In my Father's hand...
John 10:28-30
"28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
"29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.
"30 I and my Father are one."
Daniel and I were in the car waiting for Gayle to get off of work... Daniel was crying up a storm and I knew what he wanted, at least I thought I did. I get out of the car and sit in the back seat with him anyway. He is all figidity. He is waving his arms and crying big time. I grab his hand and hold it... to let him know that I am there. That was all that it took to calm him down and for God to teach me something. We don't know what is ahead for any of us but we need to know that we are in our Father's hand.
NO MAN CAN PLUCK US OUT OF HIS HAND.
Our Lord God Almighty is there and he hears and he cares. My mind went back to Daniel. Daniel doesn't know that I can't do all things... Yet he was in perfect peace when he knew that he was in my hand. He went right to sleep. But I do claim to know that I know that God can do all things and I claim to know that I am in my Father's hand... Yet at times, I am not all that calm, secure in my mind, emotions, etc. when I have submitted myself and the problems to him...
Psa. 4:8
"8 I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety."
Why does a little boy who doesn't know very much now seem to have more trust in me that I seem to have in my Father in heaven? As we grow in this world system and not in our relationship with God then when things come against us, confuse us, we don't know really where to turn since we haven't been trusting in the Lord much over the years. Our kid is a new born, he is reaching out and if I or Gayle don't come through for him then his trust in us will waver and the more that we fail him, the more his trust will falter towards us. We need to show ourselves faithful if we want his trust, his dependence on us.
Back to God, He sware by himself since he could swear by none greater. I have the God of the universe living in me and if I don't seek his face, call upon his name continually then I probably won't when I have a bad need or hurt or problem.
If we just want a father in the bad times then we don't really want a father, we want a protector, helper but not someone who really cares about us, who wants a relationship with us.
It is like the illustration that I use with people when we talk about "God won't send anyone to hell, he is too loving". I make it plain that he is too loving not to send people to hell who reject his love, his mercy, his sacrifice in Jesus Christ.
We will talk about this next time when I talk about not being in the Father's hand... but for now let's talk about being in the Father's hand...
Back to God the Father, if we don't trust God then we won't be calling out to him very much... It is common logic, we call out to someone who we believe can and will help us... We won't normally waste our time calling to someone that we don't think will help us...
God said in his word,
"3 Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not."
(Jer. 33:3)
We also see that he didn't hold back his Son and with him comes...anything and everything needed in this life...
Rom. 8:32
"32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?"
Since God gives us so many natural illustrations to show a little bit of the supernatural then we need to look around... I have a wife and I would do anything within reason that I could do for her... Jesus has a wife, the church, and he would do anything that she allows him to do for her within reason. Those things that are righteous, not wrong, clean pure, etc.
It must be good for the bride OR she must need it.
It must help her and not hurt her.
It must be coming by way of the spirit in tune with the Spirit of God then it won't be to feed the flesh nature, sin nature...
I also see that Jesus is a friend that is closer than a brother... Remember the Old Testament is all about Jesus Christ. He made that plain by his statement in John 5:39,40.
Prov. 18:24
"24 A man that hath friends must show himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother."
This is another type of Jesus Christ... He truly sticks closer than any brother...
John 15
"15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you."
Now, the Almighty God becomes man and not only a man but a servant to man...
Think about it, he was spit on, beat, whipped, stripped and he kept on loving us...
That is above comprehension...
It is incredible...
Mark 10:42-45
"42 But Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them.
"43 But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister:
"44 And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all.
"45 For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many."
We are saved to be conformed to his image... Jesus is showing us here that those who will be great up there are the ones who are servants down here... We are not to be seeking vain glory, prestige, or whatever but to serve one another in love...
Gal.5:13
"13 For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another."
We are called the "family of God", "the body of Christ", "children of God", "the bride of Christ", etc. God uses these words, types to show us how important we are to him. He loves us and wants the best for our lives and so many times we put him on the shelf...
We need to see how important we are to him even though there is nothing in us that makes us so important, we have spit in his face time and time again by the things we do, the things we say... A parent doesn't give up on his kids cause they do things wrong or miss the boat. God is a far better Father, parent than anyone down here...
Rom. 8:38,39
"38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
"39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
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