A Wealth of Fatherly Affections

Devotional

Being the child of God gives us an open invitation into the endless affections our heavenly Father has for us. There is no end to the wealth of his love. There is no limit to how deeply and tangibly we can experience his heart. Through the sacrifice of Jesus we can live our lives totally and completely experiencing the love of the Creator and Sustainer of all.

Psalm 36:5 says, “Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.” When you look across the horizon as far as your eye can see, picture the arms of your heavenly Father stretching even farther than the faintest speck of blue sky. When you see the clouds in their immensity and wonder, picture the enormity of your God’s faithful love toward you.

So great is the wealth of affections your heavenly Father has toward you that he would send his pure, blameless Son as payment for the sins that have kept you from experiencing his love. So great was his desire for you to know his heart that Jesus gave his life, creating a bridge across the vast chasm of sin that separated you and the Father.

1 John 4:10 says, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Most of us wander through life looking for any source of love we can find. We give ourselves to people, jobs, society, and wrongful expectations trying our hardest to satiate an insatiable need to be loved. Only in making time to receive God’s perfect, tangible, and transformative affections will our need to be loved finally be satisfied. Only when we look to the cross as a continual reminder that we are fully and forever loved will we stop searching for affections from a world that will only ever reject and disappoint us.

Your heavenly Father longs for you to experience the wealth of his affections today. He longs to guide you into a safe place of simply being loved by him. This broken and needy world has taught us to shield the wounded places of our hearts from any outside contact. We’re taught to just get over our wounds, pick ourselves up, and let our scars be signs of our inner strength. God wants to take your wounds and heal them with his perfect love. He wants to take what the enemy meant for evil and turn it into real, eternal good. He’s waiting right now to love you and make you whole. He’s waiting right now to satisfy the deep longing to be loved you’ve carried with you all your life.

Take time in guided prayer to truly encounter the love of your heavenly Father. Wait on his presence and open your heart to him in response to his love and faithfulness. He will shepherd you to green pastures and still waters if you make time and follow his leadership. May you experience the wealth of affections your heavenly Father has for you as you pray.