Tough Love: God The Father Series

Love is tough: it’s a demanding commitment, it’s exclusive and it changes who you are. Their’s obligations and responsibilities. It changes not only who we are but how we are to live. This is what God’s love calls us to. We belong to God and live for God’s purpose.

Craig Barnes tells of when he was a child, his minister father brought home a 12-year-old boy named Roger, whose parents had died from a drug overdose. There was no one to care for Roger, so my folks decided they’d just raise him as if he were one of their own sons. At first it was quite difficult for Roger to adjust to his new home! Every day, several times a day, I heard my parents saying to Roger: "No, no. That’s not how we behave in this family." "No, no. You don’t have to scream or fight or hurt other people to get what you want." "No, no, Roger, we expect you to show respect in this family." And in time Roger began to change. Did Roger have to make all those changes in order to become a part of the family? No. He was made a part of the family simply by the grace of his adoptive parents. Did he then have to do a lot of hard work because he was in the family? You betcha!. It was tough for him to change, and he had to work at it. But he was motivated by gratitude for the incredible love he had received.

Do you have a lot of hard work to do to become a son or a daughter of the heavenly Father? No, God has already adopted you into God’s family? Do you have a lot of hard work to do now that you’re in the family? Certainly. But you make those changes because of the amazing love that made you a son or daughter. And every time you start to revert back to the old addictions to sin, God will say to you, "No, that’s not how we act in this family.” That’s the love of God in the Trinity.