Gracious Father

    Papa God led me back to an entry in my journal from one year ago yesterday morning during my time with Him. When I got there, I was strengthened once again in my growing conviction that "faith" is what grows in us as we become more and more God-fascinated and God-blinded. The more I consider Jesus' words about Father as recorded in the Gospels, the more I am convinced that He was so captured by His Gracious Father that trusting God was the only possible response He could make to everything and everyone.

     This was becoming clear to me even one year ago when I was still very much recovering from the deepest blow to my God confidence that I have ever endured. I invite you, as I sometimes do, to listen in on my conversation with Papa (from April 27, 2011 journal entry) and see if you can see what I was seeing even back then.

     Papa, it hurts, of course, to go back one year, but I see there the renewing of the One Thing life, and I also see more clearly than ever how I got "stuck on me" rather than "lost in You" during the battle. I feel no condemnation or regret about this—not any more anyway—but there is something here that is hugely important. I am more convinced than ever that “real faith” comes from being so in love with you, so connected with you (or more accurately, living in increasing awareness of the unity with you we already have with you) that we cannot help but hear you and trust you. But I cannot get there unless you lead me, and there is far more here than just laying hold of healing. I look to you.

     What if it really were this simple? What if the heart of our walk of "faith" were to become more and more aware of God as a Gracious Father? What if we saw Him as He really is superimposed over every circumstance and situation we encounter? 

     But simple is not necessarily easy, as I have said before. It's hard to discern how to get to know Papa God better. A.W. Tozer said that one who would know God must spend much time with Him. I am convinced that this is true, but the busy-ness of life works against this for most of us. Yet trying harder to be with Him doesn't work, does it? So what can we do? I am not sure I even want to make any suggestions about this! Perhaps rather I will simply invite you to be sure to hang out with folks who stir up your passion for God and to ask Papa to show you His ways. Perhaps I will simply pray that this brief blog will ignite both hunger and hope in your heart. Perhaps I will ask our Gracious Father to reveal Himself to all whom He ignites this hunger in. Yes, perhaps that's what this little child of Abba will do.

Tom, one of Abba's little boys