The Headwaters

While living in Minnesota, we lived close to the exact location where the mighty Mississippi River starts it's windy path through the United States from top to bottom. It all begins in a lake at Itasca State Park. It was incredible to me how such a large River that stretches so many miles, gets its start from a modest size body of water. Then it winds through nine different states and eventually ends in the Gulf of Mexico. The headwaters of the Mississippi is Lake Itasca.

The headwaters of true prayer is relationship. When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, as recorded in Luke 11:2, He began by saying when we pray, use the words, "Our Father". This is the launching pad for all prayer. At take off, we are immediately introduced to our loving Father. He wants us to encounter His radical love, demonstrated in His Son, Jesus Christ. We do not have to live or pray as orphans; He wants to adopt us into His family. Apart from Christ, we have no right to call God, "Our Father". However, when we are in Christ, we can receive our adoption, the right to call Him our Daddy, our Abba.

If our prayer does not start at the headwaters, and we jump into the middle of the river, our prayers will be prone to becoming religious, stale or even intimidating. All too often, we come to God out of desperation and jump directly into our needs and wants. When we receive His love and take our time building our relationship, then we are able to pray His heart for our situation. The brevity and strength of our prayer lives hinge on our ability to encounter and receive the Father's love.

One issue that could clog the river of our ability to receive the Father's love is the orphan spirit. This is an evil spirit that makes you feel as if you do not have a Heavenly Father and specifically that we are not loved. We have all had imperfect earthly fathers. Because of this, it is easy to develop a view of God, as our Father, based on what we experienced with our earthly father. This results in living under this orphan spirit, and we allow the orphan spirit to take the place of God's blessing and His love for us. Father God wants to re-parent you.

If your prayer life does not start at the headwaters, in the Father's love, it's time to break off the orphan spirit and allow Christ to heal your love receptors. Friends, we need God's love! We need the Father to re-parent us. The health of our soul and strength of our prayer life hinges on our ability to receive the Father’s love. Come to Him today and open your heart and allow His love to enter.

The ability to receive His love will absolutely revolutionize your prayer life. It changes the way we pray. Every time you pray, jump into the headwaters. It's refreshing!

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* I credit Lesson 3 from Year 1 of the College of Prayer International. For more information, go to www.collegeofprayer.org

Our Father and Fear

I was awaken in the middle of the night recently, by my children coming into our bedroom to find love and comfort. We were experiencing a loud thunderstorm in our area of North East Atlanta. I could tell it was bad when I discovered that all four of my kids decided to join my wife and I.

It was fear that led them to interrupt our sleep. They were afraid of what might happen to them during the storm. It was a difficult combination of being tired, being in the dark and hearing the wild storm outside their windows. All of this led to their fear. They began to ask questions like, “When will this stop? What if a tree falls on our house? Will we be okay?” I totally understood where they were coming from because I can remember, as a child, crawling under my pillow and covers when a major storm rolled through my neighborhood.

When we have fear creep into our lives, we need a way to deal with it. Fear can cripple a person. It needs to be dealt with. Fear can come in all shapes and sizes. We can be afraid of the future. We can be afraid of suffering. We can be afraid of something happening to our family. We can be afraid of sickness or death. We can live in fear of many things.

My children knew, that night, that if they came into our room, we, as parents, would give them a sense of security and comfort. They knew that the moment they walked into our room, they would have those things. They were right. When I woke up, I wanted to answer each of their questions and make sure that they were comfortable enough to go back to sleep.

I was reminded that night, as I laid in bed, of the love and care of our Heavenly Father. What my wife and I provided our children, that night, is what our Heavenly Father provides for us. He provides love, care and acceptance. 

Receiving the love of our Heavenly Father will help us conquer any fear in our lives. 1 John 4:18 says, “There is no love in fear because perfect love drives out fear.” The moment we receive the love of the Father, it is as if we have a complete antidote for fear. Love and fear cannot operate in the same room. The Father’s love will drive out any fear that we have. He gives us a sense of security and self-worth that can conquer all fear.

Have you received the full extent of the Father's love for you? God wants to reach every area of your life with His love. As the song goes, He is a good, good Father, it's who He is. Paul says in Romans, "There is nothing that can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus." But His love needs to be received. We need to open up every area of our lives, so that the love of God can come in and meet every desire we have to be loved and accepted. Our relationship with God begins as we understand that He is a loving Father.

Are you dealing with fear in your life? Receive the love of the Father. When you do, you will see the things of this earth grow strangely dim. He loves you.

A Tribute To My Dad

I'm probably writing this because I'm not able to talk with my Dad on this Father's Day. He is serving the Lord, by mentoring Christians in prayer, on the other side of the world. My Dad is my hero. Let me explain.

Growing up as a pastor's kid, my Dad had many demands on his time. He had sermons to prepare and preach, elder meetings to attend, visits to the hospital, counseling appointments, outside speaking engagements and countless other church needs that pulled for his attention. Even with all of this, he prioritized time with his family. Not only did he prioritize time with us, but he told and showed us that we (his family) were the most important people in his life.

