THRILL of HOPE - Day 13

“The thrill of hope, a weary world rejoices…..”

Isaiah 9:6 tells us a child was given.  John 3:16 says the Son was given.  John 17 tells us of Jesus saying He’d ask Father to give us the Counselor.  These gifts were from Father to reveal to us who He is.  It’s one thing to know ABOUT God.  It’s totally different to KNOW God.  The gift that was given from Father was the gift of knowing Him.  He gave us His heart.  He gifted us the availability to know Him as He is instead of how we might perceive.  This gift was stated by Isaiah when he proclaimed we would be getting Emmanuel (God with us).  The Father gave so we could know He is with us.  He didn’t want us living in the deception that He is far off, somewhere else, just lording over us, or pushed away from us by our wrong deeds.  All other gods have the concept of the god being detached, off in the distance, angry and needing appeased.  Father didn’t want to us to think He was the same way.  So He gave Jesus.  

We may need to think through the word “gave,” because our English word “gave” is connected to the understanding that prior to what was given, we didn’t have it.  If I give you a new car, it’s not too hard to understand that prior to my giving it to you, you didn’t have it.  This can frame our minds to have a hint of an idea that if Father gave Jesus it’s like Jesus wasn’t there before.  Most would recognize He is eternal and He always was.  So when Father gave Him to us, it wasn’t the gift of something that wasn’t here.  We didn’t have a true revelation of Father before so, in that sense, the gift was something that wasn’t there prior.  But Jesus wasn’t over there and then came here.  He wasn’t off over the rainbow and then came into earth.  When He “came”, it wasn’t an arrival.  It was a REVEALING.  He didn’t show up here and then at the ascension leave here.  He’s always been here and always will be.

It is His love giving us the truth about Him so we might be free.  Deception is the core bondage.  Deception can always be traced back to “wrong view of God, and wrong view of self”.  Father’s gift was the truth about Him so that deception could no longer control us and steal from us.  It wasn’t a gift of something that just arrived or wasn’t there before.  It was a gift of what has always been; the gift is He is good.  Always has been, always will be.  That is where hope came from and what hope provides.  Hope is the unconditional assurance Father’s goodness prevails.  It’s the truth about Him and it liberates our hearts and minds to proceed with boldness because we are free from fear.  His perfect love has cast out fear.  The gift of revealing Himself was perfect love that breaks the hold of deception which tells us that He is mad, angry, off somewhere in a distance waiting for us to mess up, or is far away and we are waiting to be with Him.  Father gave us the Son to show us the true presentation and description of Himself.  Father gave us Spirit to counsel us through the deception like a friend that stays close always reminding us about who Father is and what He is like.  Father gave so we could know Him….. what He’s like, what He feels, what He thinks, His motives, His nature, His interests, His enjoyment, His ways, His smile, and even the depth of His eyes.  We can’t perceive or comprehend all there is of Him, but He did show us the measure that can take us to our limits.  We get to live our life unwrapping this gift.