Her God.
God is personal. Father God is so good, so gracious and loving. When we don't understand this we mess ourselves up. We look at all of life so wrongly.
If we come to Father God with a screwed up perspective from Him we can't see Him as He is.
My oldest son and his earthly father get along well now, but there have been times in the last few years when my son wrongly thought his dad was mad at him. Or, he thought his dad was disappointed in him. It wasn't the case at all. But because my son thought these things, everything his earthly father said to him came through these false views of him and just confirmed to my son that he was right about his dad.
And all the time he was wrong.
Father God isn't Santa Claus.
He isn't a stern dictator.
He is a loving Father. When we grasp this life is so much better. We can rest in Him. We can just believe and know He's got our backs. He's there. He's on our side. Until we grasp this we may say we believe these things, but in our hearts we don't. We still try to live by the rules or try to be perfect little children who are afraid of getting punished.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?
Romans 8:31-32
Good Fathers want their children to be their very best -- loving others in all they do; living freely and adventurously, loving life and excited about the day to come. That's what God wants. He wants us to love Him and others. He wants us to be free, not slaves to anything of this world.
If He doesn't give something we want it is because that something isn't right for us or might do us harm or maybe it just isn't the right time.
I wish I put my hands on both sides of your face and look into your eyes and tell you, "God really really really loves you. Jesus is crazy about you."
One of my favorite verses in the entire Bible is Zephaniah 3:17:
The LORD your God is in your midst,
A victorious warrior.
He will exult over you with joy,
He will be quiet in His love,
He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.
I don't claim being a Christian until March 6, 1988. I was a sophomore in college and 19 years old. I never looked back. Jesus has been my life since.
Prior to that though, I knew God loved me. I knew Jesus loved me and died for me. I never doubted that my whole life. I've always known that.
And I knew the Father loved me. I've never doubted that, but for so long I guess I didn't know what that meant. I saw love in a different light -- a love that was kind of stern, finger-wagging when I was wrong; a kind of love that "this is for your own good, Jane."
And there is a place for that a bit in real love but it wasn't like that. God isn't wagging his finger at you, keeping a tally of rights and wrongs. Man alive, He's not impressed by your good deeds and He's not ashamed of your wrong choices. He made you. He knows you are human and weak and a sinner. He doesn't want you to sin but when you do He's made a way.
I don't know when it happened but I get it now. That screwed-up version of love has melted away from me. It has fallen off my eyes and my heart like a snake sheds its skin.
Golly, if you don't have this, if you don't feel really really loved by the Father, ask Him to help you in this. It is His Will. I know that. I can say that with 100% confidence. It is His Will for you.
The title of this blog post -- His God -- came from Isaiah 28:26.
God said it. He called Himself ours.
Think about that.