Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. (Matthew 23:37 NIV)
Instead, we were like young children among you. Just as a nursing mother cares for her children, so we cared for you.
(1 Thess 2:7-8 NIV)

These two verses show us something important about the heart of the Father. He is gentle and he gathers us to himself. His instruction does not push us away but rather seeks to be intimate and close to us. In Isaiah 40:11 we read that God is like a shepherd who gathers the lambs and holds them close to his heart. His gentleness is a strength and security for us as we are drawn into the shelter of his love. 

He always deals kindly with us. 

The fruit of living in love will produce the same within us. Love will seek to draw people to a safe place, it will not push away nor will it deal harshly with others. It seeks redemption and healing. 

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8 NIV)

I will praise you, Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples. For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth. (Psalm 57:9-11 NIV)
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22-23 NIV)

Faithfulness, like goodness, is an inherent quality which is the outworking of love. The Father's faithfulness is a great security for us because, despite our sin and failings, he does not destroy us but he continues to love us with an everlasting love. His love always seeks redemption and restoration, no matter how long it takes!

His faithfulness holds us and carries us all the time. When things are tough, when we think we are struggling on our own, when we've failed. He is always there for us and his love never changes, it never ceases. It is the only constant in an unsettled world. His faithfulness makes him totally dependent and reliable, never changing, always there for us. 

The fruit of living in love is faithfulness. Faithful to the One who has saved us and redeemed us. Giving our whole life in grateful service to the Lover of our soul, truly understanding what it means to walk as Jesus walked. Faithful, also, to one another as we travel the path of life, supporting and encouraging our family and friends, being with them through thick and thin.

And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. (Exodus 33:19 NIV)
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (James 1:17 NIV)

In the 1970's there was a popular TV programme called "The Good Life" which was about a couple who abandoned the busyness of modern life and sought to become self-sufficient. They gave up their jobs, converted their garden to an allotment and began to live a simpler life. At first, their very middle class neighbours were outraged but eventually a great friendship grew up between the two couples. There was an innocence and vulnerability about them, an openness that took things on face value, something very uncomplicated and lacking any pretence.

There was a goodness about them. An inherent quality, not connected in any way to doing the right thing. Unselfish and motivated by something other than the normal rules of behaviour. 

This, of course, is only a partial picture of the Father's goodness. The Psalmist reminds us regularly that the Lord's goodness is a result of his enduring love for us. He is motivated by love because he is love. He delights in blessing his children because he is love. His goodness releases mercy to us when we don't deserve it. His goodness does not come and go like the shifting sands. He is always good as goodness is the fruit of love. 

We may do all the right things but that does not necessarily make us good. Goodness is the fruit of the spirit of love living in our heart. As we live in love we are transformed and our actions and lifestyle become motivated by righteousness and a desire to be a blessing. True goodness is not self-made but the outworking of the seed of love in our life which will cause us to 'love your neighbour as yourself' (Galatians 5:14). As the Passion Translation says, "love is revealed through a life full of virtue".

The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. (Jeremiah 31:3 NIV)
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. (Matthew 25:35 NIV) 

A well known BBC reporter, Kate Adie, wrote a book called "Kindness to Strangers" in which she recounts her travels (mainly in war zones) and the many times strangers were kind to her either by giving her food or shelter. Even in a war, where people are deprived of the basic essentials, there is still kindness which can shine above their circumstances.

As I've thought about kindness, I see it's easy to be kind to your family or close friends, but it's harder to be kind to those in need or to those who are strangers or migrants. 

True kindness involves a cost and it involves giving. It's easy to be kind when we feel like it or when our own resources are abundant but it's not so easy when there is a cost involved, either of our time or resources. This is, I believe, true kindness. Kindness sees others who are in need and then reaches out to cover that need. The problem may have been caused by the other person, but kindness doesn't blame or seek revenge, instead it accepts and provides a covering of love. 

This is exactly what our Father has done for us in Jesus. In his loving kindness, he reached down and provided a covering for our sin and shame and has made a way for us to come back into relationship with him. As we allow him to be a Father to us, the spirit of sonship living in us will produce the fruit of kindness. We, like our Heavenly Father, will become kind to those in need, we will provide a covering for their faults and be able to show them the same loving kindness which we have received. 

We are grateful to God for your lives and we always pray for you. For we remember before our God and Father how you put your faith into practice, how your love motivates you to serve others, and how unrelenting is your hope-filled patience in our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 1:2-3 TPT)

​I am one of those people who, when I start a project, wants to finish it straightaway, if I am stuck in traffic I start drumming my fingers on the steering wheel, if I'm out in a restaurant I don't like waiting too long for my meal. All these show a lack of patience. In other circumstances I can show great patience, like when I'm watching a sunset, waiting for the perfect moment to take a photograph or simply resting and waiting for something or someone. 

