Be Seated In Your Father’s Lap

Word is life and Spirit and it has the spiritual nourishment that we need in our lives. 
2 Timothy 3.16 says “16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

We need to treat the Word of God the way Mary did. When Mary heard the Word of God, she sat beside the foot of Jesus, listening to his word and looking at Him intently. She soaked in the Word that Jesus spoke and he was very impressed, but Martha was not. Martha slogged in the kitchen, while Mary sat beside Jesus and refused to help out in the house. Martha had two pronged problems, one towards Jesus and the other towards her sister Mary. She was bitter towards Jesus as he was impressed with Maria, while Martha slogged in the kitchen for him. Martha in fact complained about Mary to Jesus. Jesus tells Martha that she has been worrying and stressing over the smallest things and that she should let those worries go, as Mary has chosen the better portion. Whatever Mary has gained from sitting beside Jesus, no one will ever be able to take that away from her. 

You may have succeeded as per the benchmarks of the world, but this is not what matters to God. Are we available to Him? God wants us to be with him, spend time with him and seek him everyday. God wants to spend more time with us and yearns for our presence and fellowship more than we do. 

Everyday in the evening time, God would walk with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Often we don’t take a lot of strain to get closer to God the way He does to get close to us. We chalk it off to our tiredness or situations that are ailing us in our lives. Jesus took a lot of strain to get closer to us. He left all his privileges and his power in heaven and came down to earth to live as a meagre earthly human being. He lived with us, soaked our tears, cried, comforted us in our sorrows, felt pain and sorrow and lived in mud houses. The Bible reveals the heartbeat of our Abba Father and if we don’t read and try to understand it everyday we will not know what he expects for his children and the promises and prophecies that he gave us in our lives.

 2 Peter 3:9 says, ‘The Lord is not slow to keep his promise. He is not slow in the way some people understand it. Instead, he is patient with you. He doesn’t want anyone to be destroyed. Instead, he wants all people to turn away from their sins.’
As parents we wouldn’t want our children to squander away. We would want them taken care of and reaching greater heights in their lives. It is heartbreaking for a parent to see their children in such situations. 
Often I say this - how do you know you are a father? You know you are a father when there is enough space in your heart for a child to swim. Our God knows that we are made out of dust and mud. So he is considerate with us and our fallibility. 

Psalm 103: 12-14 says, ‘12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. 13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; 14  for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.’
God feels compassionate to those who fear him. Just like a Father feels compassionate towards his children, so does God the Father feel compassionate to his children. 
Psalm 103:3-5 says, ‘3 who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, 4 who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, 5 who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.’
Our Lord heals all our diseases and just before he heals us, he forgives us. We are forgiven in Christ.
Colossians 3:13 says, ‘Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.’ Forgive one another as Christ forgave you. Believe that you are forgiven in Christ. 

In the Old Testament, forgiveness was slightly conditional. People were taught the prayers, the sacrifices and such to earn the forgiveness of God. However, forgiveness in the New Testament is much different in comparison. In fact, the time that Jesus spent on Earth was a transition period between the Old to the New Testament. 

After John the Baptist, God’s approach to people changed and this transition, change or dispensation is evident in the Bible. During that time, if we don’t forgive the sins of others, our Father in heaven will not forgive our sins. But now we are forgiven in Christ. However we often struggle to believe this truth thereby unable to enjoy this forgiveness to its fullest. 
We have received the forgiveness of the Father, and so we have become God's people who are fully forgiven. 

If we understand the heart of the Father properly then we will never leave him. Our Father craves our company, he desires to hold us and pamper us, just like our earthly father. However, the problem lies when we move away from the love of the Father. 

Luke 15: 11-20 says, ‘11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. 13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. 17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’20 So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.’

When he left the Father’s house, the source was cut off. The source of comfort was cut off. In this context the son went far away to Antioch, which is akin to Las Vegas or a Sin City of today. It is a city where people mindlessly splurge and participate in all kinds of sinful acts. However, when we came back all the supply that was cut off came back. You have to come back to the Father’s heart to enjoy the privileges of being his sons and daughters. He is waiting for us with open arms.