My Father, My Father!

My Father, My Father

"All who follow the leading of God's Spirit are God's own sons. Nor are you meant to relapse into the old slavish attitude of fear - you have been adopted into the very family circle of God and you can say with a full heart, "Father, my Father." The Spirit himself endorses our inward conviction that we really are the children of God." Romans 8:14-15 (J.B. Phillips translation)

I shared with you yesterday that I arrived in New Hampshire early Saturday morning for my grandson, Tanner's, fourth birthday. He kept asking if I was coming, and because of things happening at America's KESWICK, I was not able to attend. God rearranged my schedule so that I could go.

I crawled into the sofa bed with Jan around 1 and when Tanner came downstairs on Saturday morning, he wanted to climb in bed with "Granny" to snuggle. I was hiding under the covers when he climbed on the bed, which he told Jan was lumpy. She told him to get under the covers. I wish you could have seen the look on his face when he pulled back the covers and there I was. He yelled, "Pop-pop! My Pop-Pop!" It was one of those moments that will be forever etched on the hard drive of my brain.
It erased the memory of the 8.5 hour drive through the traffic.

Through the next couple of hours he was attached to me like a fly on honey. He wasn't about to let me out of his sight. He was taking delight in me, and I was taking delight in him.

Several weeks ago I was talking with one of my staff members who is a grandfather. His "grands" are in the teen years now and he shared this advice with me. "Take advantage of this time now when your grandkids are young. Right now they think you are everything. They can't wait to see you and be with you. You light up their lives. Something happens when they hit their teen years - all of a sudden their world is different. They are busy with their stuff and all of a sudden you aren't quite as important or as special as you used to be."

Unfortunately that is a picture of what the Christian life is for so many of us. When we first get saved, we are so excited about our relationship with the Lord. He is our everything. We have fallen head over heels in love with Him. We seem to discover Him everywhere. Every time we turn around He is showing up, and we find ourselves say, "My Poppa - My Poppa!"

But then the joy seems to wane and we get wrapped up in our own little worlds. Instead of spending time with Him consistently, we find ourselves busy with the stuff of life. Before long, we find ourselves in love with other things and people. He moves from being first place in our lives to second, third, and sadly, sometimes he's not even on the list.

He longs to be the delight of your life. He wants you to long for Him.
He wants to spend time with you. He delights when we pull back the covers of life and discover he is there in the expected places and you cry out with glee, "My Father, My Father!" It's not too late to get back to that point in your life. He's still there. He's waiting. Tell Him. Open your heart to Him. Fall back in love with the Savior. It will be worth it, my friend. - Bill Welte is President and CEO of America's KESWICK

God's WORD for YOU: Proverbs 14; Isaiah 43-44; 1 Thessalonians 2

Think about this one: "Books can take a person all over the world - a driver's library card will take you further than a driver's license." Rueben Martinez