​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)
 
Some of the translations of the Bible say “see what kind of love”. Let’s take a look at the nature of the Father’s love and, as we do, we’ll see that it is more than a fact or theological concept. We’ll see the substance of love being poured into our heart. 
 
It is an extravagant, generous and marvellous love. Nothing is spared or held back. It’s like going to a feast where there is almost too much to eat. You want to try it all but you know you don’t have the capacity to do so. 
 
His love is redemptive. In order for us to become his children we have to be redeemed (or bought back) from the enemy who’d stolen us. The Father takes us from the destructive life of sin and brings us into his family. 
 
The Father’s love is a sacrificial and giving love. It cost the Father his Son, he paid everything in order that you and I might be brought home, into the centre of his love. 
 
And finally, it is an eternal love. God has always been and will always be loving, he is our true Father. That is the love with which we are loved. It’s not dependent on us, on how we feel or behave. It’s a love that originates in the Father’s heart and it’s a love which is generously poured out, without limit, into our heart.

​Our Heart Is Central
 
How important it is for us to live from our heart. It is the place of deep encounter with God, it is the place where all significant relationships are held. It is deeper than our mind or emotions take us.
 
And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:5 NIV)
For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.(Romans 10:10 NIV)
 
Our heart is the place of true connection. Of course, our emotions and mind are very important, they are a vital part of our makeup or temperament but they are not the core of who we really are. They belong to us but they don't define us. Or do they?
 
If we are not able to live from the heart then maybe we do allow ourselves to be defined and controlled by our mind or emotions. Maybe they become more a part of us than they should. 
 
It is as we live in love and experience an ongoing homecoming with the Father that we discover (perhaps for the first time) the need for a renewed heart. A heart transformed by the power of love where the Holy Spirit motivates, or causes, us to walk in the Father's ways. 
 
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. (Ezekiel 36:26-27 NIV)
 
Love always transforms. The Father is constantly pouring his transforming love into our heart; it will change us. As we receive this free gift we are set free to walk in the glorious freedom of our sonship. And so today, I encourage you to find time to make a simple, yet life-changing request, "Father, will you pour your love into my heart".

When did our story begin?
 
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. (Ephesians 1:3-6 ESV)
 
I think we often believe it started on the sixth day of creation when God created mankind. Having made a home for us to live in, he then spoke a word and the first human rose from the dust. When we think like this, it means we miss God's eternal perspective as our story very quickly falls into one of sin and separation from God. We miss an important fact.
 
What we miss is that our story actually began in eternity, long before the clock started ticking in Genesis. Before the world had been created God was thinking about his family, thinking about us! In that timeless period he longed for a people made in his image who would live as sons and daughters to him. 
 
Like any father be wanted a family that would bring him pleasure. I believe that's the desire of earthly parents too, we want to delight and enjoy our children. 
 
We can see the Father's pleasure throughout Scripture. We see the longing for relationship, constantly re-iterating how much we, as his children, bring him pleasure and glory. We are not distant or a far off. He is close to us as he has promised to never leave us but rather to love us with an everlasting love. 
 
God is our Father and always has been.

​I have revealed to them who you are and I will continue to make you even more real to them, so that they may experience the same endless love that you have for me, for your love will now live in them, even as I live in them! (John 17:26 TPT)
 
Over the last few weeks, I have been looking at how Jesus revealed his Father and how this was the central purpose of his time on earth. John 17 is his final prayer before he is led away to the cross and, as we've looked at it together, I hope you can see how it represents a summary of Jesus' life and ministry. 
 
He has shown us what the Father is like, he has given us the Father's words of eternal life, he has demonstrated how we can live in love and he wants us to be with him where he is. 
 
Now, at the end of his prayer, Jesus concludes with these words: "in order that the love you have for me may be in them".
 
Jesus concludes his earthly ministry by reassuring us that he has made his Father known and that he will continue to make him known. We are not left in any uncertainty, Jesus will continue revealing his Father to us, to you and me. 
 
It's a very powerful statement. You and I are loved by God, the Father, in exactly the same way as he loves Jesus. No if's or but's, just unconditional love which is totally dependent on him and not in any way on us. 
 
