Talk to Your Daddy

“You’re seeing this for a reason…”
“The Holy Spirit wants you to hear this today…”
“If you’re seeing this, God needs you to read this message…”
 
Just kidding.

 

I’m seeing these kinds of captions all over the place online. And while I believe God can and sometimes does speak to people through messages that begin this way, a lot of it just feels like another trendy ploy (or aid) to increase the number of views on someone’s platform. But these statements have got me thinking. Thinking about how the truth is God doesn’t really need us. He created, and he controls, the universe just fine. Even before we humans came into being. But he does want us. He wants our attention and our fellowship. And that’s what we’re designed for, relationship. Today, when so often we’re short on time he wants that too. For Deuteronomy 6:15 tells us that our God is a jealous God. So, yes, he wants our time. His reminders of this aren’t always comfortable though.

 

Have you ever felt like you’re in a funk that you can’t shake? It’s what I’ve been experiencing lately. And something that has somewhat seeped into every aspect of my life is frustration. So I looked up the definition of that f-bomb, but it wasn’t the definition I was looking for. However, I did read or hear a description somewhere else that fits. As I recall, frustration is unfulfilled expectations. It’s when expectations don’t meet reality. That realization hit me when I woke up in the middle of the night in a fume of it, terrible frustration, and I whispered, “Oy, God, help!”

 

He was right there in response and said: “Talk to me. Talk to your daddy.”

 

That’s what he wanted. For us to have a heart-to-heart, an honest—oh-so-painfully-honest—talk, that I meditate on his presence, and regroup. And shouldn’t I have an attitude of gratitude that he cares, and that he’s there, present in my life—even if it isn’t going the way I thought it should or wanted at this point—that he’s in control and I’m not? Clearly, I’m not. Instead of running my mental mouth in complaining or sighing or bumming out, why don’t I rejoice in the fact that God loves me? I don’t understand his ways much of the time (and speaking of time, I especially don’t understand his timing), but with him I want to be an open book (crowbar not needed). He can rewrite these chapters, the whole manuscript if he wants. Maybe he’s switching genres on me, or topics; maybe he doesn’t want this to be about a manuscript at all and is keen to scrap it. Maybe he wants me to do nothing but spend time in his presence.

 

Right now, his message to me about life’s stuff is “Leave it” as in remove your hands from it. Whenever I want or strive to go back and change, rework, or start something else, he’s saying:

 

“Leave it.”

“Leave it.”

“Leave it.”

 

Then what’s left?

 

Talking to him.

 

He said, “Talk to me. Talk to your daddy.”

 

When was the last time you talked to him?

Maybe the Holy Spirit does want you to hear this today…

What if you really are seeing this for a reason…?

 

I guess I’m not kidding.

 

As imperfect people, we can singlehandedly make a lot of things go wrong in life. And disappointments can feel insurmountable. But one thing we can’t ever go wrong about is talking to our daddy in Heaven.

 

I hope your time with him is sweet.

I pray your conversation is authentic.

May he be magnified in your life.

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