I was pondering this today and realized of all the things I have asked for in my walk, I have actually failed to make this my hearts cry. I can’t come to Him without being given to Him. I can’t worship Him unless my heart is anointed to love Him. He is the beginning and the end of my race, the object of the gaze of my heart and my eternal destiny. Strive as I might in my own strength, it is futile unless I am given. So I cry: “Father, Give me to your Son.”
Given. John 3:27 A man can receive nothing unless it is given from heaven….
The truth of this verse is speaking to me on many levels. I can not receive unless it is given from heaven-nothing. Nothing? What does it mean to receive?
In our world, the sign of effective mothering is when a child has learned to receive well, and effective fathering is evident when we see a child has learned to give. The balance of this parenting structure is made plain in this verse. It takes the nurturing, mothering work of the Spirit of God to teach me how to receive the things of God, and the patient, tender work of the Father heart of God to teach me how to give what I have received.
Yet, here, the giving being considered is myself, and I find with shocking clarity that I can not be His on my own. I realize the absolute frailty of my will and innate fickleness of my heart. I must ask the Father to give me to the Son and yet even in that, I can’t ask in truth, unless He first places the yearning in my heart. I must be anointed to ask, and anointed to love and anointed to give. It is only by His power to keep me, and in His power to make me constant that I will know true devotion. I must be given, I can not give myself. The reality that I can not love Him, unless I receive the love of Heaven, and am given the love of the Father to love the Son, is at once frightening and liberating.
Jesus knew this. He prayed for this. My Beloved can not receive me, unless the Father gives me- Is this the passion behind the prayer of John 17? “Father I desire…” That the lover of my soul would yearn for fellowship with me knowing unless I am given, I will not be his? This moment takes my breathe away. He prayed for me, because he yearned for me. The yearning heart of the Son of God does not go unanswered- John 3:35-because The Father loves the Son He has given ALL things into his hands….He has given me to the Son.
This then is my confidence. I am in the hand of the Father, and He has delighted to give me to the Son. His love is transforming me, keeping me, wanting me, providing for and rejoicing in-me. Teaching me to receive love that I may pour it out on the Son in true devotion, and give it in true sincerity to those He has given me.
Rom 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
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