God lives and works today.
He is a living, loving Father who wants
to be able to rejoice in His children.
An earthly Father is happy when His children
follow in His footsteps and become like Him.
This is also the great joy of our
Heavenly Father.
And because He is love, He wants to
imprint upon us the image of His love.
Listen to today's meditation by Besselia Schling called,
To Bring Joy to the Father.
In the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord
Jesus tells us, Love your enemies, and pray
for those who persecute you, so that you
may be sons of your Father who is
in heaven.
Therefore, our greatest longing must be for the
Father in heaven to be able to rejoice
in us.
When He looks down upon the earth and
has to look at so many ugly, distorted
caricatures of His image, I at least should
bring joy to His heart.
Now, our Heavenly Father has given us His
only begotten Son, so that we all may
reflect His image once more.
Oh, that our hearts would burn with one
desire, never to wound the Father in heaven
by showing an evil picture because of our
rebelliousness, defiance or lovelessness.
Therefore, let us praise the Lord when He
gives us opportunities to become recreated in the
image of His meek, lamb-like love.
Only when we get our feelings hurt or
are slandered or hated can this love be
born in us.
There is no other way.
Perhaps we are surrounded by people who don't
handle us with kid gloves, but who sometimes
provoke and humiliate us.
At such times, let us pray, My Father,
I thank You, for now You are giving
me an opportunity to grow into Jesus' image,
and then I will be able to bring
You the greatest joy, for You will see
His image imprinted upon me.
Let us give thanks when others make life
difficult for us, and then we can learn
to truly love them.
And besides, nine times out of ten it's
really our own touchiness that's at fault.
To love in the true sense of the
word means to reach out to those who
aren't compatible with us, and to be especially
kind to them.
This is what the Father's waiting for.
It's His greatest longing and His greatest joy
for us to radiate the likeness of His
Son.
This is worth more to Him than a
hundred thousand prayers.
God has a right to expect this love
from us, because Jesus has paved the way.
Through His victory on Calvary, He's won this
love for us.
We need only believe in His victory and
let our hearts become filled by the one
longing.
The Father in Heaven must be able to
rejoice in me.
Dear Lord, let me become like You.
Bring love in me to birth.
Spending my love upon earth.
The love that makes heaven on earth.
You have been listening to a program written
by Basilia Schlink of the Little Land of
Canaan.
To learn more about how God lives and
works today, visit us at our website www
.canaan.org.
If you contact us, we would be happy
to send you a free inspirational booklet.
If you do not have access to the
web, please write to God Bless You!