A transformational spiritual exercise to help you sense that God is your gracious Father
I want to share a helpful devotional practice I have been using in recent months. It has been spiritually rich for me, and it transforms my understanding of God and my feelings about him.
Normally I use this devotional practice first thing in the morning. I commonly wake up in the morning with the sense that I am unworthy, and that God does not feel good about me, probably stemming from the notion that I must earn my way with him and deserve his love. A few months ago I began intentionally focusing at these times on God as my gracious Father, and I meditate one by one on the qualities that constitute his gracious fatherhood.
Depending on how much time I have, I might do this for 10 minutes, or for an hour. But there is a sweetness to it always, and by the end of this meditation the negative feelings are gone.
Example
Here is what I typically say:
Gracious Father, your favor toward me is my treasure and delight.
Gracious Father, your benevolence [goodwill] toward me is my treasure and delight.
Gracious Father, your beneficence [good works] in my life is my treasure and delight.
Gracious Father, your generosity toward me is my treasure and delight.
Gracious Father, your love for me is my treasure and delight.
Gracious Father, your kindness toward me is my treasure and delight.
Gracious Father, your gentleness with me is my treasure and delight.
Gracious Father, your goodness toward me is my treasure and delight.
Gracious Father, your listening to my prayers and answering them is my treasure and delight.
Gracious Father, your forgiveness toward me is my treasure and delight.
Gracious Father, your mercy toward me is my treasure and delight.
Gracious Father, your adoption of me as your son is my treasure and delight.
Meditation
With each line I pause and meditate on that reality, letting the words sink in and do their work, giving the Holy Spirit room to reveal the truth of it. He does that time and again. The exercise is repetitive but has never been rote.
At the heart of what it means to know God is to know him as gracious Father. This devotional practice has transformed not just my mornings, but my experiential knowledge of God.
God’s call for repentance perfectly fits his nature.
What did the gospel preaching of John the Baptist and Jesus have in common? Matthew describes the initial message of each man:
John the Baptist — “In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand’” (Matthew 3:1–2, ESV).
Jesus — “From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand’” (Matthew 4:17).
At the onset of a new era, the everlasting era of the glorious kingdom of God, each man preached the same one-word imperative: repent.
That was not a new idea. Repent was an important, frequently used word under the Old Mosaic Covenant. Yet here was that word again, on the lips of John the Baptist and Jesus, as the gospel preaching of the New Covenant begins. Repent.
It continued in the preaching of Paul, the apostle of grace, who said he testified “both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21).
What does this tell us about God?
Repentance and truth
First, it reminds us that the forgiveness and mercy offered through Jesus does not compromise God’s concern for truth one iota.
The most searing display of repentance under the Old Covenant was that of King David after his adultery with Bathsheba and cold-hearted murder of loyal Uriah. In the throes of repentance, David wrote Psalm 51, the expression of repentance without equal in the history of literature, and it is painful to read. Verse 6 records one key concept recalled by David, “Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being.”
Repentance is a central theme in the good news of Jesus because when God offers amazing grace he never strays a fraction of a degree from his perfect commitment to absolute truth. We cannot be saved apart from telling the truth about God and the truth about ourselves. Our heart must believe and our lips must confess that we have sinned against a holy God and against his holy laws.
We must acknowledge that we are in the wrong and he is in the right. We cannot undo the wrongs of our lives, but we can fully embrace the truth. Although we have been bad, the truth is good; and because the truth is good, repentance is good. In the embrace of repentance we actually become like God in his pursuit of truth.
Repentance and righteousness
Second, the centrality of repentance in the message of the gospel tells us that the grace of God offered in Christ does not compromise God’s concern for righteousness and holiness.
In Jesus, God offers the forgiveness of sins, not a license for lawlessness or a pass on purity. The love-based commands of God still matter because they are right, because they reflect the unchanging heart of a righteous, holy God.
“The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” (Titus 2:11–14)
These verses describe true repentance and the connection of repentance to the grace of God.
Repentance and light
Third, the centrality of repentance in the gospel teaches us that “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).
A day is coming when God will shine the light on everything now in darkness.
Jesus warned, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops” (Luke 12:1–3).
The apostle Paul speaks of a coming day when “God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus” (Romans 2:16).
Hiding and ignoring our sins is an act of walking in darkness. Repentance is an act of coming into the light.
Therefore both John the Baptist and Jesus proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom of God: Repent.
Our way and God’s way
Our way: Fallen sinners prefer the cover of darkness.
