The Father Himself Loves You

God lives and works today. He created this world out of love for us, His children, so that we would rejoice in it and love Him in return. Yet, how many of us take time to thank Him for His love? Today's meditation by Basilea Schlink tells what a difference this can make to God and to our own happiness.

How we grieve God's heart because we don't love Him, because we ignore Him, or love Him only half-heartedly. God is a Father of love. He has planned every lovely thing for us, the sunshine, the trees, meadows, mountains, and lakes.

Yes, all the beauty of the earth and the sky. And He waits, like any earthly father, to see if His children find pleasure in what He has done for them, if they thank Him, and if their love for Him grows greater. But our Heavenly Father, who created us and loves us with such an unspeakable love, waits in vain.

From whom does He ever receive thanks and praise? The birds sing their songs of praise, the flowers bloom to His glory. But we, His children, who are also His creation, remain silent. Even we who call ourselves Christians give little praise to Him.

However, if we would begin to thank God for everything that He does for us, for the roof over our heads, our daily bread, or just because He continually brings us new joys, we would become happier and even be drawn closer to Him. Why? Because a thankful heart has no room for sadness and despair. Thankfulness and praise draw us closer to our Heavenly Father.

But our ungratefulness only hurts Him. How often we're ashamed when we've been so ungrateful to our parents, who've loved us so dearly, and who've sacrificed so much for us. We see how our ungratefulness has hurt them, and are usually quickly sorry for this.

Shouldn't we be then ashamed and brokenhearted because of our ingratitude towards our Heavenly Father? How we sadden His heart because we so seldom show Him our love and thankfulness for His sacrificial love. Let's make a new start today. Let's thank God the Father for all things, great and small, pleasant or even unpleasant.

Then we shall be drawn close to His heart. We shall bring Him happiness, and in return, He'll make us happier than we ever could imagine. God is but goodness, but goodness, but goodness alone.

And all His heart full of goodness, great. Yea, God is goodness, yea, God is goodness, goodness alone. Father of goodness, of goodness.

Father of goodness. You have been listening to a program written by Basilea Schlink of the Little Land of Canaan. To learn more about how God lives and works today, visit us at our website, www.canaan.org. That's K-A-N-A-A-N dot org.

If you contact us, we would be happy to send you a free inspirational booklet. If you do not have access to the web, please contact this radio station for our postal address. God bless you.