If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

Matthew 7:11

It is God’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom (Luke 12:32).  Not some day far away in some millenial reign, but right here, today, at hand, where we need it.  When we need it.

Our Father knows our needs (Matthew 6:32).  He will give them to us if we are seeking after His interests.

When we fail to recognize God as our Father, our provider, our sustainer, we can begin to look at this Christian walk in an out of balance way.  We become afraid to ask, because we do not believe it matters, that we are good enough, that He hears us, or any other number of lies.  We become afraid to seek, lest we do not find.  We are afraid to knock, for fear that we will be soundly rejected.

We have known and believed the love that God hath to us, John wrote in 1 John 4:16.  We have both come to know and also believe His love.

The walk of faith is not one of presumption.  It is not simply deciding it is true and that it will all be fulfilled the way we want it when we want it, as if it depended upon us.  But, in the course of relationship, in the place where we are His little children, we find that He has been our Father all along.

God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6).  He is near the broken-hearted, and saves those crushed in spirit.  Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord saves them out of them all (Psalm 34:18-19).

God’s heart is for the poor, meek, afflicted, and those in need.  If we ever lose sight of this, we have lost sight of His cross.  That we live as Christ did in this world.

He desires us to be like Him.  He wants us to love like Him.

What is the greatest thing in the world?  The love that lays itself down for another.  If the greatest of all is love (1 Corinthians 13:13), and greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for another (John 15:13), then it is the greatest.

It is no surprise then, that Song of Solomon 8:6 says that love is as strong as death, and its jealousy as unyielding as the grave.

All we have to do is seek, all we have to do is ask, all we have to do is knock.  And keep on knocking.  Fast, pray, and worship Jesus.  He wants us to know His way.

If we refuse the easy road, the path to quick, meaningless promotion by the hands of men rather than waiting for the true promotion that comes only from God, He will remember us, after a while (Genesis 8:1).  If we will be particular about His particulars, and not depart from His word, if we will keep our hands from ill gotten gain, if we will stand up for truth and integrity to our own hurt if need be, if we will prove ourselves faithful in the little, He will, in time, give us all things (Luke 16:10).

What isn’t clear today, will be made clearer later on.  If you want some wisdom, someone else probably fasted a week or two for the very breakthrough you’re looking for today.  Why not fast and pray for a two or three days for the humility, wisdom, and insight enough to find and receive the answer they received rather than simply fast for your own word?  It would go faster if we worked as a family.

The greatest thing in the world is His love.  It put Christ on the cross (John 3:16), and it continues today, shining a light in the darkness that never goes out.

Love is the answer, and love is the way.  Before any of the heavens were initiated, and before the Earth was formed, love was, because God was, and God is love.  Love is Eternal, because God is Eternal.

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 John 4:7-8

Real love only comes because we know God, and only continues so long as we abide in Him.

When we see with the eyes of the heart, with a heart of faith, we live in God.

[T]he one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

1 John 4:16 (end of the verse)

The heart of our Father is the heart of love, and hence, it is only the heart will live the Sermon on the Mount through to the end, even if it be a cross, simply because no other strength will sustain us.

It is no wonder then, that Jesus still says that in His Kingdom, that to break the least of the commandments and to teach others to do the same is to be the least in His Kingdom.  For, to break on of God’s commandments, every single one of them, is to in one way or another, violate love, and hence to violate God.

Jesus’ great prayer in John 17 included the prayer that we would be one, even as He and His Father were one (John 17:21).  Unbroken fellowship, and union is both God’s desire and His Way.  Apart from Him, we can do nothing.

If we can do nothing else, we must rid ourselves of all the self-striving after all that could make us “better”, and simply come to know Him as little children.

For surely, unless we change and become like little children, we will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 18:3).

**In memory of my earthly father, who always took us camping, who went into surgery for a brain tumor this day, December 2, 2011..  Though he survived the operation, I remember him, who always loved the outdoors.  Thanks Dad.  May he be made perfect in love.  1 John 4:18