My Dad led me to our Heavenly Father. From as far back as I can remember, my Dad taught our family the Bible and had us praying for specific requests. I can remember learning Psalm 1 in the third grade. Our family was on summer vacation in Maine. My Dad and I went fishing by canoe out in a lake and parked at a secluded island. It was there that we opened God's Word and memorized it together. I learned from watching my Dad get excited about the Word. I remember my Dad introducing the little red book of prayer to our family at supper time. We recorded the prayers we prayed and then went back and recorded how we saw the Lord work. God used this practice to grow my faith as we logged many answers to prayer. My Dad modeled a consistent love for Jesus.

My Dad spent time with me. I never felt as if my Dad was too busy for me. I loved the time my Dad spent playing sports with me. I remember as a kid, Dad taught me how to run about 10 different patterns as wide receiver in football while he played quarterback. Guess who would take over the neighborhood football games? You got that right. Dad and I connected for more touchdowns than Montana and Rice. I pitched a couple seasons in little league baseball and guess who was my catcher when I practiced? There were several baseball games that I started the game thinking that my Dad was in a meeting at church, and then I would look over to the stands and see him sitting there. He showed up and was there for me. As a young adult, I began to get into golf. Up until this point, we couldn't stand golf. I started to really enjoy the sport. Instead of boycotting my new interest, my Dad saw it as an opportunity to spend time with his son. He signed up for swing lessons to become a better golfer. Since then, we have golfed together on more courses than I can count, playing golf in Scotland, Hawaii, Utah, Michigan and in other states where we have lived. Golf has been a platform for us to share life together.

My Dad loves my Mom. This was the best example for me as a child. Little did I know how important it was for my Dad to love my Mom as much as he did. I realize now why that was so important. He was showing me what marriage looked like. He modeled commitment, devotion and sacrifice in leading and loving my Mom.

My Dad is a source of wisdom. God has given my Dad much discernment. This has been a blessing for me especially since leaving home. Whenever I have faced and prayed through decisions, I have always enjoyed hearing my Dad's perspective. He knows how to cut away the fat and get to the heart of the issue. I trust his advice because I know it comes out of his deep relationship with God.

Dad, thank you for leading me. Thank you for spending time with me. Thank you for being my mentor, golf buddy, coach and friend.  I am the Dad that I am today partly because of your example and the rest because of God's work in me. I love you Dad.

Love is Compelling

Love compels us to do crazy things. Today is Valentine's Day. It's amazing to consider the lengths we will go to in order to make our special someone grasp our love for them. On average, a man will spend $170 on items such as flowers, chocolates, jewelry, balloons and cards. It is estimated that over 150 million cards will be purchased and given for Valentine's Day. That is incredible!

It's confession time: I am a hopeless romantic. I have given my fair share of flowers, gifts and cards over the years. One year, I got this idea to create a large card for Joanna. I decided I wouldn't go to Hallmark, but that I would make her a card. I'm not much of an artist, so this card wasn't going to look beautiful. However, I was fairly good at putting my thoughts into writing. Another strike I had against me was that my writing is very close to being non-legible. With all of that considered, I proceeded to cut words out of magazines to form the message that I wanted to communicate with my Valentine. Now, I can't say this was an original idea as I had seen these done before by others, but I had never created one myself. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. It would have been easier if all I wanted to put on the poster was a giant I LOVE YOU, but no, I had at least 150 words that I wanted to communicate. This took a long time!

Now, I know what you're thinking... "Why would you do that?" Here's the short answer: Love compels us to do crazy things. It's the same answer a girl would give who presses the rose pedals, from her boyfriend's gift of flowers, in a book, only to let them attract ants and other critters. Or the boy and girl who talk on the phone or text for hours in the evening before bed. Love compels us to do crazy things.

John 14:15 says, "If you love me, you will obey what I command." In other words, it is love that compels us to follow Jesus. If we are serious about our relationship with Jesus, and we truly love Jesus, then we will be tenacious about knowing Him and doing what He wants us to do.I have talked to a lot of people over years as a pastor, particularly youth, who tell me, "Wow, Pastor Fred, it seems the Bible and a relationship with God is all about rules." They say, "The Bible is too strict." I say, "Yea, but do you love Him?" If you have a lot of head-knowledge about God and you don't have a relationship with Him, then yes, the Bible is a bunch of rules to be followed. But if you have a relationship with God, all of the principles and commands are there for a reason. The reason of these commands are to lead us into a life of holiness and as it says in Joshua 1, "then you will be prosperous and successful." 

If we sincerely love Jesus as He desires, which is with our heart, soul, mind and strength, then we will be willing to do whatever it takes to show Him that we love Him. Every time we do something that is in direct obedience to the Word of God, we are telling Jesus that we love Him. Our obedience is all the proof He needs of our affection, allegiance and adoration. Our obedience is in direct correlation of how we feel about Jesus. The person who is deeply in love with Jesus is also the one who will go to great lengths to obey all of God's commands throughout Scripture. Why? Because love is what compels us.