Children of the Heavenly Father

Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken. Psalm 55:22

I love hymns. Do you? They speak such powerful truth in their short verses.

This Swedish hymn is a favorite of our family. I can still hear my grandmother singing it with us.

Children of the heavenly Father safely in his bosom gather; nestling bird nor star in heaven such a refuge e’er was given.

We, as God’s children, are safely settled into His giant arms.

Nothing on earth dares to compare to the safety we experience as His children when gathered up in His arms.

God his own shall tend and nourish; in his holy courts they flourish. From all evil powers he spares them; in his mighty arms he bears them.

God takes care of us, His own. We flourish and grow mightily in His presence.

He shields us from all evil. All evil. Even when surrounded by death and destruction, we are safe. His strong arms hold us. Yes, we may suffer, but God stands with us.

Neither life nor death shall ever from the Lord his children sever; for to them his grace revealing, he turns sorrow into healing.

Nothing in life or death will ever separate us from God. We will abide with Him now and forever.

His grace provides healing for our every sorrow.

God has given, he has taken, but his children ne’er forsaken; his the loving purpose solely to preserve them pure and holy.

God is in control. He gives and He takes away, but He will never leave us alone.

His ways are higher than ours and purpose to only keep us pure and holy.

When we trust God as our Father, He lovingly cares for us – His beloved children.

Forever and ever. Amen.

Hymn writer: Caroline W. Sandell Berg 1832-1903 (Swedish)

Photos by Gianluca CarenzaDerek Thomson,  Priscilla Du Preez, & Natasha Ivanchikhina on Unsplash

Too Familiar

Are you used to Him? to God?

Meaning, the very fact that He is literally right with you does not bring you to your knees in awe?

I am, I’ll admit it. Too familiar.

I take for granted my daily devotions.

My worship time at church and home.

My multitudinous Bibles.

My job, which allows me to speak of His goodness whenever I wish.

I’m not saying that’s all a bad thing.

We should be used to God.

We should be so clothed with His presence and likeness others see Him not us.

We should be familiar with His word, His ways, and how He wants us to conduct ourselves.

But we must remain in awe.

In awe of His goodness.

In awe of His salvation.

In awe of Him.

May we pause to bow before Him, acknowledging our weakness made perfect only in Him.

May we humbly bring our requests only after thanking Him for all He does for us.

May we remember who we are in comparison to God, who created us and all things.

And may we recognize how much we continually need Him.

Thank you, Lord, for closing the separation from You to us through your son, Jesus.

May we remain always humble, recognizing our desperate need from our Savior each and every day.

Photos by Aliane Schwartzhaupt, Joshua Earle, & Alicia Quan on Unsplash