In order to strengthen our confidence in God, Christ teaches us to address Him by a new name, a name entwined with the dearest associations of the human heart. He gives us the privilege of calling the infinite God our Father. This name, spoken to Him and of Him, is a sign of our love and trust toward Him, and a pledge of His regard and relationship to us. Spoken when asking His favor or blessing, it is as music in His ears. . . .

God regards us as His children. He has redeemed us out of the careless world and has chosen us to become members of the royal family, sons and daughters of the heavenly King. He invites us to trust in Him with a trust deeper and stronger than that of a child in his earthly father. Parents love their children, but the love of God is larger, broader, deeper, than human love can possibly be. It is immeasurable.?Christ?s Object Lessons, pp. 141, 142.

Does God not only give but also receive? Can God take pleasure in His people? Some theologians claim God only bestows value but cannot receive any value. God, then, takes no pleasure in creatures?God?s love (they claim) is independent of the appraisal, evaluation, or enjoyment of creatures.

There are three reasons typically given for this view. First, some believe God cannot be influenced or affected by anything outside Himself. Therefore, it is impossible for God to receive value. John Piper writes: ? ?God is love? is this: it belongs to the fullness of God?s nature that He cannot be served but must overflow in service to His creation. The very meaning of God is a being who cannot be enriched but always remains the enricher.?

Second, many claim pure love must be wholly self-sacrificial. Thus, love that receives value is considered selfish. This is linked to the popular view of agap? we encountered earlier in this book that God?s love is altogether ?indifferent to value.?

Third, even if God could receive value and it was not selfish to do so, everything humans do is tainted by sin, and humans are thus incapable of generating value or eliciting God?s delight.

So can God take pleasure in His people? Even if He can, would God?s receiving of love be selfish; shouldn?t He only give? Finally, could humans actually give anything to God? We will address these questions one by one. 

The Bible is a book filled with hope. Its stories are about people like you and me. Sometimes they were strong and conquered mightily for God. At other times they were weak and failed miserably, but in each of these instances God was there to give them hope to face tomorrow. The word ?hope? is used more than 125 times in the Bible. The apostle Paul, who faced so many challenging situations, used it more than 40 times. He was beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, and imprisoned, yet he was filled with hope. Writing to his friends living in Rome, he declared, ?Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit? (Romans 15:13). As we place our hope in a God who is bigger than any problem we ever face, our hearts are filled with ?joy and peace in believing.? The confidence that there is a God who loves us beyond what we can ever understand fills us with hope. 

To some degree, Peter?s story is the story of every Christian. We begin sincere, devoted, determined to serve God. Yet the power of the flesh is very strong. Before denying Christ, Peter cast out devils, healed the sick, and preached the gospel. Yet self was still strongly ruling in him.

I ask every reader, Do we realize how much of self rules in us? Once self is broken, God?s blessings will be seen tenfold more in and through us. We must be willing to earnestly pray the prayer of David; ?Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting? (Psalm 139:23, 24). We must let God work His brokenness in us. Such experiences are always very painful. I call them dark times; we don?t understand what God is doing. They may be times of sorrow and confusion. However, pride and self-serving are strong in every sinner. Only by God?s masterful guidance will any man or woman become Spirit-filled and Christ-centered rather than self-centered. 

John 3:16 is not a declaration that Jesus was literally "begotten" of God way back before coming to our world, nor that Jesus came into distinct existence chronologically after God. Rather, John 3:16 is telling us that Jesus is the fulfillment of the covenant promise foreshadowed in Israel's covenantal Sonship. The end goal of the biblical story is that God would have a faithful son, a son who would keep covenant with God and with humanity, a son who would become the source of many other faithful sons, reproducing the image of God within the wider human race. Jesus is God's Son in this sense. He is Adam as God meant Adam to be, Israel as God meant Israel to be, David as God meant David to be, humanity as God meant humanity to be.

Not until I reached my twenties did I realize life has a way of throwing curve balls at our dreams. From sickness and broken relationships to near-death experiences, I experienced it all. Yet, through it all, I learned to pick up the pieces and keep trusting God. Through the storms of life, I learned these four lessons:

First lesson: God has a plan. He wants us to know Him and love Him above all earthly possessions. God desires to give us eternal life, and that is better than gaining the entire world.

Second lesson: Material things do not indicate success, though some are necessary in life. Everything I sought was only temporary in the light of eternity.

Third lesson: God can heal us from the pain and disappointment of life. He is the God who heals, and He is ready to help us. He does not hold grudges because of yesterday?s failure.

Fourth lesson: God is enough; therefore, I am enough. Though we were made for relationships, they should not come before our relationship with our Creator. Unfulfilled dreams and broken promises can sometimes get in the way of trusting and believing God, but we can find peace and comfort in knowing God has a plan for us. His plans are always the best.

Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, ?May no one ever eat fruit from you again.? And his disciples heard him say it. ?Mark 11:13, 14, NIV

Gardening is not easy. Living in the environment where we produce fruit is not easy. But when we isolate ourselves, we do not produce the fruit God meant for us to bear. We become like the fig tree?beautiful but with no fruit?and our potential is unfulfilled. If we are not out in the adventuresome world where we are designed to be, we cannot generate the fruit God has prepared to produce through us. Neither can we gather the fruit God has sent us to harvest.

Just as fishermen catch fish, Jesus called His disciples to catch people. And just as we harvest fruits and veggies, Jesus calls us outside our comfort zones to find people ready for harvest?people who are ready to commit their lives to God. Sometimes, we even find them in our own backyard.

God has a deep and earnest love for every member of the human family; not one is forgotten, not one is left helpless and deceived to be overcome by the enemy. And if those who have enlisted in the army of Christ will put on the whole armor of God, and wear it, they will be proof against all the assaults of the enemy. Those who really desire to be taught of God, and to walk in His way, have the sure promise that if they feel their lack of wisdom and ask of God, He will give liberally, and upbraid not. The apostle says, ?Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.? . . . God is behind every promise, and we cannot dishonor Him more than by questioning and hesitating, by asking and not believing, and then by talking doubt. . . .

Believe; believe that God will do just what He has promised. Keep your prayers ascending, and watch, work, and wait. Fight the good fight of faith. Say to your heart, ?God has invited me to come. He has heard my prayer. He has pledged His word that he will receive me, and He will fulfil His promise. I can trust God; for He so loved me that He gave His only-begotten Son to die for me. The Son of God is my Redeemer.??Fundamentals of Christian Education, pp. 299, 300.

If God did not freely bestow love on us, we could not love? indeed, we would not even exist. Whatever else we say, we must affirm that God is the primary source of love. Apart from Him, there can be no love.

With infinite love and kindness, God draws us to Himself. ?I have loved you with an everlasting love,? God declares, ?therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you? (Jeremiah 31:3; cf. Romans 2:4). Thus, ?love is of God? and ?we love Him because He first loved us? (1 John 4:7, 19). God?s love for us is prior to any human action and is always unmerited.

Prior to anything humans do, God is ?good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works? (Psalm 145:9; cf. 100:1, 5). The entire ?earth is full of the lovingkindness [Hebrew hesed] of the Lord? (Psalm 33:5, NASB; cf. Psalm 36:7; 117:1, 2; 119:64; 145:8, 9). 

While our emotional natures may be bent toward negativity, they were originally shaped by the Creator to hold extremely positive emotions. Living in the shadows violates our design and causes us harm, especially as the negativity accumulates over the years. Much of growing in Jesus?more than we have realized, I think?amounts to allowing God?s Holy Spirit to loosen our grip on the dark daggers of fear, pain, guilt, shame, and anger and to help us instead seize trust, pleasure, peace, confidence, forgiveness, love, and joy.

We can wake up with a cheerful, ?Good morning, God,? or a scowling, ?Good God, it?s morning,? on our lips. We can fulfill our capacity for positive emotions, or we can lapse into the negativity of our fallen natures. Dealing with our feelings means we expand toward the positive. ?

The pursuit of happiness must be engineered carefully to coalesce with life on a broken planet. We will, at times, face unutterable grief, disappointment, loss, and suffering. If we are to live authentically, we must allow for the stretching of our hearts into uncomfortable shapes. Stuffing, denying, or numbing away negative emotions will prevent the deepening of our souls. God designed us to reflect His character, and lives lived rightly are in the constant process of becoming more and more like Him. Because ?thoughts and feelings combined make up the moral character,?7 and God calls us to be ?transformed into his image,? becoming more and more like Him in character, we can fully expect that with each growth spurt we will think and feel more the way God thinks and feels (2 Corinthians 3:18, NIV).  

God cares about the details of our lives. He wants us to talk to Him about these things just as we would with a best friend. But He doesn't want us to stop there.

When we remain self-focused in our prayers, it's evident that we don't truly understand God's heart; we don't see His tears of sorrow for the suffering and lost. When we understand His heart for those in darkness, we will become partners with Him in service. We will cry when He cries, and we will pray for His burdens, not just our own. We will truly be His friend. And it is here that we begin to touch the border of the endless frontier of possibilities in the life of faith!

There are some of us who were born into situations and others of us who have allowed ourselves to become entangled with circumstances that have obstructed our true identities. It may take God connecting us with the right people to bring change into our lives. It is through these powerful relationships that we will discover who we really are - and, ultimately, where we are destined to soar.

Church fellowship is what takes place when Jesus Christ unites us together in the body of Christ. It is much more than just having a good time. No, Church fellowship helps us to be the people of God. There are many people today who think they do not need this transformational fellowship. They miss out on being the kind of Christians God wants them to be. It is impossible to do what God has called us to do without other Christians in our lives. When we are together, we can become stronger Christians.