Hi
Please receive today’s Holy Nougat
“He helps us in all our troubles, so that we are able to help others who have all kinds of troubles, using the same help that we ourselves have received from God.”
2 Corinthians 1:4 GNB
I remember creating this image of a perfect father in my head and occasionally feeling sorry for myself for having grown up without my dream dad or real dad. And even after becoming a Christian, it took me a while to realize that I have an Abba I can count on. One Who was exceptionally real, tho sometimes feels like a dream. Yes there are still days when self pity seeps in; and too many days when trusting my faithfully Real Ideal Abba is a major challenge. But thanks be to God, my Abba does Not treat me as my stupidity and sins deserve; but loves me into family time and again.
You might argue that that’s not ‘troubles’, hmm; to some extent you are right. But to a child trying to figure out her niche, it was. Plus, I have also come to the realization that if God cares enough to be my Abba, then God does have my back for little and big issues. Like the time I got myself in a pickle being lost and stuck in a foreign country with no clue about the language. Or being told to give to another person when I was convinced I didn’t have enough even for me, and realizing that I wasn’t giving from my bounty, but from God’s.
Because ultimately, that is what a real relationship with Abba is about. Recognizing and then counting the blessings we have received. Sharing the blessings is an add-on, a value perk. In sharing from our ‘bounty’ (though it feels like lack), we have the opportunity to be part of a living miracle. (You know, like a good magic show where we are the magician’s assistant – we know it’s gonna be spectacular, but we don’t have all the details).
When it finally/fully registers that we are really giving from God’s bounty, it may truly blow our minds! Because if what we have is a bit, and we multiply it by the 7 Billion of us on the planet; and add to that the much more than 7 billion who lived before our time, the resources in the seas, skies, earth and planets; we realize that God is truly wealthy and has opted to share the wealth with us. Some of us just lost sight of the fact that it’s all God’s!
When we realize the blessedness of the gift of time within these times, we may find that we do have many blessings to share. And they all came from our Creator, God.
When we take stock of all we’ve lost – and some of us have lost a lot – then look at where we are despite the losses, we might begin to grasp the awesome wonder of this gift of Life and find ourselves ready to bless God all over again! Can you imagine? We get to see the transformative effect of blessing others as we are blessed, we find our ‘sacrifice’ was worthwhile. Sometimes we find that the one transformed is ourselves. If we are impacted by all those awesome wonders (and the countless others I didn’t mention), and we can genuinely attribute them to God, the True Source, we might find ourselves itching to go tell a friend about what God can do! We might even Make a friend in our zeal to share! When that happens we will have been a blessing in God’s name.
That’s what Abba asks of each of us – to experience and go tell … in word and in deed.
Have we experienced?
Will we go tell?
In Christ’s love and grace . . .