The dictionary defines patience as 'waiting without complaint' or 'calmly enduring suffering'. 

When we read about the fruit of the Spirit we are easily excited about love, joy and peace but then we arrive at the ones where we feel more work on our part is needed. It's a good thing it's the fruit of the Spirit and not our own self-generated fruit. 

Patience requires trust and dependency on another. Inevitably, patience involves waiting for something to happen. However, it's not the waiting that is important but rather how we wait. The Psalms are full of encouragement to wait and see God act on our behalf ..... 'I waited patiently for the Lord'. They show us the dependency that, particularly, King David had on his Heavenly Father. When he couldn't achieve things in his own strength, he waited for the One who was much stronger and more able. 

If we can learn to wait, then we will discover the fruit of patience at work in us and we are led into rest. 

Human patience may be in short supply but as we live in love the patience of the Holy Spirit will be seen in our lives.  

All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. (John 14:25-27 NIV)

It's very easy to look at other people's lives and think they are not living in peace. But what about us? Do we live in peace? Peace, like rest, is something that eludes us, it seems to slip so easily out of our grasp. Life can be very full as we feel we are being consumed by activity and busyness with little or no time to slow down and discover a slower rhythm. Stress is all around us and there is a constant pressure from so many sources to conform or to have or to be. Often, even when we sit at home, we are not truly at peace because the engine of our heart is still whirring madly. Where, oh where, is the peace we crave?

As we allow God to be a Father to us, we will be filled with his Spirit. It is the indwelling of the Spirit of life in us that will produce the fruit of peace. Not our fruit, but the fruit of the Spirit. 

On his last evening with them, the disciples are unsettled and so Jesus gives them a gift. The supernatural gift of his peace. A peace that goes beyond our limited understanding and becomes a protection or shield around our heart and our mind (Philippians 4:7). Peace sometimes sounds like it is a bit fluffy and lacking substance but here we see it as a powerful protective force.

My prayer for us today is: can we let the power of his peace surround us in order that, even in the storms of life, we can be at rest, experiencing his peace flooding our heart and our mind? 

And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness; it will be for those who walk on that Way. The unclean will not journey on it; wicked fools will not go about on it. No lion will be there, nor any ravenous beast; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there, and those the Lord has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. (Isaiah 35:8-10 NIV)

Over the next few weeks I'm going to look at the fruit of the Spirit. When we allow God to be a Father to us, we make room for the Holy Spirit to live in our heart. The Holy Spirit is the spirit of sonship who enables us to cry 'Abba, Father', the cry that recognises we are sons and daughters and that God is our real Father. This cry is the result of an awakening to and awareness of the reality of being loved. We can say the words, but without the Holy Spirit at home in us they are just words. These are more than words though, they are a cry which is connected to the source of life, they are words that declare "I'm alive".

When we know we are loved, when we experience perfect love our hearts will come home. When a heart comes home it can be filled with joy. This is not a joy based on our external circumstances or how we happen to feel on any given day, but it is a heart filled with the Holy Spirit. The wonderful thing about the fruit of the Spirit is that it is his fruit and not ours. It is not dependent on us but on him. That's why it's possible for you to be joyful even when you are walking through the midst of difficulties.

This is why Nehemiah could say 'the joy of the Lord is your strength' (Nehemiah 8:10) or Malachi could describe us a young calves leaping out of the stable (Malachi 4:2). King David, in his prayer of repentance, asks that the joy of God's salvation would be restored to him (Psalm 51:12). He was not looking for his joy to be restored but the joy that comes from knowing Almighty God is your Father. 

My prayer today, is that we would not seek to make ourselves joyful but would rather allow his joy to rise up within us and to be the source of our life. It is not our joy we seek, it is the joy of the Lord.  

People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them. (Mark 10:13-16 NIV)

Over the last few weeks, we have looked at some of the ways in which we can allow God to be a Father to us. We can give him the things we worry about, he can take our fears and we can have an upward gaze of knowing that we are 'in Christ'. 

It is, however, in these verses that we are given the greatest key to allowing God to be a Father to us. A childlike heart. In Matthew 11, Jesus tells us that 'these things' have been hidden from the wise and learned but have been revealed to little children. That must have been very offensive to Jesus' listeners but nonetheless it is the truth. All the things Jesus is talking about have been revealed to him, meaning he must have the most childlike heart of all. 

If it was the way for him, then it is the way for us as well. 

