THE INTIMATE LOVE OF THE FATHER
“I will be a Father to you,
and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” 2 Corinthians 6:18
Not too long ago, Lydia, a
sister from South Africa, wrote to me. I believe that many of you would be able
to identify with what she shared about her struggles in relating to God as her
Father:
Dear Pastor Prince,
I grew up with very low
self-esteem, having been labeled the difficult child in my family. I was an
unplanned baby, and my parents already had one child—a girl, so they really
wanted a boy. They were disappointed when I turned out to be a girl and even
considered giving me to a paternal family member who did not have children.
My dad comes from a very
cold, strict family, and he has a very bad temper, so I grew up naturally
fearful of him and always felt like I was walking on eggshells around him. My
mom also grew up in a household where she had not received love. Both my
parents are extreme perfectionists, very organized, and raised us with military
discipline and no compassion.
Thus, I could never relate
to God as a Father. God was unapproachable and sitting with a lightning bolt
ready to strike me whenever I wasn’t good enough, didn’t pray enough, or wasn’t
obedient enough. I was under the impression that God was only pleased with me
when I obeyed the law, that I never met His expectations, and I was always
under condemnation.
Since encountering your
teaching resources, the veil in my life has been torn. For the first time, I am
free. I no longer walk under the heavy burden of condemnation. I learned that
God loved us first, and I can now have a love relationship with my heavenly
Father and Jesus.
I have experienced victory
over fear and sin that kept me captive for years—not by trying to be obedient,
but by just learning that my sins have already been forgiven on the cross. And
no, I am not sinning more now. I am actually overcoming more and sinning less,
and I have a grateful heart for what Christ has done on the cross.
Do you feel as though you
are never good enough, can never do enough and be obedient enough for God to
love and accept you? Do you feel you are always living under perpetual
condemnation? Perhaps you can’t relate to God as a loving Father because you’ve
never experienced the love of your earthly father or because your own father
has hurt you terribly.
My friend, I pray that as you begin to meditate on today's verse, you will supernaturally experience the intimate love of your heavenly Father in a deep and personal way as never before. I pray that this experience will heal, renew, restore, and transform you in a spectacular way because His love for you is nothing less than spectacular. (Article & Picture; courtesy of Joseph Prince Ministries used with kind permission).
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