A Wealth of Fatherly Affections.. Craig Denison Ministries

 

A Wealth of Fatherly Affections

Craig Denison Ministries

Weekly Overview:

As children of the Most High God, we have been granted access to unconditional, tangible, and perfect love. All we need we have in relationship with our Father in heaven. He longs to reveal himself to us as a loving, real Father. He longs for us to live in the fullness of restored relationship with him. He longs for us to experience his vast and limitless affections. May we grow in our understanding and experience of God as our good and loving Father this week as we look at what it is to be his child.

Scripture:“Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.” Psalm 36:5

Devotional:    

Being the child of God gives us an open invitation into the endless affections our heavenly Father has for us. There is no end to the wealth of his love. There is no limit to how deeply and tangibly we can experience his heart. Through the sacrifice of Jesus we can live our lives totally and completely experiencing the love of the Creator and Sustainer of all.

Psalm 36:5 says, “Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.” When you look across the horizon as far as your eye can see, picture the arms of your heavenly Father stretching even farther than the faintest speck of blue sky. When you see the clouds in their immensity and wonder, picture the enormity of your God’s faithful love toward you.

So great is the wealth of affections your heavenly Father has toward you that he would send his pure, blameless Son as payment for the sins that have kept you from experiencing his love. So great was his desire for you to know his heart that Jesus gave his life, creating a bridge across the vast chasm of sin that separated you and the Father.

1 John 4:10 says, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Most of us wander through life looking for any source of love we can find. We give ourselves to people, jobs, society, and wrongful expectations trying our hardest to satiate an insatiable need to be loved. Only in making time to receive God’s perfect, tangible, and transformative affections will our need to be loved finally be satisfied. Only when we look to the cross as a continual reminder that we are fully and forever loved will we stop searching for affections from a world that will only ever reject and disappoint us.

Your heavenly Father longs for you to experience the wealth of his affections today. He longs to guide you into a safe place of simply being loved by him. This broken and needy world has taught us to shield the wounded places of our hearts from any outside contact. We’re taught to just get over our wounds, pick ourselves up, and let our scars be signs of our inner strength. God wants to take your wounds and heal them with his perfect love. He wants to take what the enemy meant for evil and turn it into real, eternal good. He’s waiting right now to love you and make you whole. He’s waiting right now to satisfy the deep longing to be loved you’ve carried with you all your life.

Take time in guided prayer to truly encounter the love of your heavenly Father. Wait on his presence and open your heart to him in response to his love and faithfulness. He will shepherd you to green pastures and still waters if you make time and follow his leadership. May you experience the wealth of affections your heavenly Father has for you as you pray.

Guided Prayer:

1. Meditate on the wealth of affections your heavenly Father has for you.

“Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.” Isaiah 49:15-16

“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” 1 John 4:10

“And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.” Luke 15:20

2. What wound are you carrying that God longs to heal with his love? What past experience has affected you for too long? What part of your heart have you kept shielded that God longs to speak to today?

3. Ask the Lord to guide you into a transformational encounter with his love. Ask him to help you receive all the love he has to give you today. Take time to wait on him and rest in his presence. Don’t leave this place of rest until you feel satisfied and renewed.

May Ephesians 1:3-10 stir your heart to pursue the depth of affections your heavenly Father has for you throughout your day today:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Extended Reading: Ephesians 1

Praying for Change..Dr. Charles Stanley

 Praying for Change

Dr. Charles Stanley

James 5:16

Hanging above the door in our house, my mother's favorite plaque constantly reminded us, "Prayer changes things." From an early age, I witnessed this powerful truth through her example. She'd tell me about some difficulties she was facing and then have me pray about them with her. And later, she'd always be sure to give God the glory when sharing the awesome news that He had answered those prayers.

Indeed, this is our confidence: Anything we pray for that aligns with the Father's plan will be granted. And the more time we spend with Him, the more we'll come to understand His will and how to pray for it.

