I’m sitting here in awe and amazement at the fathers love for me. Do you sometimes feel so overwhelmed by God’s goodness to you?
For those of you that are not familiar with my story. I grew up with out a father. I never had the opportunity to meet my dad. He moved out of state when I was two and him and my mom never stayed in contact. Twelve years ago after searching for information on my dad I was sad to discover that he had passed away at the age of 34 when I was just seven years old. I was able to find his sister and we talked and exchanged information. It was a lot for me to process and I wasn’t sure how much more information I could take at the time. Life got busy and I forgot all about our conversations and went on with Life.
A week ago I received a message on facebook from my dad’s sister. It has been an emotional process as I have been able to talk with cousins, learn more about my dad, family history etc. Every picture, every story, every phone conversation has been treasured. The biggest gift though came last night when I received a long email from my cousin. He informed me that his dad use to party with my dad. Years later my cousins dad became a Christian. My cousin said that his dad had the opportunity to visit my dad in the hospital before he died. He said his dad presented the gospel to him and that my dad had accepted Christ before he died.
Reading this letter I couldn’t compose myself. Did I read that correctly? Am I really reading these words? I had Jason re read the letter and my oldest son came and held me tight. How great to share this with them. I had wondered, why after all this time and now the Lord wanted me to connect with my fathers family. Why now? Don’t get me wrong I was grateful. Grateful to connect with them, grateful to hear the stories but still wondered why now. God knew hearing that my dad accepted Christ would mean the world to me. He didn’t have to give me this gift but he did. Wow! Our God loves us so personally it blows my mind sometimes.
When we begin to let God overwhelm us with His love, grace, power, Spirit, provision, we will see Him work in and through our lives in glorious ways. I really believe that God’s will is for us to become overwhelmed with His goodness and His grace instead of being overwhelmed with our problems and trials. When we change our focus and perspective, something beautiful happens, a change so dramatic and so real that the problems we were previously overwhelmed with pale in comparison to the peace, contentment and joy that we find in Christ. I find this to be true over and over again in my life.
For every measure of suffering, God has returned to me a measure of his grace, for every measure of pain, a measure of love and victory in Christ. For every fear, a calm and peace, for every need, a provision. I’m so beyond grateful and pray that you all would feel the fathers deep deep love for you.
If you have never made a conscious decision to bring Jesus Christ into your heart, then you can do so right now by praying and asking Him to come into your life. There’s no magic formula for the type of prayer that you need to pray, nor is there any special wording that would make one prayer better than another. As always, God looks at what is in our hearts when we utter our prayers, He understands and knows the condition of your heart and mind. But if you do want to ask Jesus Christ into your heart and life today, here are some suggested phrases that you can use as you pray:
• Lord, I admit that I have sinned against You and that I need Your forgiveness
• I believe that You died for my sins
• Jesus I ask You to come into my life
• I ask You to forgive my sins
• I give You the rest of my life
If this is the first time you have ever asked Christ to come into your life, I would encourage you to find someone and tell them that you just accepted Christ as your Savior and Lord. Please tell me I would LOVE to know and to be able to pray for you. I would also strongly urge you to become part of a church that preaches the Bible every Sunday so that you can begin to grow in your faith and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
