Day 2 - Father

When you were spiritually dead because of your sins and because you were not free from the power of your sinful self, God made you alive with Christ, and he forgave all our sins. He canceled the debt, which listed all the rules we failed to follow. He took away that record with its rules and nailed it to the cross. God stripped the spiritual rulers and powers of their authority. With the cross, he won the victory and showed the world that they were powerless.
Colossians 2:13-15 (New Century Version)

“It’s a boy!”

I remember that day like it was yesterday. My wife and I had decided to wait to see what our new baby was going to be – with a boy’s name and a girl’s name already picked out. It was our first child. We were nervous. Scared. Unsure if we would be good parents. When the doctor gave us the news, our hearts leapt for joy. The gender didn’t matter as much, because we had the same reaction when our daughter was born 22 months later. In that moment, something inside us simply responded to this new life that came not-so-quietly into the world. It moved us. Changed us.

Our lives have never been the same.

Not only did that moment define us as to our new role on this earth, but that moment changed forever how I view the Scriptures – and more importantly how I view God. As I read the Scriptures, I realize that it was a Father who sent His only Son to earth and ultimately to a cross. I think of how protective I am of my own children and how something inside of me immediately jumps to protect them when they are in harm’s way. And yet this Heavenly Father seems to turn His back on His only Son at precisely the moment when He should charge in with legions of angels to defend the Creator of Life from those short-sighted beings He created.

Why?

All that power. All that potential. Nailed to a dirty, piece of wood.

And then I hear it. Did you hear it? In the passage we just read. When Jesus was nailed to the cross, He took all of the debt that we owed to God because of our sin and paid the penalty with His own life. Can you hear it? Paul put it this way, “When you were spiritually dead because of your sins and because you were not free from the power of your sinful self, God made you alive with Christ, and he forgave all our sins.” You want to know what I hear?

“It’s a boy!”

“It’s a girl!”

We are alive! We once were dead, but because of a perfect, protective Father who could not bear to leave us in harm's way, we are now alive! Jesus became our defender! The Father came for us! He came for you.

Live every moment that you are alive! Respond to the Father's gift to you. It’s what you were made for. It's what Jesus died for.

As you pray today, spend a moment thinking about what God did for you.

• Spend some time thanking God for being a perfect, loving Father.
• Thank God for what Jesus did in taking all of our sin upon Himself at the cross.
• Thank God that He has forgiven you of all your sin.
• Thank God for the fact that while you were dead in sin, He made you alive!
• Ask God to help you live today in a way that reflects gratitude for what He has done.
• Ask God to help you think often today about what it means to live fully alive in each moment.