Glimpses of the Father's Heart

Psalm 8:3-4 says "When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers . . . . what is man that You take thought of him?"

take thought - (Heb) - "to mark, take note of, to burn into the memory"

A friend and I were praying one night and began to speak in prayer some of the things that our Father "takes thought of" regarding us. I thought you'd like to hear from Him today too.

Can you imagine His finger writing on your heart?

You are mine!

I love you!

I bought you with a price!

I love it when you worship me.

I love when you open your heart to Me.

I love inhabiting your praises.

I've been looking for you.

I've been waiting for you and here you are!

I knew you would come back.

Come on in to My secret place.

Let Me hold you.

Climb up into my lap and rest

I really am all you need.

I have the answers to your questions.

I have loved you with an everlasting love!

Don't be afraid.

My thoughts toward you are good.

My plans are to give you a future and a hope.

Nothing is too hard for Me.

Let Me show you the depths, heights and widths of My love.

Where You Haven't Gone Before

Romans 6:4 - "Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life."


Romans 7:6 - "But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter."


newness - kainotes - (kahee-not'-ace) - freshness, renewal, not simply an experience similar to the past, but a qualitative different one; having not been this way before

Each summer I watch our mulberry tree in the front yard bear new fruit. I have the joy of picking those berries and enjoying them on pancakes and in my cereal. For many years now, we've cared for that tree by pruning it and watering it. It's amazing to watch it's renewal each year!

Just as that tree brings fruit to our table each summer, so there is a process where I may have renewal or "freshness" as well. As an act of my faith, I identify with Christ in His death so that I may experience that resurrection life.

The above two passages are the only places this word "newness" is used in the Bible. It stems from the same intitial experience (salvation) but produces a qualitatively different experience from past experiences. In Christian circles, that "experience" is sometimes called "growth" or "maturity". It is more than the acquiring of more knowledge. It is literally walking by the Spirit out into places we've not yet been.

I find it interesting that many of us want to "grow" and experience the Father more, but going where we've never gone before makes us anxious. So, the tension between our desire to grow and the anxiousness of the unknown can cause us to "freeze" in our tracks. The wonderful thing about the Father, though, is that He knows where we should grow and will continually "draw" us to that growth. That "drawing" might look like a desire to be with certain people. It might look like wanting to read the Bible more. It might look like talking to the Father more than ever before.

Suddenly we find that the "pain of remianing the same is greater than the pain of change". Taking the step out into "the wide open spaces" of the Father becomes a joy. It's found that all along He was leading and creating hunger for more of Him. Our vision of Him is qualitatively larger and keener. There are new areas of Him that open to us. Courage to keep going rises because of the way He met us for the current step of growth. That is a picture of the "newness" of life in the Spirit!

Just as I know my mulberry tree has in it the potential for bearing fruit, so I know the Father has put in us the potential for growth.

It's a wonderful time to grow!

God's Kind of Heart

Psalm 51:17 "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise."

broken - shabar (shaw-bar') - to burst, to break into small pieces where the inner parts are exposed

contrite - dakah (daw-kaw) - to pulverize to mere dust; to crush; has the picture of reducing to the consistency to talcum powder

despise - bazah (baw-zaw') - put to shame; take away esteem

Have you ever watched your kids get caught at something and there was that "moment"? You know, the "moment" when they are deciding which is the best way to go - give you that innocent "kid" smile or that "ok I'm caught, now what?" look! King David had those very choices himself when he make unwise choices, tried to hide himself and then came full circle back to the bare truth that he had sinned "against God and God alone". (Ps 51:4). While our kids may or may not understand that, I believe the sooner we all learn it, the sooner we will come to love the "wonder" of brokenness.

This study is not about the sin or the repentance. It's about the work that God does after repentance (or right along with it). True repentance brings out a God given desire to "make it right" or somehow "do" something. God doesn't necessarily want those kinds of "sacrifices". What He loves to watch, with full loving, no shame acceptance, is a broken and contrite heart.

The heart, being the place of understanding and emotion, is where God loves to work. Being broken by Him involves having large or small issues be exposed to the light of His love. Remember, He doesn't dismantle our dignity - He has placed us in His Son, Christ Jesus. But He does want every part of our being flooded with His light. He does want our depravity exposed. That's where the Holy Spirit lovingly nudges and breaks into the hidden areas exposing the need for Him. We are not meant to be left hanging there exposed though. Thus, the next step of having a "contrite" heart.

"Contrite" has to do with being the consistency of a fine powder. Have you ever seen talcum powder? You know how fine it is? Originally, it was made from a rock yet pulverized to very fine powder. That "pulverizing" is a picture of the word "contrite". Now the purpose of being contrite is not to lose our identity. The chemical makeup (DNA) of the rock was the same whether in a rock form or a fine powder form. The difference was that the powder can stand on the surface of the water. It is pliable and much more conformable as talc than as a rock. The picture of a contrite person is one that has not lost his identity (I am still a child of the living God). But, he's one that has given all his "rights" and "ownership" to the surface of the place on which he rests (or floats)! Of course, we are IN Christ Jesus! We are not our own, we are bought with a price. It's the ultimate picture of "rest"! Who I am, rests completely on the plane of who He is. When I start walking in my own understanding - I sink like a rock!

Do you have a little different picture of entering in to His rest?

Oh awesome Father,
For every reader of this study, I pray for such hunger to be broken and contrite before You. We want to know the joy of seeing Your face looking at us without one hint of shame. More than anything, I pray that each of us will experience the "wonder" of rest in You. Truly Father, in You we live and move and have our being! Because of You, I say . . . Amen!