God’s way: God saves sinners by bringing them into the light of his holy truth and giving them the grace of repentance. Praise to God for his light, truth, righteousness, and holiness! All praise to God that his gospel does not compromise these in the least! Eternal praise to God that his grace does not foster moral darkness, falsehood, or wickedness.
Life principle: Sinners embrace a holy God through repentance and faith. Through repentance we find life, joy, and peace in Jesus Christ.
Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)
Because God loves you, he gives you strength and ability to do all that is his will.
During the summer before my senior year in college, I worked for a carpenter building houses. For my first day on the job, I brought my own hammer to work. It was a typical hammer used around the house, measuring about 13-inches long. My job was to pound large, 16-penny, framing nails into 2×4 studs to make walls. I quickly learned that my little hammer was not up for the task. It required way too many strokes to sink each nail, and I would need to sink several hundred nails each day.
My new boss let me use that for an hour or two, to make a
point I suppose. Then he walked up, said, “Put that pea-shooter away,” and handed
me one of his hammers. It was about four-inches longer, and heavier, and the
head had sharp teeth to bite the head of the nail so as not to slip off with a
glancing blow. This was a professional-grade framing hammer. It was powerful. I
could sink a nail in one-third the strokes.
I had a job to do and needed power to do it. My boss
empowered me with a tool.
Kinds of power
Power comes in many forms. I not only needed a
professional-grade hammer for my task, I also needed energy, lots of it. I was
on my feet all day, lifting heavy stuff, swinging my hammer, climbing ladders
and walls. My boss was a furiously hard worker and kept his crew going at a
fast pace. So, I needed food and water. How glad I was to be newly married and
have a wife who woke up early to make me a filling breakfast of eggs and toast
and meat, as well as to make me a big lunch to take to work with a cold thermos
of water. I had a job to do and needed power to do it. Nancy empowered me with
food and water.
We all need power in other forms. We can’t work successfully,
for example, without wisdom, skill, motivation.
Because my new wife loved me, she met my need for food
energy. Love meets the need of another.
God’s love behind your power
God loves you, and so he meets your need for power. He
empowers you in many ways. He provides abilities and skills, motivations, the
infilling of his Holy Spirit, wisdom, coaches and teachers, education, money
and capital, tools, technology, hands and fingers that move and legs that can
walk and eyes that can see and ears that hear and a brain that can think. In
all these ways and more, he meets one of the greatest needs you have: the power
to work, act, move, produce, achieve, build, and create.
Unless God in love chose to give you each of these
empowering resources, you would be utterly impotent, weak, and incapable. “From
him and through him and to him are all things” (Romans 11:36, ESV).
The apostle Paul wrote, “Not that we are sufficient in
ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from
God, who has made us sufficient” (2 Corinthians 3:5–6).
Moses told the Israelites, “Beware lest you say in your
heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You
shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to
get wealth” (Deuteronomy 8:17–18).
Again Paul, speaking about what he had accomplished as an
apostle, wrote, “By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me
was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it
was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10).
God’s empowering love
King David recognized the connection between God’s love and
his empowerment. David needed power for face-to-face combat, beginning famously
against Goliath and followed throughout his lifetime with scores of battles. In
Psalm 18 he describes God’s help. Notice what these select verses say about the
empowering love of God:
“1 I love you, O LORD, my strength. … 29 For by you I can run against a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall. … 32the God who equipped me with strength and made my way blameless. 33 He made my feet like the feet of a deer and set me secure on the heights. 34 He trains my hands for war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. … 39 For you equipped me with strength for the battle; you made those who rise against me sink under me. … 50 Great salvation he brings to his king, and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his offspring forever.” (Psalm 18:1, 29, 32–34, 39, 50)
In
another Psalm he again connects God’s empowerment with his love: “1
Blessed be the LORD, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers
for battle; 2 he is my steadfast love” (Psalm
144:1–2).
In his
love, God met David’s need for strength and skill with a sword, shield, bow and
arrow.
Our way and God’s way
Our way: We might proudly rely on ourselves. We might boast and take credit for what power we have. Paul told the Corinthians, “What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” (1 Corinthians 4:7).
God’s way: God gives us every sort of power we need
for what he wants us to do, if we will rely on him through prayer, have faith,
and follow his wisdom. He is the vine, and we are the branches (John 15:1–7).
Life principle: I can do all things through him who lovingly strengthens me (Philippians 4:13 with “lovingly” added).
Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)
