As a little girl I remember so well the desire to please my dad. I did everything I could to gain his attention and his trust. I craved that validation. Then in high school I did something I wasn’t supposed to do. He was so angry that he looked me in the eyes and told me that he was disappointed in me and could not trust me.  It was a crushing blow.  To lose something that I had worked so hard for and craved so much was devastating.

As a believers we sometimes view our relationship with our heavenly Father with this same kind of delicate frailty. We believe that those who pray the most and who stay the busiest “working” for the Lord have a better relationship with Him. He has to love them more.  So we strive and we press in and we strive some more and we press in some more until we are burned out, spent, and anxious because enough is never really enough.

Then when you come to the end of the striving and you stop trying to be so perfect and work so hard you are finally introduced to your real Dad.  Not the father of your particular religion, not the father of your interpretation of the scripture, but the God who is Love, that is your real Father. It is then, and only then, that you are able to relax because you realize that He isn’t waiting on you to get your work done.  He has been waiting on you to realize that He already did all the work so He could spend His time with you.  You see, it’s not about getting Him to love you.  He IS love.  Its really about you accepting that you are lovable because of Him.  And in knowing that love, you are fulfilled in life instead of anxious. Enjoying Him and He you.  That is relationship.  That is love.

Ephesians 3:14-21; I John 4:9-10, 19; Romans 8:38-39; John 15:13; Romans 5:8