I remember as I was growing up, I held in mind a stern picture of God the Father - the one where He bore a whip ready to lash at me at every opportunity of failure. This was before I became born again. I was brought up in a Christian home, so knew about God at an early age. I remember at that early age, my favourite book was Proverbs. It rebuked me at every turn of the page. I always stood accused and condemned. Little did I know that Satan was the one accusing me. I had been acquitted by God the Father when His Son died on the cross for me.
God the Father is a loving Father who so loved the world that He gave His best to save it. God the Father is a Father that loves to spend time with His Creation. He created us for His pleasure not displeasure. Matthew 7:11 reads If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! God has a lot of good things in store for us. We ought to trust in His love. If your earthly Father sends you a birthday package for instance, you will not benefit from it if you refuse to accept it, open it and use it. Similarly the good gifts in store for us from God can only be available and beneficial for us if we accept them through faith and prayer, and put them to use.
God wants us to find rest in His provision. He encourages us to ask freely from Him the supply of our needs and desires. Matthew 7:7-10“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. “Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? “Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he?
Luke 11:13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"
Romans 8:32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
Psalm 84:11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.
God loves you and is not a wicked God and King who seeks to punish and torture His subjects. The devil gives many people this picture of God as being a stern and cruel Father , in order to keep the souls of men from finding rest in His love and provision. Let us abandon all fears of standing accused and deserving of punishment. That was the spirit that worked through Job's three friends - Eliphaz the Temanite , Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite.
Satan uses fear to accuse us and make us feel accused. However God has provided us with a weapon to combat fear, which is Faith. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. Hebrews 11:6
Choose God and choose faith, and you will partake in all that the good Father has in store for His children.
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