When I look at my little grandson, Asher, I see someone who is totally dependent on his parents for his food, his bathing, his clean clothes and to be put where he needs to be. As far as he is concerned he has no independent life outside his parents, he needs them for everything. That is a childlike heart. 

For God to be a Father to us we need to let go of our pride and independence and place our lives in his hands. Like Asher, having a childlike heart means being totally dependent on our Father. We can trust him for everything that we need, we can rely on his goodness and faithfulness for us. We can believe that his love will never fail, nor will it let us go. His love for us is everlasting, it will never run out. 

Just after Jesus rebukes his disciples we read the story of the rich young ruler. He had done all the right things but was lacking one thing. Jesus doesn't actually tell him what that thing was, he merely tells him to sell everything and give it to the poor. I believe that what the young man lacked was a childlike heart. He was too consumed with his riches and his inability to trust and therefore he was unable to have that simplicity of heart and dependence which would enable him to follow. 

My prayer for you is that 2 Corinthians 6:18 would be a reality in your everyday lives. That you will experience God being a Father to YOU in every area of your life. That you would have a childlike heart which allows you be totally dependent on your Father. After all, that's how Jesus lived. 

The fourth video on this page http://www.afathertoyou.com/musicvideos.html is a song about letting go of our pride and independence and coming to Father with a childlike heart, let this soak into your heart today.

"I will be a Father to you and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty"
​(2 Corinthians 6:18 NIV)

The next Fatherheart 'A' School in the UK is in July at Cloverley Hall in Shropshire. This is an opportunity for you to experience Father's love and to know his comforting love filling your heart. All the details together with an online booking form are at http://fhmaschool.uk You are all very welcome.

For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will — to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. (Ephesians 1:4-6 NIV)

The other week, when Barry Adams spoke about our Divine Union on the Fatherheart.TV webcast, he talked about us abiding in the vine. This is a great picture of our union with Jesus, in the Father. The point which Barry was drawing out of this was that our remaining (or abiding) requires nothing other than to be totally dependent on the source of life. No striving or performance is necessary as all we do is rest in him. 

One time I did a study on the phrase "in Christ". I was amazed at how many times Paul mentions this throughout the course of his letters. It struck me how important it is for us to understand the reality of what he is talking about. As you read Ephesians 1 & 2 you see the incredible gift that is ours, through Christ; it is a promise of belonging and blessing, of rest and provision.

Those two words, "in Christ", speak volumes. Where Christ is, we are. He has returned to the bosom of the Father, to his true home and we too can discover that the bosom of the Father is our home. He is seated in the Heavenly realms and we are there, sat down at his side. The Amplified version says we 'have joint seating' with Christ, that means we're on the throne next to him. He lives in an intimacy of relationship with the Father and so do we. 

I would encourage you to read any of Paul's letters and you will see for yourself the amazing inheritance that is ours as we ponder what being 'in Christ' really means. It means that there is a Heavenly reality for us to step into, it is the way we are truly seen by the Father,. As we allow God to be a Father to us we find ourselves looking upward rather than being consumed by our earthly struggles. He is the perfect Father and he wants to be a Father to YOU. 

"One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple." (Psalm 27:4 NIV)

The next Fatherheart 'A' School in the UK is in July at Cloverley Hall in Shropshire. This is an opportunity for you to experience Father's love and to know his comforting love filling your heart. All the details together with an online booking form are at http://fhmaschool.uk You are all very welcome.

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:18 NIV)

It's amazing how many times the Bible says "do not fear". I guess it's because fear is something we are generally good at! If worry and anxiety are our daily concerns, then fear is the accumulation of those cares which ultimately can paralyse us and hold us in a prison. I believe that fear is one of the biggest weapons the enemy has to make us unfruitful and ineffective. Fear stops us stepping out in faith and entering our inheritance, into the wide open space our Father has prepared for us. 

Fear can often be our default response. The moment we let it take a hold of us something inside us closes down. 

I do not believe our Father wants us to live in fear. I believe he wants us to be free, to enjoy the glorious freedom of the sons of God and to discover that the life of a son or daughter is one of peace and rest. 

The opposite of love is fear and when we live outside of love it is often fear that controls or drives us. 

As we allow God to be a Father to us, so we begin to live in love. Love casts out all fear. Fear is to do punishment, guilt or shame, whereas love sets us free. 

Today, I encourage you to give Father your fears and as you do, you will find you are becoming more rooted and established in love. 

"See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him." (1 John 3:1 NIV)

The next Fatherheart 'A' School in the UK is in July at Cloverley Hall in Shropshire. This is an opportunity for you to experience Father's love and to know his comforting love filling your heart. All the details together with an online booking form are at http://fhmaschool.uk You are all very welcome.