Remember, prayer doesn't change God's mind, but it does transform the believer's heart. Some requests are granted immediately, simply because we asked with the realization that our Father loves to give us good gifts. Other requests may require time or certain divine preparations before they can be given. We, meanwhile, must simply be diligent to persevere in prayer.

Whatever the Lord's response or timing, we trust that He has only the very best in store for His children. That means we might not receive exactly what we're asking for, but something even better. Such is God's great pleasure, for He alone perfectly knows each heart's desire and wishes to fulfill it.

Our most powerful tool for shaping the world and lives around us is always available. Prayer lets us witness God's hand in any situation. And as we give attention, time, and perseverance to conversation with Him, we find no limit to what He can achieve in people's hearts and circumstances.

What Does Your Righteousness Look Like?..Clarence L. Haynes Jr.

 What Does Your Righteousness Look Like?

By Clarence L. Haynes Jr. 

“For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” – Matthew 5:20

If there is one thing you can say about Jesus, he has a way with words. In this teaching on the sermon on the mount, he makes a statement that could only be seen as shocking. Especially when you consider who he is talking about. In those days, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were the ones the people looked up to. They were the ones people were supposed to follow, and in one sentence, Jesus says, whatever they are doing, you must do better. 

Why was this such an important statement? To grasp this, you need to understand the nature of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. This was not the only time Jesus ever mentioned their righteousness or the way they lived. He had a lot more to say. Here is one instance which relates well to what he said in this verse.

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.  Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.” – Matthew 23:25-26

In this verse, Jesus identifies the problem with the righteousness of the Pharisees and teachers of the law. Their righteousness was outward only. It never went beyond the surface. They did a good job of making the outside look good because they looked the part. The problem was on the inside, they missed the part. In effect, what Jesus was saying is this type of righteousness is not righteousness at all therefore don’t practice it.

What is righteousness?
Before we go further and get to a personal application, let’s define the type of righteousness Jesus was referring to. There are two ways to look at this verse. In one context, the Pharisees and teachers of the law were attempting to gain righteousness through their own efforts. If you believe that is the way to righteousness, Jesus says it’s not. In another context, the righteousness Jesus was talking about emphasizes what you say in comparison to what you do. This is where I want to focus your attention. Look at what Jesus says in the previous verse.

“Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” – Matthew 5:19 (emphasis added)

The problem the Pharisees and teachers of the law had is they did not practice what they were teaching. Their righteousness was only superficial.

What does your righteousness look like?
This leads to a question to ponder in this moment. What does your righteousness look like? Consider what would happen if we were to pull back the curtain of your life. What would that reveal? Would there be a clean outside but a heart that was not? Hopefully, this is not the case. To be clear, ultimately, we are justified and made righteous through Christ. However, in this context, Jesus is also talking about your words and your actions. Is your outside truly a reflection of what is inside, or is it just for appearance’s sake? 

Jesus was trying to help his disciples see that the part of you no one sees is more important than the part of you that everyone sees because the part no one sees is who you really are. So how do your insides look, and who are you when it is just you and Jesus and no one else around? The way you answer that question will help determine if your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. 

As we search our hearts today, it is safe to say we all have areas where what we say and what we do don’t always align. This is why we ultimately depend on Jesus’ righteousness and not our own. But beyond that, we need to seek to be people who desire an outward life that reflects an inward transformation. When that becomes your heart's desire, you are on your way to having a righteousness that exceeds the Pharisees and the teachers of the law.

Intersecting Faith and Life: 
“There are two sorts of hypocrites: ones that are deceived with their outward morality and external religion; and the others are those that are deceived with false discoveries and elevation; which often cry down works, and men's own righteousness.” – Jonathan Edwards

The Lord Is with Us..Greg Laurie

 The Lord Is with Us

BIBLE VERSE OF THE DAY: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” – John 14:27

By Greg Laurie

Sometimes when we end up in a certain situation, we’ll say, “Why did God allow this to happen to me?” Then later on, after a few years pass by and we have the hindsight of 20/20, we are able to look back on certain circumstances and see why the Lord did what He did—or why He did not do what we thought He should do.