We can't earn his love, we can't make him love us any more through our actions or words. We can't stop him loving us. We are loved as he loves Jesus. 
 
Should this revelation make us lazy Christians? Of course not! It changes our hearts so much that we find we are motivated, or compelled, to walk in his ways and therefore to delight in doing his will (Ezekiel 36:27 and Psalm 40:8). 
 
The revelation (or series of revelations) we've looked at from John 17 really do present us with a clear picture of the gospel. To me, it is so simple, we are loved by the perfect Father who wants to be a Father to us. ​

​Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. (John 17:24 NIV)
 
In John 17, Jesus is praying to his Father and giving an account of the things he has accomplished during his time on earth. It reads like the completion, or fulfilment, of a mission statement: "This is what you sent me to do and this is what I have done".
 
The prayer contains an important list of things the Son has done is making his Father known. ​
 
"I want those you have given me to be with me where I am". As we read through this chapter we see how Jesus has shown what the Father is like, he has given us the Father's words of eternal life and he shows how we can live like the Trinity.
 
And now we are given a personal invitation. An invitation to be with Jesus where he is. 
 
Well, before we accept this invitation we need to know where Jesus is. Right now, in this present moment, where is he? That's where we're invited to be. 
 
We read in John 1:18 that Jesus came from the bosom, or side, of the Father. Once again a picture of intimacy; a son leaning against his father's heart. In John 14, we read that Jesus is going back home, to his Father's house and then he and the Father, through the Holy Spirit, will return and make their home with us. 
 
This is the invitation: we are invited to be at home with the Father. To be at his side, leaning against his heart. 
 
This is an invitation and, as such, it requires a response. It's Jesus' desire to take us where he is but he leaves us with a choice - do we want to be at home with the Father?
 
It's a question we can only answer for ourselves. We can look from afar or we can draw near and allow our hearts to come home. 
 
My encouragement is for you to come home. Allow yourself to be drawn into that place of intimacy with the Father. Allow Jesus to take you to the Father, his Father and your Father. ​

​I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one — I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.​ (John 17:22-23 NIV)
 
In John 17, Jesus is praying to his Father and giving an account of the things he has accomplished during his time on earth. It reads like the completion, or fulfilment, of a mission statement: "This is what you sent me to do and this is what I have done".
 
The prayer contains an important list of things the Son has done is making his Father known. ​
 
​"That they may be one, as we are one". The life that is in Jesus is in us. The relationship Jesus has with his Father is imparted to us, we can have the same intimate relationship, with the Father, that Jesus had. 
 
When Jesus prays that we may be one, we often think that he is talking about our relationships with one another. I believe that is correct. But as I've meditated on this verse, I wonder if there is another interpretation or meaning to Jesus' words. What about us being one with him in the same way that Jesus is one with him?
 
Having prayed that we may be one he then expresses his desire for us to be involved, or to live in, the unity of the Trinity. He really wants us to know that we are in him as much as he is in us. It is a profound description of unity and intimacy. This is not a distant relationship, but the closest of Father-Son relationships and we are invited to participate. 
 
As Jesus accounts to his Father for the things he has accomplished, he is clear that we have been enabled to live like the Trinity live. A life of intimacy and unity is one of rest and peace. It is a fulfilled life. ​

​I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. (John 17:14 NIV)
 
In John 17, Jesus is praying to his Father and giving an account of the things he has accomplished during his time on earth. It reads like the completion, or fulfilment, of a mission statement: "This is what you sent me to do and this is what I have done".
 
The prayer contains an important list of things the Son has done is making his Father known. ​
 
​"I have given them your word". It must have been an amazing sight when Jesus read from Isaiah 61 in the synagogue in Nazareth. He was basically reading about himself and having done so he simply sat down. He did not need to preach a sermon or try and explain what he'd read. He just said "today this is fulfilled". Simple, yet powerful. He was the Word of God, reading the Word of God about the Word of God. 
 
