His Beloved Child

What a privilege when we go home to hear the words of our heavenly father say: "Welcome home my beloved child, welcome home." Oh for the honor to be called 'His Child'. There is no greater reward in heaven than to be addressed as beloved and child. We can imagine the kind of smile that would be in Jesus face when He would call us thus. He would feel proud to be our father and He would feel proud that we are also His closest. God has no favorites but He does have intimates, those who stick to Him closely and live for His glory.

Oh for the grace to live closely to Jesus by knowing what He wants us to be and what He doesn't want us to be.  What He would like us to do and behave and the traits He doesn't desire to see in His children. If we can only tune to Him well to the extent where we know our Father's heart, to know His heart beat and live accordingly...that would be all that is needed to become His intimate, His beloved child.

Let us make a pledge to live up to His name, that is all it would require to bear His name...

Eph 5:1 (NASB)
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children...

Grace to Tread

Like a traveler who goes weary on his journey so can we become weary due to life's pressures.  It is not that we become tired easily by a single bout of a negative experience. Yet a series of such experiences or challenges from different angles can make us become weary and tired. How many of us would have sighed inwardly..."I cannot take anymore" or "I cannot go on like this". A traveler becomes tired only when his strength has failed after a long journey. Similarly, our soul may become weary only after of bouts of negative experiences. Then we look up to our heavenly Father and tell Him that we can't go on or take it any more. And yet we are privileged to be reminded of His word...

Jeremiah 31:25 (NASB)
For I satisfy the weary ones and refresh everyone who languishes.

Living by Grace

Oh! What a privilege it is for the soul to know that everyday has to begin and end with grace. To know grace is one facet of life while to live by grace is another facet. I am living on the latter now. The journey of life has its road that can be both rugged as well as smooth. When walking through smooth road one rarely knows what it is to live by grace. But when everyday life is filled with challenges of different kinds be it at work, running the chores, demands of life, challenges with health and from people we acquaint with then we realize that our strength is limited to face those challenges. We constantly need to rely on His grace to get us through the day, to remove some of the obstacles on the path, to make rough surfaces smooth and even get favor in the eyes of people.

To live by grace is blessedness and for the soul to realize the need for grace perhaps we are made to travel the rough road...

Hebrews 4:16 (NIV)
Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Enough to Receive

We would have often heard people it is God's grace. But how many of us live with the realization of the word "Grace". Grace has an in depth meaning and to live by grace is something that ought to be experienced to realize. I would like to share a short story in my effort to explain grace. There was once a little girl who was fragile and weak because in her body she suffered from multiple syndrome. She was in a condition where she could eat neither more or less to keep her body healthy. If she ate more she would throw up constantly to the extent she would become weak and tired; and eating less would make her weak and  unhealthy. So actually needed to eat in between which was difficult to estimate. Doctors wondered how she survived with multiple health conditions.

Moreover this child lived as an in patient in a hospital without much future and hope as she was abandoned at birth by her mother. Though this little girl lived within the walls of the hospital she had quite a positive outlook in life. She did not want to be a burden to the people in the hospital who took care of her and hence did her best to do petty work for other inmates in the hospital. All that she did was to visit each patient in her floor or sometimes other floors and inquired about their health. She just spent few minutes in displaying love, care and concern and did some petty work to help them like fetching a glass of water, or reading a passage from a Bible or say word of prayer, get them a flower from the garden, etc which made them feel good.

Many patients felt better and changed their perspective by seeing the way the child lived after having learnt about her health condition and her life. What the patients saw was the grace that she received from God to survive. They saw grace at work in her and realized that God gave her just the enough grace to live. The child neither cribbed about her condition nor questioned her past or future. She only knew that God saw it best to have her this way and His grace was enough. Though many would have questioned the reason for her survival within their heart, the patients who met with her and came to know her well, changed their way of thinking. They realized that God had all the grace to give, it was only in our hands to become humble enough to ask and receive it. The child was an exemplar of  grace changing the lives of patients she acquainted with.

