I love my Father and my Father, He loves me!

I've been thinking alot about the Father lately. We sometimes limit Father by comparing him to our earthly fathers. Even if we've had the best or the worst earthly father it is still wrong to compare him. Yes, to have a father reflect Father's love is a glimpse of who Father is, but it cannot define him. There is much more to Father than what we know or think.

I cannot think about Father and not think about love. Father has done so much for us all just because He loves us. I sometimes think that we get so focused on trying to accept His love that we forget to first love Him. Without loving God first, we can't understand his love for us.

1 John 4:8(NIV)

⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 John 4:7
[ God’s Love and Ours ] Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

If God is love, we must first know God. We get to know Father through loving Him. I love John Eldredge's take on it as he references Tozer:

"God wants to be loved. He wants to be a priority to someone. How could we have missed this? From cover to cover, from beginning to end, the cry of God's heart is, "Why won't you choose Me?" It is amazing to me how humble, how vulnerable God is on this point. "You will . . . find me," says the Lord, "when you seek me with all your heart" (Jer. 29:13). In other words, "Look for me, pursue me -- I want you to pursue me." Amazing. As Tozer says, "God waits to be wanted." John eldredge

Father is not just asking you to come to Him to be saved, but to be with Him; to love Him. The more you're around Him the more you know Him. The more you know Him, the more you love Him. Then as you fall in love with Him you are able to accept His love. This opens the door for Father to do so much work in your heart, soul, mind, and emotions. The part of you that is so intimate that your closest friends have no idea of the pain, hurt, or sadness. 

When's the last time you got excited about just spending time with Father? When is the last time you just sat at His feet and listened? When is that last time that you really longed to be with Him, to know Him deeper?

We've been so guilty of looking at Father as an object or a means to an end. What would happen if we began to look at Him as Father and not as the Father. When I think of saying "The Father" it tends objectify Him; to address Him through his position such as saying "The President". Although this is not wrong, what if we changed our mindset and thought about Father. Father is who he is. It's more intimate for me to call Him just by who he is.  Get to know Father, spend time just loving on Him and then listen. He'll tell you His secrets.

Love on Father, He's been loving on you!

"Abiding in the love of God is our only hope, the only true home for our hearts. It's not that we mentally acknowledge that God loves us. It's that we let our hearts come home to him, and stay in his love." John Eldredge

Deuteronomy 6:5
Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

Deuteronomy 7:9
Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.

Ephesians 3:19
and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.