Welcome back to the promises of God podcast, episode number 27 my name is Tracie Rollins. Thank you so much for spending some time with me as we learn and take action on God’s promises in life. This months series is about understanding and receiving God’s love, and we’re working out of the momentum devotional offered by Bible drilling ministries titled a Father’s Love. You can learn more about Bible journaling with their free 10-day course at BibleJournalingMinistries.com today we’re answering the question, Who is God? And our verse is Matthew 3:16-17 and I’m reading this out of the King James version. It says, and Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water and Lo the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him and Lo voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.
I love this first. Mostly the reason why I love this first is that all of the three persons of the Trinity appear in this one, in these two verses. And you can see that they are United, but they’re also very distinct. And I think it is a great, great visualization of what it is to be to the Trinity. Essentially, God, the Holy Spirit and Jesus all in one. And when we ask ourselves today, who was God And I know God because when I first believed in Jesus Christ, I was given the gift of the Holy Spirit. When I was young, I called up my conscience or my intuition, but realize later in life that it wasn’t me, but it was the holy spirit. I feel his presence, and I see his work all around me, and I’m not talking about the beauty of nature, but the small things like a smile from a stranger, a lost item found or the pain of a current struggle, which leads to an opportunity in the future.
If I trust him, I know that seems odd to say pain being an opportunity, but if I look back on my life so many times where I was hurt, um, or even in physical pain, that experience grew me in some way, and allowed me to bring others to Christ or to share hope with others or whatever. There was always something positive that came out of a simple, simply just rough situation. I know God, but not fully. He is way too complex for me. Many of my pastors have tried to explain to me who God is, but for me, it’s impossible to explain it. It would take thousands upon thousands of words, but because God is just so complex, I can’t wrap my mind around even the smallest part of him. Do I start with his attributes? Do I start with the spirit? Do I even start with Jesus? It seems a bit watered down to break God apart, but I do try because not trying seems like giving up. And a lot of people ask me, who is God and what do I say God is and who do I say God is?
So I tried to say it in many different ways. I mean first, for a nonbeliever, I will always say, you know God is complex, but you know in the simplest form his true love. He created this, this earth and it was good, and he created it as a beautiful, beautiful place. Of course, that’s how we are today in the simplest form of explanation. God is the father, son and Holy Spirit in one a trinity. God is the creator. You can read about that in Genesis 1:1 he is love, and he holds the universe in his love, and that’s the first John Chapter four verse eight and Colossians 1:17 as hard as it is to fathom the point isn’t to understand God. I believe the point is to know him and be known by him.
So you can be with him in eternal glory. You can read a little more there in Second Corinthians 4:17 there is simply no one like him this week I’d like you to take some time to write or journal about what it means to have a father that his love for me to have a father that is love means that I will always be accepted and loved no matter how. How my life turns out, I am a center, right I have faults, and my God won’t never, never leave me. Even with all of my, my faults and misfortunes. I think I will always be good enough for God and I can do anything according to his plan, in his will. And you can see, even in our world, like our earthly fathers are not the same as our heavenly father. We have some amazing earthly fathers.
My father is an amazing man. Um, but of course our earthly fathers have, and they have issues, and sometimes they’re not the most loving people in the world. Sometimes, you know, I can sometimes remember where, you know, I’d want to do something, but we couldn’t do it. There was either, not finances, I was not skilled enough, there was no tutor available, et Cetera, you know And so there were limitations that I had as a child, but I believe with God that all things are possible if it’s in his wool. So there are some fathers that say, no, you can’t do that. Like you’re not good enough for that. You’re never going to be good enough. Right. I’m sure many of us have heard things like, you know, there’s no money for that, so you can’t do that. There’s no future in that for you.
So don’t even start. There’s no money to be made in that. So why even bother There’s no skill that you have that would even put you in the ranks of being able to attempt something like that. Right. Sometimes our fathers say things to us to protect us because they love us and you know, I’m sure there are plenty of fathers that don’t love their children. I’ve seen a lot of that often. I was fortunate to have a father that loved me, but there are so many of my friends that did not have a father that loved them, and some fathers abused their children. Some fathers ignore their children. And that is not an example of the heavenly father. So if you look at your life and you’re looking at your father, and you’re saying, I don’t want to have a relationship with any father.
Because of what you’ve experienced, I would encourage you to take another peek at God because God is amazing and the love that he has is like none other in. Once you get to know him, I think you’ll start to feel the love that you may never have felt before in your life. So if you’re here today and you’re struggling with receiving God’s love, I encourage you to say, today I receive God’s love. And then you can begin to take steps to experience the love that he has for you. Maybe you’ll take a break today and reflect on this verse. Maybe you’ll go outside and breathe the fresh air that is around you. Or if you live in the city in its pretty smoggy, maybe you’ll, you’ll look, stay indoors, and maybe you’ll look at the things around you that you, that you love and that are in your life for.
Maybe you’ll take a look at the friends that you have or the family that you’re surrounded with and realize how lucky you are. Or perhaps you’ll go to a food bank and donate your time today and see just how lucky you are that you are able to eat today and that you’re able to thrive in the space that God puts you in. Maybe I’m just hoping that you’ll take one step to consider accepting a father that loves you like no other, regardless of your past, regardless of your sins. And Romans 6:23 says, the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of eternal life is Jesus, our Lord. And He loves you. He gave his son for you. And when you accept his love, you will experience the world in a whole different light. I would encourage you to turn to him and confess your sins and follow his will in your life, and you will feel the love of Christ that surpasses all understanding.
Truly, I hope that you’ll give God a chance today if you haven’t already. Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode as we explore a father’s love, we’ve got about four more episodes to go as we start talking about how to receive God’s love and then how God just knew you as he formed you in your mother’s womb. We’ve got quite a few more to go, and so I hope that you’ll join us on this journey and I can’t wait to talk to you next week. I hope that you have a fabulous day. I’ll talk to you soon. Bye.
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