Seeing God correctly is essential to centering your life around him and his presence.

Many of us have a tainted view of earthly fathers, but today God wants to renew your view of Him

as your perfect Heavenly Father.

As we grow in understanding of God's perfect love and relation to us,

may centering your life around His presence come naturally.

Welcome to the First 15 podcast. Our scripture for today comes from 1 Corinthians 8 verse 6.

Scripture says, yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom

we exist. And one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. If there's one name for God that has the power to dramatically transform

the lives of believers, it's that we can call God Abba or Father. To see God as our Father

changes everything. In Brendan Manning's book, The Furious Longing of God, he asks a pertinent and powerful question.

He says, is your own personal prayer life characterized by the simplicity, childlike candor, boundless

trust, an easy familiarity of a little one crawling up in daddy's lap,

and assured knowing that the daddy doesn't care if the child falls asleep, starts playing with toys,

or even starts chatting with little friends, because the daddy knows the child has essentially

chosen to be with him for that moment.

Is that the spirit of your interior prayer life?

When I first read these questions, I thought to myself, surely it can't be this simple. Surely this can't be all

God expects of me. We've missed the mark on what it truly means to be children of a good, near,

and loving father. We've projected our own insecurities, perspectives, and experiences on a God who is love embodied.

There is nothing we can ever do to make God love us any more than he already does.

And there is nothing we can ever do to make him love us any less.

God loves us because he loves us.

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