Highlights From Higher Ground

From Biblical Womanhood in the Home

KNOWING GOD AS FATHER
Mary A. Kassian
Page 58-59

Do you wonder why you feel no peace in your heart? Do you
wonder why you feel restless and unsettled? Do you wonder why you
feel frustrated? Perhaps it is because the Holy Spirit in you is crying
“Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!” But you are busy, occupied with other
things. Or you are too afraid to look into the Father’s eyes and let Him
love you.

The Father appreciates your obedience. He appreciates your disciplines
of prayer and fasting and being in the Word. He appreciates
your service. But more than all these things and at the center of the
Gospel is this: The Father wants your heart. He does not want rote
obedience, conformity, service, sacrifice, and ceaseless ministry from
you. If He does not have your heart, these things mean nothing to
Him. Living in a love relationship with God is the key to enjoying and
delighting in Him and experiencing His delight in you. If you truly
understand this and take it to heart, it will revolutionize your life and
will allow you to begin to experience the joy and victory that Christ
has already won for you.

Understanding Christianity as a love relationship revolutionizes
the way we live. It changes the way we view repentance and confession.
We repent and confess because we have hurt the one we love, not
merely because we have broken the rules. It changes the way we view
witnessing. We witness because we want people to get to know our
wonderful Brother and Father, not to convert them to a church or
religion. It changes our perspective on Christian disciplines. We read
the Bible, pray, memorize, meditate, and fast not because it is required
of us, but because of our longing to connect with the lover and
redeemer of our souls. We are motivated by love and longing, not duty
and obligation. It changes our perspective on Christian service. We are
under no pressure to perform. We listen carefully to our Father and
do only what He asks of us. We delight in our Father and revel in being
His child. It changes our perspective on suffering, pain, and sacrifice.
We are filled with joy and hope in the certainty that our Father is in
control and will make it right. We are eager to give up lesser joys for
the all-surpassing joy of knowing and walking with Him.
Are you living your life in a love relationship with your Abba-
Father? Are you nurturing or neglecting that relationship? Are you
running toward or away from Him?

emphsis are mine
*****
"We repent and confess because we have hurt the one we love, not
merely because we have broken the rules."

I was pretty convicted by this sentence. How often I repent because I have broken the rules, not because I have disapointed my Heavenly Father.