John 1:16 (NIV)
Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.

I want to Know Him

Many children of God are preoccupied with the thought of doing ministry as the primary focus of life. Besides, doing worship and praise and attending regular church service and prayer meetings, Christ followers are primarily doers. Each believer in Christ may hold on to their own perceptions and may regard that as right. I am not here to judge who is right or who is wrong. But I personally am more convinced that being Christ-like is more of a priority than active service.

However, I was keen to look into the life of Apostle Paul who was the best minister for Christ and surprisingly Apostle Paul says, "I want to know Christ..."(Philippians 3:10- NIV) which was more of a chief priority for him. Reading this portion of the scripture I was convinced that knowing Jesus is the top priority of life and the more I know Him, the more I will be able to learn to change my attitudes, perceptions and way of thinking accordingly. Besides, only by knowing the Lord closely and personally will I be able to see my life through Him...Amen.

My Redeemer Lives

Whenever I sit to read a devotion or my Bible, I refrain from reading anything about suffering or trial. Without my knowledge I always didn't want to hear about predictions of trial or reasons behind why God allows trials. I am sure many of us do not want to listen to such stuff. When we take time to read God's Word inwardly we have an anticipation for words of hope, comfort, blessing and good tiding. I believe this is natural for us to feel that way. In fact that is exactly what we may expect our lives to be filled with - no pain, suffering or trials. Nobody likes to have trials or face problems. And worst of all nobody would like to hear or know such predictions for the future.

However, when I faced trials recently followed by a series of worries, unexpected turning of events and fears, I turned to reading my devotion again and prayed inwardly that I didn't want to read another reason for  trial and anything to do with suffering or disappointments. To my surprise I was ministered by God's word in a way which helped me to know Jesus and His love for me...

“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
    and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget,
    I will not forget you!" (Isaiah 49:15)

This scripture dawned something deep within me. Whatever be the phase of life- times of worry, problems, unmet needs, unexpected situations, etc...as a mother, I am there with my daughter to take care of her completely. Her concerns are my concerns. Her wants I make sure to meet it and her fears I ensure to deal with it. I help her to learn life skills and deal with everyday issues of life. I take all efforts to tune with her and meet her genuine needs and be there to take care of her. I am sure not to forget my daughter even for a moment. My daughter invades my thoughts throughout the day.

When I as a mother can be there so much for my daughter...How much more God who shed His precious blood to make me His child...though I may be unworthy of His sacrifice. I am sure my love for my daughter cannot surpass the love the Lord has for me or for each one of us...

I badly failed to know Him or His love for me. When He can take care of us as the apple of His eye...what a mistake it would be to think that we are not in His thoughts or that He is disconnected with what we are going through mentally. I came to realize desperately ..."My Redeemer Lives".

His Love...

This morning as I sat to read the devotion, the scripture that was for today was from Jeremiah 31:3 - "Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love". As I read this scripture, it really didn't stir my feelings. However, I went ahead to read the devotion. At the end of it as I closed my eyes to focus my attention on the Lord, I felt the very presence of the Lord, the embrace of my heavenly Father. I suddenly was overwhelmed.

The very longing to be loved and feel belonged is a longing that exists in every soul. I have a loving husband and  a daughter who love me a lot. My parents, sister and my all other members of my family love me dearly. I have no lack of being loved. Yet to be loved by the very God who created us is awesome.

We are designed in such a way that nothing could really fulfill our souls except by the love of Jesus. I realized that this morning when I felt the loving embrace of my heavenly Father. The Lord loves each one of us with an everlasting love and to feel that love and embrace is like that of a little child in the arms of her mother- secure, belonged, loved and accepted. Wow! This is the love of Christ...And I know that nobody in this world can give this love. We cannot buy this love, we only need to run to Him to receive it.