Our Heavenly Father Is Reaching Out to You: Experiencing Our Heavenly Father, Part 14

by | Apr 4, 2020 | Experiencing Our Heavenly Father, Forgiveness, Love, Salvation

“My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God.” (1 John 4:7, MSG)

I have only recently retired from being a teacher. Throughout my entire career in the classroom, I learned a few important lessons. I learned that showing my students I cared about them would spur them on to do their best. When they would ask me if they could help me, I always accepted their offer because I knew that learning to help one another makes such a difference in this world. I truly experienced the truth that genuine love makes for a perfect classroom.

I remember this one student, however, who thought I was a fake. I tried to help him, but it was obvious that he didn’t trust me. How I wished I knew why he was so against me! Then one day I found out. I learned that his dad had left his mom and had married another woman. As a result, this student did not trust men. In fact, he didn’t trust adults at all!

I continued to try to reach him; but nothing helped. To him, I was a fake, just like the other men in his life. He had been hurt so deeply that he just couldn’t trust others anymore. He had learned to rely only on himself.

I felt so sad for this student, but there are times when all we can do is leave the situation in the arms of God. I did this, and every day I went to school early to pray over his desk before he arrived.

You see, where there is no love and no trust, we have a recipe for being badly hurt. Unfortunately this also happens in churches. In fact, it can happen anywhere in the world. There is only One who never hurt anyone. His name is Jesus Christ. He did not come to harm us, He came to heal our brokenness.

I still pray for this student. I wish he could read the following text: “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn—and I would heal them.” (John 12:40 NIV)

In this life, we will encounter people who have been hurt. In fact, we will be hurt ourselves. When that happens, we need to pray and trust in God. I wish I could meet this student again. It would be so good to see if he has allowed God to do the amazing things He has for those who have been hurt.

The truth is, our Heavenly Father is constantly reaching out to us. Even if we are rebels or we have made terrible decisions, God’s response to us is this: “This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.” (1 john 4;8-10, MSG)

God is not our enemy. He loves us. Jesus took our mistakes to the cross. He took our sins away for eternity so that we will be able to come to an understanding of just how deeply our Heavenly Father loves us.

If you have been hurt and find it hard to trust, I suggest that you review the above Bible texts. This is Truth. Real Truth. God loves you forever. He will never ignore you. You are His precious child: “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1 NIV)

Would a mother hate her child?

Never.

Even more so with our loving Father.

You are loved and God will forgive you. The one that hates is the evil one. He will make you believe that God doesn’t love you, but he is a liar: “He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44, NIV)

Don’t listen to the evil one! Instead, I suggest that you read the following Bible text every day for a month. As you meditate upon the Word of God, His Truth will become real to you, thanks be to God our Father! “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:37-39, NIV)

Rob Chaffart

(To access the entire “Experiencing Our Heavenly Father” devotional series, please click here.)

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Our Heavenly Father Is Reaching Out to You: Experiencing Our Heavenly Father, Part 14

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