LEANING ON THE  EVERLASTING ARMS                     Isaiah 40:29-31

He shall feed His flock like a shepherd: He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in  …Isaiah 40:11

When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, the first thing He taught them was to acknowledge the fatherhood of God. When we  say  “Our  Father,”  we  acknowledge  His  fatherhood and declare our sonship. Sonship is the basis for our relationship with Him as it relates to  the  privilege of belonging to His divine family…So knowing your father helps you understand your own identity as a son or daughter. Greater still is the need to know not only who my father is, but how he feels about me.

It is not good to deny a child the right to feel his father’s love. In divorce cases, some women use   the children to punish their ex-husbands. Because of her broken covenant with the child’s father, the mother may deny him the right to see his child. This is not good for the child!… Philip saith unto Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us (John 14:8).

Philip didn’t know who the Father was, but he longed to see Him. I can still remember what it was like to fall asleep watching television and have my father pick up my listless, sleep-ridden frame    from the couch and carry me up the stairs to bed. I would wake up to the faint smell of his “Old    Spice” cologne and feel his strong arms around me, carrying me as if I weighed nothing at all. I      never felt as safe and protected as I did in the arms of my father—that is, until he died and I was forced to seek refuge in the arms of my heavenly Father.

What a relief to learn that God can carry the load even better than my natural father could, and   that He will never leave me nor forsake me! Perhaps it was this holy  refuge  that  inspired  the  hymnist to pen the hymn

PRAYER LINE: Meditate “What a fellowship, what a joy divine. Leaning on the everlasting arms” (“Leaning On the Everlasting Arms,” Elisha A. Hoffman, 1887).

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What a relief to learn that God can carry the load even better than any natural father could. (T. D Jakes)