“Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

-Luke 12:32

 

Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night and not been able to fall back asleep.   When this happens now, I ask God what He wants to talk about and then I listen.   Last night, this is what I heard.

The Word of God does not constrain us, it frees us from all worldliness, including in our thoughts, actions and life that in fact keep us from perceiving and receiving the Kingdom of God.   In fact, the Word frees us so that we can live in joy, peace and rest.

As a mom, I long to lavish my love and affection on my children.   I have observed this interesting phenomenon though, the more they have the less they appreciate what they have.   I think humanly speaking, having much creates an entitlement and an appetite for much and in so many ways creates a people who cannot be satisfied.  So I started to think that having much might be the problem.  Then I realized in the desert, the Israelites had the opposite problem and had very little in the possessions department, although they had the greatest thing in the presence of the living God visibly.  Ours is an even greater provision in that we have the same Holy Spirit in us.  So in one case it is need and in the other case it is the “excess”, cares and pleasures of this world, that drown out our delight in God.

So here is what I got…   We, the human race, were created for the Lord’s pleasure, so that He could fellowship with us and lavish us, He is Love and needs to express this love for Him to be satisfied.   We are whom He made in all the universe to receive this astonishing blessing and honour.  We were made to be loved and lavished and to respond with delight, and thanksgiving and praise.

As a parent, there are few things in life more precious than those times when our children are truly delighted.  God is so wise in bringing us into this awesome gift of parenthood so that we can catch these glimpses of His own heart.

We must live in anticipation that the Lord Himself longs to delight us.  We are the object of His affections, He is not stingy, He is not limited.

We must guard our hearts diligently and not let expectation or entitlement or abundance ever steal our joy but live in ongoing delight as the Lord provides for us lavishly.  This is equally hard in times of great blessing as times of great need.  I think thankfulness (remaining grounded in gratitude) is at least one key all the time.  Understanding the faithfulness of the Lord and His inability to do anything but to keep every single one of His promises faithfully to whoever believes them.  Most importantly of all, understanding the pleasure God receives in loving His loved ones.

We can read God’s love letters to us, His gestures of affection and love when we stop and listen to the millions of soothing sounds (water gurgling, rain falling etc), when we watch in awe as all creation does what it does (I was wondering at the tulips which put on this big show of colour in early spring every year and then slowly die back to rejuvenate there bulbs so that they can burst forth again next year in all their beauty), from beautiful sunsets, to the expressions of pure joy in a loved ones face…  a word of encouragement, a timely call, a peace in impossible situations, a love for someone in the natural we could only hate…

I was thinking about how the Israelites grumbled in the desert when they had no food (none and none to be found without walking for days in the natural, surrounded by over a million others in the same plight).  There situation was utterly impossible, they were doomed to die slowly and painfully, watching those they loved go through that suffering as well.  BUT, in the supernatural, if they could only keep their focus there, has always been with them God.    He is not limited and not stingy.   Perhaps it is only my own fanciful thoughts, but maybe not.  What if they had been able to live in joyful anticipation that his promises to provide for them were true even then.  They could have a approached Him joyfully and simply asked for food with thanksgiving.   The Lord was not limited to manna and quail, what other delightful meals would He had brought to them just to satisfy them and love them with had they been able to rest in joyful anticipation of this perfect provision.  How much more, just how much the Lord must have longed to satisfy the Israelites in the desert, to speak tenderly to them in this desert place (Hosea 2:14), what kind of miracles and provisions did the Israelites and God do without because of their grumbling attitudes and unbelieving hearts.

The Lord is in no way stingy or limited but must deprive us if His gifts and lavish love are being received in a way that drives us from Him into self-centredness and worldliness, He can not do that which spoils His dearest ones.

Our lack of thankfulness robs the delight out of the good gifts of God.   Thankfulness creates a hedge against this.  Entitlement always sets someone up for failure, no one can satisfy its ungodly hunger and stringent demands.

I am crying out to see the abounding provision of the  Lord that surrounds my life every day.

Once we receive this, we can enter into this divine flow recognizing that the Lord longs for us to be blessed and sharing the pleasure with Him of sharing the Kingdom of God with others that He also longs to lavish and love. We can look to all that we have been given asking Lord, for whom have I received this gift,, when and how shall I deliver it so that this supernatural provision can be experienced by so many others who are crying out in need.

How can we represent our abounding loving Lord, when are own hearts are fixed in a poverty, limited, lacking, stingy mindset?

Live prepared to be delighted and provided for by the Lord.  This anticipation should glow on us as a confident radiant hope in all circumstances.

Some thoughts anyways…..