“A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in His holy dwelling.” [1]
Our Heavenly Father willingly offers counsel, protection and provision to whomsoever will accept His Son Jesus Christ as the atoning sacrifice for their sins. In fact, even before we believe in Christ, the Heavenly Father is already graciously at work to rescue us from our prison.
The Lord speaks to us in so many ways... through His creation, by His Spirit, via circumstances, but He speaks directly and clearly to us via words recorded in the Bible.
You want a coach? Here’s coaching from your Creator: “My son [and daughter], give attention to My Words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth and put perverse lips far from you. Let your eyes look straight ahead, and your eyelids look right before you. Ponder the path of your feet and let all your ways be established. Do not turn to the right or the left; remove your foot from evil.” [2]
Words are like containers by which thoughts are transferred from one to another. God uses words from the Bible to speak to us. They are living words. There’s life in them. They have health in them. But lies and perverse speech are bad for us. God coaches us and helps us to walk on the narrow road of truth. He says, “Let your eyes look straight ahead!” Set your GPS for heaven.
“For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” “Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. [3]
Wisdom is to not let the thought of a home reserved for you heaven to escape you. God’s Spirit is His downpayment on your salvation. He gave you His indwelling Holy Spirit to lead you home. Yes, there are perils to overcome at various places along the journey, but He’ll get you pass them.
“Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men...” [4]
Our Heavenly Father reminds us to maintain an outward looking mentality. Remember to persuade others to embrace the heavenly vision.
“He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.” [5]
Keeping our eyes on Christ spares us from being bogged down in the burden-laden bayou.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” [6]
Let us not revert to coping mechanisms that never helped us before. Jesus Christ often helps us out of ruts in ways that we could not have imagined to ask. His ways are best for us.
“Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” [7]
The above passage brings us back to the metaphor of adoption. To be reconciled to God means to be brought into His family. To be one of His dearly loved children! It means that He no longer holds our trespasses against us. We belong to Him. He’s not going to un-adopt us.
What hinders reconciliation with God? Unbelief! If you or I doubt that Jesus Christ became sin for us on the cross and gave us His righteousness in return. If we think, God still holds our past against us. He doesn’t! We are forgiven.
“You will again have compassion on us; You will trample our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.” [8]
Those nails in His hands and His feet were a heavy price to pay to purchase us to God. He did not just pay USD3,000 to an orphanage in China to adopt us, He paid with His pain, with His blood and with His self-sacrificing love to bring us to God. Praise the Lord!
[1] Psalm 68:5
[2] Proverbs 4:20-27
[3] 2 Corinthians 5:1, 5-7
[4] 2 Corinthians 5:9-11
[5] 2 Corinthians 5:15
[6] 2 Corinthians 5:17
[7] 2 Corinthians 5:18-21
[8] Micah 7:19
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