iMeditate Mondays: A Father's Love

Our father

We love to call you

By your grace you have adopted

Now we're your children

You now receive us

Joint heirs with Jesus

Our father, our father

Your awesome love

You've shown to us

Goes beyond our wildest dreams

You saturate our lives with grace and mercy

and because you love

You chasten us

If we should go astray

like a Father

our Father

(Fred Hammond; Our Father)

A Father's love we rarely hear or think about. We understand so much about a mother's love....it is unconditional, deep, the bonding experience that starts in her womb and doesn't cease. Society hasn't helped either, such a negative picture of what true fatherhood is all about.

Our Father, Daddy, Abba, Baba, Nna...

the one we should run to and not away from when we have problems

the one who protects us from danger

the one who provides for us

the one who gives us a sense of identity

the one who deals with issues

the one who disciplines us when we go wrong

How many of us have that deep relationship with our fathers? How many of us would use the word intimate? Does he know our secrets? Can we trust him with our secrets? Can we tell him anything and everything?

We should not blame our earthly fathers for they are men who even at their very best are unable to give love perfectly. For they are human and thus imperfect, one can only do their best. At their very best cannot equal the very least of God's love for us. I want to deepen my relationship with my fathers...my earthly one and my Heavenly one. Telling them where it hurts, spending time with them, drawing closer and being a daddy's girl. Aint nothing wrong with that. Because Daddy loves his girls...so very much.

Meditations from ZoeB @ GH 30.1.11

iPray Fridays: 'Ephraim'

The second son he named Ephraim and said, “It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.”

Genesis 41:52

Now there was a famine in the land—besides the previous famine in Abraham’s time—and Isaac went to Abimelek king of the Philistines in Gerar. The LORD appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land where I tell you to live. Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you.....Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the LORD blessed him.

Selected verses from Genesis 26

Fruitfulness- the ability to bear fruit. A picture that comes to mind is a primary school science project where we are given some butter bean seeds and a pot with some good loamy soil in it. Seeds in soil, water it, place it by the sunlight are the instructions given. These are the instructions given so that the seed may germinate and produce even more seed.

This is the way of nature, to produce fruit when the conditions are conducive. I'm beginning to learn the difference between the 'bios' (life) and the 'Zoe' (life in high definition/ 3D!...lol!). We can be fruitful even when all external factors say No. When the 'soil' are hard rocks, when there is no water, when there is no sunshine. When the hand of God is upon you, He will make us successful wherever we go.

This morning I wrote in my journal;

'No more excuses for a lack of achievement. Joseph was a slave and prisoner in a strange land and yet he was fruitful in the place of his affliction. The Lord's hand was upon him to make him successful and he went about his duties with an excellent spirit. This led to his promotion. Its time to wake up!!!! and do the same!'

Be encouraged brothers and sisters if at this moment it seems like you are between a rock and a hard place. Where it seems as if there is no help, no connection. Isaac went where God directed him and God made him fruitful despite a famine. The news all over the world is bleak but yet I will be fruitful. Today's iPray Friday is talking to God about those areas of our lives where we want to bear fruit. Where we want Him to show Himself strong and mighty on our behalf. For strength to keep doing our part, putting the work in, serving others, being relevant. Its time to live life in high definition!

Let's pray together. Click comments!

iWorship Wednesdays; Refiner's Fire

Hmm..


refine /ri-fahyn/

• To bring to a fine or pure state; free from impurities
• To make more fine, subtle or precise

Refine...hmm because its bitter sweet. I like the refined Product but I don't want the Process. This song reminds me that I need to go through the process. His fire purifies me, it burns what isn't like Him and makes better what is. Dear lord, strengthen me to go through the process in Jesus name.

Good medicine!

Found this on Youtube and it made me smile. Hope it makes you smile too. West Africans living in the UK would get this better..sorry! lol! Its really short, come on watch it!

iMeditate Mondays: His embrace!

embrace /em-breys/  to encircle; surround; enclose

Have you ever been caught in God's embrace? Been held by God and felt a love so indescribable? Lost without any knowledge of space or time? In an embrace, hearts touch. He encircles me, surrounds me and encloses me in His presence. Hmm...we serve a God who likes to get personal. I'm craving intimacy with Him.


Have you been held by someone you love in an embrace? An embrace that says 'I'm here, you're safe, I care, I will be here as long as you need me, I love you.' As beautiful as that it, it is but a shadow of what God has in store for us...what I call the 'real deal.' I believe human relationships serve as a guide to teach us about relating with God. God's arms are open to show you the real deal, where are you?


Meditations on Sunday 23.1.11 during worship

iPray Fridays: Lord teach us to pray

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say:

Luke 11:1-2

'Lord, teach us to pray' the disciples made this request of Jesus after he had finished praying. Why did they ask Him this? Why not just ask for the ability to do miracles, to heal the sick and raise the dead. I guess they keyed in to the rev that praying in private was responsible for power in public. (Now that's deep, thank you Holy Spirit). Well, its not only about having power, its about deepening our relationship with God. 


We are always told that the foundation of all good relationships is communication. Prayer is simply that and yet sometimes I don't know what to do or what to say. I am overwhelmed and sometimes I don't even have a desire to pray. So today I'm praying for Jesus to teach me to pray. This post was inspired by a few lines I read in Andrew Murray's 'With Christ in the school of prayer'. Dear Lord, please teach me how to pray and how to pray effectively.


I was just thinking....the saints of old they didn't have personal Bibles or prayer manuals and yet they prayed some 'mean' prayers! Not saying these are not important because they are but I think our prayers should be more powerful and effective in this season. Teach us to pray O lord.


So today's iPray is asking Jesus to teach us to pray, taking time to reflect and meditate on His teaching about prayer in the word and actually praying. Prayer is like running, it doesn't matter how much you know about it if you're not doing it!


Let's pray together....click comments!


N.B Feel free to pray about anything you like. I love reading your prayers, pray some of them too!