To be honest, I’m glad that I don’t always know what is going on around me. We may not know the things that are happening in the supernatural as well as the natural realm, about the plots that might be out there against us, or about those who want to destroy us. But we know this: the Lord is with us wherever we are.

David, who knew something about potentially fearing for his life, wrote these words in Psalm 27:5: “For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; in the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock” (NKJV).

Then we’re told in Isaiah 54:17, “‘No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from Me,’ says the Lord” (NKJV).

People may be able to lie and fool everyone for a time, but eventually it all will come to light. It all will be declared for what it is. The good thing is that even if people are plotting against you as a child of God, you don’t have to be afraid. The Lord is with you. He was there with Paul in his prison cell, and He is there with you wherever you are.

Heavenly Lord, in times of fear and anger, we ask you to give us peace, wisdom, and hope. Let your truth be our comfort in difficult times. Amen.

A Prayer to Stay The Course..Chelsey DeMatteis

 A Prayer to Stay The Course

By Chelsey DeMatteis 

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” - Joshua 1:9

The battle of Jericho has become a favorite Bible story in our house. This comes as no surprise as we have an almost 5-year-old little boy! We read the story, sing the song, and act out the walls tumbling down. And while this story easily captures the hearts of little ones, its incredible theme of obedience often falls to the wayside as we grow older. For that reason, this past summer, I decided to go through my 5-year-old’s current favorite book of the Bible.

For some back story and context, Joshua was the one whom God appointed to lead the Israelites (God’s chosen people) into the Promised Land after Moses passed away. You’ll see in the opening chapter a command of the Lord given to Joshua that most Christians are very familiar with. 

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9

This may be the most memorable part of the entire story of Joshua next to the walls of Jericho tumbling down. Why? I believe it’s because we, too, need this reminder as we navigate the places God calls us to go. Whether that is the mission field across the world, within the states, within your church, or within your home.

We must be both strong and courageous: Strong and steadfast in our faith as we trust God’s promises. Courageous as we walk into the unknown with God who knows fully. We must be obedient and willing: Obedient to follow the call no matter what. Willing to surrender the way in which we think things should go. We must be unafraid and stand against dismay by standing upon the living, active Word of God.

As Joshua’s story unfolds, we see many other stories unfold within it. We see God’s people choosing to live out the very same words He commanded of Joshua. We see this in the obedience of Rehab the prostitute, the two spies sent into Jericho, and the whole people of God who faithfully marched around the city for seven days.

I felt both encouraged and enlightened when I read this story, but I also felt deep conviction. Do I live like the people of God in Joshua’s day where the Lord has me now? Am I genuinely seeking to be strong and courageous in Christ, or do I choose the more comfortable route? What took place before and at the Battle of Jericho was anything but comfortable. It took an enormous amount of faith and trust in the Lord to do all He had commanded. Not only that, but once those walls came tumbling down, God was only getting started.

We have 18 more chapters of watching God command His people to obey, submit, be strong, and stand firm. You will see the wrath of God, the love of God, and the leading of God on display in ways that will cause you to look at how you live for Him.

Do we live strong and courageous? Or do we live so comfortably and content that we pass by where God is directing us? Do we store up things that God tells us to lead to destruction? Or do we live from a posture of knowing we can trust our Heavenly Father, who holds all things?

Let’s Pray:

Lord, thank you for your Word and the way it captures our hearts. We praise you for the stories in scripture that draw the youngest souls. I pray that the Holy Spirit would use Joshua’s story to change the way I not only live but the way in which I lead. I pray to be a follower of Christ that chooses to be strong in the faith and courageous wherever you call me because You, Lord, hold all things. In Jesus’ name, amen.