I am beginning to see more and more that your goodness is beyond our comprehension and that grasping your completely loving ways is the key to faith. If I just remember how kind and good you are when I pray, I will pray with expectancy. I have tended all along to focus on either the need or on my “praying right” and have missed this key (which Andrew Murray made primary!). Show me your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths! So much more here to ponder, Papa! You want to bless, to heal, to set free. Why is it so hard for us to hold onto that? Tozer’s words, “Faith is the gaze of a soul upon a saving God” takes on new meaning for me now. Ah, Father, you do it again! Last night I awoke at 3:45 and you brought Psalm 34:5 to mind. This morning as I look for and find the page with the Tozer quote I see—no surprise here—Psalm 34:5 referenced! And Young’s literal translation essentially says, “They looked expectantly to Him…”
Father, I see that you have planted the seeds of this in me for a long time. Most recently there was the repeated readings of Andrew Murray’s reminder that prayer must “always begin in the patient love of the Father,” and even more recently the picture you gave me of you and I sitting across from one another and placing the person I am praying for between us. Papa! Please help me hold onto this! There are so many areas where we already know your will and looking into your face as we pray will cause faith to rise up as we consider these. No wonder, Lord Jesus, you started the incredible faith passage in Mark 11 by putting the emphasis on trusting Father! As long as I look for faith as something that begins with me or as something generated within me, I cannot move into biblical faith!Father, understanding continues to flow. I wonder if it’s not true that when we miss your good purposes (which we must do often) because we don’t understand faith and pray accordingly you simply recalculate our course based upon your ever-pursuing-us goodness. Like a GPS, you are patiently and persistently “recalculating” to get us to your destiny for us. When we miss a turn, you simply pick up from there and invite us to get our eyes back onto you. Yes, there are consequences for our missing things—certainly if we do so because of rebellion—but for those who sincerely are seeking to follow you, you get us back on track the moment we turn back to you. Father, once again I am beginning to see that you are infinitely more loving than we can grasp, infinitely more good than we can imagine, and you are always working. Teach me, Papa, how to join you! So there you have it. Maybe something in my musings will touch a chord in a few of you, eh?
Tom, one of Abba's children who is still learning to trust His goodness
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