I was a well-loved child. My father was a strict but loving. And I grew up to know the good basic values that he had shown me through the years. I'm sure that I might have broken his heart a couple of times but he never ceased to show his love to me. He was not a vocal kind of guy. He would show his love in a very quiet way but I knew and I would stay up some nights when I was in my teen years, worrying about the day when my father would not be around anymore. He was the rock, which I stood on, in my young non-Christian years.My dad died when I was 24. Right then and there, I was all alone. I needed to make decisions for my self and I learnt to do that as years went by. I'm 49 now, with my own family, and at times I would wished that my father could see how I was doing as a father myself and maybe giving me some pointers. To tell you the truth, I really missed him...I missed his love for me as a earthly father.
You know how sometimes you can miss something right in front of your eyes and not even know it? It was only recently that I fully comprehend why we called God, Abba father. And why we started the Lord's Prayer with "Our Father who art in heaven". Before I was a Christian, I always thought that the word "ABBA" was a Swedish pop group! In my growing years, coming from a catholic school, I learnt to pray the Lord's Prayer but it didn't mean a thing to me. As I came to adulthood, I would pray to God whenever a life-changing event would present itself to me. But it was always a case of treating God as a friend [Which He is too] rather than a Father. And He always paved the way for me. He would open up doors and paths to my career as a musician/studio player/producer/songwriter. I foolishly thought that I got where I was because I was incredibly good. How silly of me then!
All I wanted then was fame and money. God gave all that to me. I got my 5 minutes of fame in the bright lights when I sang my own song in front of a crowd of 60,000 when I was in Beijing in 1998. But the money and the fame didn't last. It was like as if He was giving all these to me because I asked for it knowing for a fact that I wasn't reading His words enough then to know of these verses [Gal 4/6-9].
(Gal 4:6) And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba, Father!"
(Gal 4:7) So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.
(Gal 4:8) But in the past, when you didn't know God, you were enslaved to things that by nature are not gods.
(Gal 4:9) But now, since you know God, or rather have become known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and bankrupt elemental forces? Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again?
The fame and money that I wanted was something that I really didn't need.
Only one thing lasted, it was His fatherly love for me. He took away all the stuff that I was carrying for so long [Pride/jealously/lust/anger/laziness] in my secular life and in turn gave me the fruit of the Holy Spirit which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith. Things which enabled me to live out my days with the divine understanding of why I am here and who I am in the eyes of my ABBA and men.
His love endures forever and I was and still is...a well loved child.
And for that I give thanks to My Father in heaven .
