Daddy, I need you

Daddy, I need You

...for your Father knows what you need before you ask him" Matthew 6:8

⁷ “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.⁹ “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? ¹¹ If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! ¹² So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets." 

Matthew 7:7-12 KJV

If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" Luke 11:13 NIV

These verses are difficult for me...

What does it mean to have a Daddy in Heaven who is all knowing, all powerful, all love and yet still live in a fallen world?

God can do anything but tragedy, devastation, suffering, sin, selfishness happen

Happen all the time

Happen in horrific randomness

terrifying selfishness

leaving devastating destruction

These things happen

Happen to those I see and hear about

Happen to those I  know

Happen to those I love

Happen to me

What does it mean to trust you to be the Daddy who takes care of me?

I am standing here bankrupted

all my accounts overdrawn

crumpled promisary notes in hand that I have no ability to pay

"The servant therefore fell down and worshipped him, saying, 

"Lord have patience with me and I will pay you all"  Matthew 18: 26 KJV

This man thought he just needed time to repay his debt

No, time is not what I need

I am utterly bankrupt and without any hope of renewal and redemption outside of your mercy.

This man received what he did not yet know that he needed:

 your free and absolute forgiveness of all that debt

 his belief that in time he could pay
prevented this great mercy from reaching his heart 

and transforming everything there
because he would not even grant time
to one who owed him

much less
extending mercy, debt-forgiveness, freedom

Trying to live a righteous life has brought me to utter bankruptcy

I have no resource to meet the needs that meet me everyday

"For I have satiated the weary soul and I have replenished every sorrowful soul"

 Jeremiah 31:25 KJV

Only you can do this

If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" Luke 11:13

What you promise to provide is yourself

not things, security that makes me feel secure without you

no promises of exemption from the woes of this life

not even deprivation is excluded

Jesus knew what it was to be hungry, exhausted, rejected, scorned, manipulated betrayed, crucified

He was not spared any of this

So that anyone could have him in the midst of their longing soul, no matter what

What does it mean to have an all loving Daddy,
 all powerful, all knowing, all able,

while still  in this fallen world?

 It means I have a loving heart and a lap to climb into
where there is a welcoming smile

Where I can tell all my heart, all I desire,
all I wish I could change, all I wish I could give,

all I wish I could fix, change, redo, transform

accepting that I cannot do any of this

that He is all wise to know what to do

how to best bring us and those we love to our deepest home in him

When Jesus asked the rich young ruler to sell all,
give to the poor and come and follow him

Jesus is really saying that being with him is better 

than being young, wealthy, powerful, comfortable,
 respected, well-fed, admired, esteemed,

whatever else I so desperately desire

Jesus was not asking this man to make a lesser trade

He was offering him the best

Himself

I am not able to give up everything I have
 but am asking You to be more and more

and to loosen the hold these things have on me to less and less

nature abhors a vacuum

I will be filled with something

Oh, let it be You 

With men these things are impossible

but with God all things are possible

with God

with God

with God

Oh dear Lord, let me be with you,
 no matter what it costs or what I have to let go of 

You will give wisdom and grace for any and every situation, 

every conundrum, every shock. every day of mundane details

Whatever the need, even when I don't know what I need

I need YOU

With you

With you

With you

all things are possible

In all their affliction he was afflicted,

    and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them;    he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. 

Isaiah 63:9 ESV