Jesus said the words he spoke were not his own words but they came from his Father (John 12:49). He was a true ambassador, speaking on behalf of another. If we are to know the Father, we have to understand this. Everything Jesus said was, in effect, his Father speaking. The words we have recorded in the gospels are the words of the Father, spoken to us through Jesus. 
 
In coming to earth, Jesus became the Word of God made flesh, coming as a man, becoming the Father's mouthpiece. The words he spoke give us the gift of life and that life is meant to be full or abundant. It is total and complete, not a half measure. There was a time when the crowds were all deserting Jesus and he asks his disciples if they, too, will leave him. Peter replies: "Where else can we go, you have the words of eternal life".
 
We have a Father who is always ready to speak to us with words that will bring life, his words will change our lives. Do we have ears that are listening to the Father's voice? He is speaking to each one of us.

​I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. (John 17:6 NIV)
 
In John 17, Jesus is praying to his Father and giving an account of the things he has accomplished during his time on earth. It reads like the completion, or fulfilment, of a mission statement: "This is what you sent me to do and this is what I have done".
 
The prayer contains an important list of things the Son has done is making his Father known. 
 
"I have revealed you", a number of other translations say "I have revealed your name". This is much more than a formal introduction of one person to another. Jesus is saying that he has revealed the complete personality, nature and character of his Father. Hebrews 1:3 tells us that Jesus is the exact representation of the Father. Throughout his life, Jesus has shown us exactly what the Father is like. Indeed, at the end of this chapter we read that Jesus goes on revealing the Father. 
 
Moses caught a glimpse of what God was like but we see the complete picture of who he is. Jesus healed people, the Father heals. Jesus cared for the marginalised in society, the Father cares for them too. Jesus valued and affirmed people, the Father does too. Jesus provided for people, our Father is a provider. 
 
Too often, we try and form a picture of what God is like by taking historical or stereotypical images and thinking they are a good picture of God. Why do we do that when we have the life and example of Jesus who was the exact image of the Father?
 
In Matthew 11:25-27 we are told that we can know the Father, Jesus will reveal him to us. No longer is the Father hidden, he has clearly made himself known to us.
 
For too long we have thought of God as being distant, angry and unknowable. This is not the case. He is our loving Father and he wants to be a Father to you.

When Moses asked to see the Lord's glory he had a revelation of the nature and character of God. The Psalmist summarises it for us:
 
Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits - who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. (Psalm 103: 2-5,8 NIV)
 
Sometimes, it can be very good for us to go to these familiar scriptures and remind ourselves of who God is and what he is able to do for us. I read a book, many years ago, called "Praying the Scriptures" which encouraged us to take a familiar passage and then begin to pray through it and call it into being in our own lives. It's a very helpful thing for us to do. What does scripture say and what is it saying to us, today.
 
It's all too easy to lose sight of the goodness of the Lord, particularly when we are weighed down with burdens and the cares of life. They easily overwhelm us and we take our eyes off him. Like Peter, as he began to walk on water, when we take our eyes off him we begin to sink. 
 
Today, in whatever you are facing can I encourage you to take hold of the steadfast love of the Lord. It's a love that never lets us go, it never fails us and it always lifts us up as we feel we are sinking. 
 
But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children (Ps 103:17)
​

​As we look around we see so many people in need, displaced in human suffering. May we never become immune to the poor, after all when we look into our own heart we, too, are poor and needy. 
 
All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along. (Galatians 2:10)
The poor you will always have with you (Matthew 26:11)
Hear me, LORD, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. (Psalm 86:1)
 
It's easy to be overwhelmed by the poverty in the world and we ask ourselves what can we do that will make a difference. Particularly at the moment there are millions of people in real need or who are suffering deeply. The needs are huge and almost impossible to satisfy. Yet at times of natural or man-made disaster I am always amazed at the generosity of others. Those, often with little themselves, reach out to help others in greater need, 
 
Let us not forget the poor. They are all around us: in our streets, in our communities, looking for us to be their safe haven. How can we reach out to help them? 
 
After all, let us never forget that we, too, are poor and needy. Love reached down and rescued us, it redeemed us and brought us home.