 