Yahweh the Loving Daddy (11/7/11)

Shalom,

Please begin by reading Zeph 3:14-20.

Zephaniah prophesied in the days of King Josiah. He played a major role in the revival that occurred during Josiah's reign. But even during this time of spiritual renewal Yahweh continued to use his prophet to speak words of the impending wrath to come. Yahweh understands his people well enough to know they won't maintain this spiritual upswing. He knows how they've blown hot and cold throughout their existence as a nation. Their revivals and times of good spiritual life were mostly driven by strong leadership, and often didn't last because the people hadn't really made a change of heart.

In the 3rd chapter of Zephaniah the prophet speaks of the remnant being saved and the introduction of a "pure" language to the earth. This is an obvious reference to the Gospel of Jesus the Christ. We see it envisioned as the Correct System of Thought About Our Creator. Zephaniah saw people speaking the Truth of Yahweh as normally as they speak everyday words. If we truly have the Creator in our hearts, this should be happening with us on a regular basis.

What do you believe most people think of when they attempt to picture our Creator God? Is he far or near? Is he powerful or passive? Is he disgusted with their sin or in love with all his creation? Is he like a mean old man or is he the kindly grandfatherly type? Is he listening to our cries and can he do anything to truly help?

What a person believes about our Creator is the most important thing contained in their mind. It affects everything about them. What they believe determines how they think and make choices. What they believes affects them spiritually, emotionally, and even physically. We will act in accordance with how we believe Yahweh will deal with us and our world..

Sadly there are many wrong impressions of Yahweh and how he deals with us commonly believed around the world. These misconceptions distort our prayers and in some cases they even prevent people from praying at all. For too many people, the God they envision seems remote, impersonal, and unknowable. Because of that, even some Christians suffer from the inability to feel truly forgiven or they're filled with nagging doubts or they have a general mistrust of God their Father.

Our prayers are shaped by the way we picture our heavenly Father. A dysfunctional picture of him results in a dysfunctional way of praying and sharing our faith. Those who had an earthly father who was never around when they needed him, or have experienced trauma or abuse or extreme discipline; will have a very difficult time personally pursuing an intimate, loving, and trusting relationship with Yahweh. They will more likely see him as a vengeful judge, the one who spews out wrath and retribution when sinners do what's natural by sinning.

If we've had a good relationship with our earthly father we're more likely to be able to enjoy the presence of our heavenly Father. Yahweh is a loving Father. He sent his Son to die on the cross so we could have our sins forgiven. He came to us to reconcile our broken relationship. We need to be like the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32) and return to our father when things become too tough for us to handle. Actually we need to stick by his side in good and bad times, building a solid relationship of faith and obedience, because that's what our heavenly Father desires from each and every one of us.

The Bible declares that our Father's passionate rejoicing echoes throughout heaven. Luke 15:7 says, "I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine who do not need to repent." Jer 32:40-41 says, "I (Yahweh) will make an everlasting covenant with them; I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me. I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul."

Our Great and Mighty and Awesome God, the Creator of everything, takes great delight and is filled with overflowing joy when we have a right relationship with him. You already read Zeph 3:17, but lets do it again. "Yahweh your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing. Our Father knows great contentment in his love for us. Someone once said that if Yahweh had a refrigerator, our picture would be on it. And if he had a wallet, our picture would be in it. He longs to hold us close and hug some peace and joy into our troubled lives. He wants to embrace us and let us feel the soothing of his closeness.

In Hebrew the word rejoice means dancing for joy or leaping for joy. The root meaning is to spin around with intense emotion. When we enter into our Father's presence, our great and mighty and awesome God will spin and dance in joy, displaying his great love for us. The word for singing means a shout of joy or loud cheering in triumph. Can you picture Yahweh hooting and hollering out of intense joy just because you showed up to visit him? Maybe we all should try very hard to see this beautiful picture.

The image portrayed in Zeph

Problematically, there are also unbelievers within our churches who cloak their activities away from the fellowship while "playing church" when in attendance. They're determined to continue to do what they want. They put on a mask to appear religious, but their lifestyle shows their bad fruit. Their major problem is that they believe in the concept of a God, but they have no experiential knowledge of him as a loving Father who hungers for intimacy with them. They must have some concept of their need for the God of the Bible, but they refuse to use the Bible as the instruction book for having a good relationship with its author.

This type of person spoils the image of love and joy in the heart of Christians because outsiders see these sourpusses and the devil lies to them that we're all hypocrites. Maybe these people are the ones who had rotten earthly fathers and they won't surrender deep enough to Yahweh because they're afraid of getting hurt again. Maybe these people are superficial because that's the way religion was taught to them. Whatever their reason, we need to encourage them to encounter the joyous singing and dancing of their heavenly Father.

If we expect Yahweh to be with us, we need to obey his Word. Throughout the Bible we can see him telling us, "If you will, then I will." His continued blessing of our efforts is conditional. We can't do our own thing and then expect him to pour out his spiritual riches on us. There's no automatic blessing for having said the sinner's prayer, nothing that opens up the windows of heaven so we can receive his riches without continued efforts at obedience. Only by obediently serving our Father can we obtain the promised blessings and avoid the curses.

We must first accept Jesus as our Savior if we expect to partake of Zephaniah's promise that Yahweh "will take great delight in us." To have our sins washed away, and then to obediently continue to serve our Master is the requirement for us to maintain our Lord's presence in our lives. Yahweh abides with those who abide with him. Where is your home? Do you live in his presence or just show up for an occasional visit? To enjoy all benefits of being children of the King means we have to abide with him. We have to purposefully work at living in his presence.

Every Christian is a love gift given by the Father to the Son. Jesus sees each individual believer as another opportunity to heal our broken relationship with our Creator. In his prayer of intercession in John 17, Jesus thanks his Father seven times for giving the true believers to him. The Father's deep love for the Son can be experienced by all of us. We can join the family through spiritual adoption and be as greatly loved as Jesus. His love is filled with joy and delight and anticipation just like any newlywed. Isa 62:5 says, "As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you."

Yahweh's delight in his children is seen throughout the Bible. Deut 30:9 tells us, he "delights in making you prosper." David understood the love of the Father and exclaimed to the world that "no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless" (Psalm 84:11). David also wrote Psalm 23:6. "Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of Yahweh forever." David also wrote Psalm 37:4. "Delight yourself in Yahweh and he will give you the desires of your heart." Jer 29:11 tells us of our loving Father's good plans for his children. "I know the plans I have for you, declares Yahweh, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and future." None of these mean we get what we selfishly hunger after or greedily desire, but that we get what's in our Father's heart for us because we've obediently sought and served him.

Our heavenly Father's love is explained to us in Rom 8:28. "We know that in all things Yahweh works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Please don't misunderstand that this verse means all things that happen to us are good. What Yahweh is able to do is work everything out for our good. When evil occurs in our lives, he can overcome it and heal us. When we fall in sin, he can turn the consequences into a learning experience or at the very least an opportunity for building our godly character. There's no magic in what he does for us, just good old-fashioned teaching moments if we're paying attention.

Yahweh is love! Yahweh is Great! Yahweh is our Father! We can call him Abba, PaPa, Daddy, Dad, or whatever intimate title we favor. Because Yahweh's our Daddy, we need to give the gift of loving him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And we do that because that's the way he loves us.

Blessings & Peace, Mike