The Watch Care of the Heavenly Father
Greetings and good morning, brothers and sisters. This is Dr. James Perry continuing with our series where we seek to explore the deeper meanings of our relationship with Jesus Christ. Over the years, the heavenly Father has revealed many revelations of spiritual truth to me, and I want to share them with you. This morning we seek to understand the over care of the heavenly Father.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
The Watch Care of the Heavenly Father
Jesus said, "My Father which gave them to me is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’’s hand." John, Chapter 10, Verse 36
Brothers and sisters, in today’’s broadcast we shall share further insights into the watch care of the Father. We offer these insights to further comfort those who are proceeding through this life under auspices of faith, for we know that the just shall live by faith. Our faith tells us that the Father has absolute control over the safety of our souls as we move through this life and throughout a greater universe. And we further know that our spiritual sense of security depends on our trusting in His watch care for us. This watch care springs first of all from the great and infinite love that the Father has for us; and secondly from the great and infinite power that He has at his disposal to ensure our safety. But while we live our lives in the flesh, we have at various times of crises stumbled over this faith-knowledge. In the heat of the crises, they have on occasion gone their own way, and have stumbled into the arms of unbelief and subsequently become embraced by hopelessness.
In our endeavor to make clear this faith knowledge, we shall offer some material analogies with the hope of further stimulating the faith and trust in our souls, two qualities essential to enjoying the spiritual peace and undying hope in our souls. We have often been told that this faith and trust in our souls is similar to the faith and trust that a child has in his earthly parents and in his immediate environment. But we know that some of us enjoyed little of this faith and trust in our earthly parents when we were children, and therefore are lacking in the experiential foundation for making the leap to spiritual faith and trust. We shall offer some suggestions as to how we can increase this faith and trust within. Let us begin with material analogies.
Sometime ago, we had pet Pomeranian dog, named Bingo. He was very nervous and skittish. He was afraid of everything and loyal to nothing. One morning, I was out walking him down a path. While walking, I ran into my neighbor, who was also out walking. He had three large dogs with him, and they made straight for Bingo. I didn’’t know whether they were going to harm him or not. But probably not, since they were not vicious dogs. But Bingo began to panic and shake and quiver. I picked him up so that the dogs could not reach him, even though they were climbing up on me trying to reach him. Bingo was so nervous and frightened even in the security of my arms that I ended my walk and started back home with him. But I did not get far before he jumped out of my arms and took off running as fast as he could, never stopping until he reached our house, where he began to bark and bark at the door until he was let in. The other dogs looked at him running away but made no effort to pursue him.
This dog was safe in my arms. He was out of reach of the other dogs. There was no way that they could get to him, unless something happened to me. But he was so full of fear and so empty of faith and trust, that the fear took over and made him leave the safety of my arms to launch out on his own. Lucky for him, the larger dogs lost interest in him.
I remember when our daughter was very young, about 4 or 5 years old. Whenever she would go out into an strange environment, I would always hold her hand. She would hold my hand tighter and tighter. Sometimes when she felt that she was in danger, her eyes would open wide, indicating that she was afraid. But she would not let go of my hand, and of course I had her hand in mine. So even if she had let go, I still had her hand in my hand, and as longer as I did she was safe. On Sunday evenings after Sunday school, we would go to one of the fast food restaurants. Most of the time we went to McDonalds, where she would order french fries, Chicken Macnuggetts, and a Sprite. As time continued, we would go to other fast food places like Burger King, Wendys, Taco Bell, and Arbys. And sometimes we would go for drives. One of our favorite drives was to go to Kerr Lake and see the dam and recreational lakes. When we got out of the car, she would grab my hand first thing. As we made these trips, we would often pass tractor trailers, 18 wheelers coming toward us or even sometimes passing us. At such time her eyes would open wide as she sat in the back seat.
When we would drive to the mall or somewhere we went as a family, her mother would always sit in the back seat and read to her. Almost invariably she would say to me as I was driving, "tell me a story." And I would tell her another episode from "Teddy and the Gang." These were imaginary adventure stories in which she was one of the characters. And during her early childhood, we never left her alone or went anywhere where she did not go with us. And we continued with this practice throughout her early childhood. And when she finally reached the point where she wanted to explore by herself at the mall or the airport, I was always within distance should there be a need for my presence. These practices were designed to show her how much we loved her and to instill a sense of security in her. And now for the final analogy.
There was a lady who had a colony of beehives. This was a very profitable business for her, and she received quite a bit of honey from these hives. She was very skilled at maintaining the hives. She was always dressed correctly so that no bee could ever sting her. And she had done this for many years. One day her granddaughter came to visit her. She was about 9 years old. And she was very interested in the beehives. She asked her grandmother if she could go with her to harvest some of the honey. The grandmother explained the process to her and told her that she would have to put on a special protective suit that would protect her in case the bees attacked her. She explained to her that as long as she wore this protective suit, no bee could sting her. Though they may attack her protective suit, she would be protected. So off they went to harvest the honey from the beehive, but all was not well in the hives this morning. The bees became aggressive and attacked the grandmother and the granddaughter. But of course the grandmother was unconcerned with the attack, but not so with the granddaughter, who began to run, screaming and hollering. Finally the grandmother caught up with her and returned her back to the safety of the home.
Now in gaining insight into the Father’’s watch care, ideally we should have these material foundations to build upon, to serve as a concept for spiritual watch care, but as was stated earlier many of us have not had this foundation. Our basic reaction to life is fear, lack of trust, lack of self confidence and lack of faith. This makes it difficult for us to trust and have faith in the Father. Though we are protected by the Father, who loves us dearly despite our lack of faith and trust, our consciousness of this love and watch care is woefully lacking and instead of our being conscious of material uncertainty with spiritual security, we have a consciousness of material uncertainty with spiritual insecurity.
And so we must learn to respond to the Father’’s love by loving one another, and we must exercise faith and trust even in the face of our doubts. And we do this by bravely confronting whatever comes into our lives. At the same time, we must express the desire to trust and have faith in the heavenly Father. As times goes on we will begin to develop that spiritual faith and trust which is expressed as an undying hope. We will begin to consciously experience the Father’’s love as expressed by consciously loving others. The Spirit of Truth will atone for the lack of material foundations of faith, trust, and hope. And as we continue with our life experiences, always submitting our will to the Father’’s will, the all-powerful watch care of the Father becomes a reality in our souls. They will not be like the pet dog that jumped out of the safety of his master’’s arms, but more like the trusting daughter who realized that safety was to be had by remaining in the hands of her earthly father. And when that time comes for us to lay down our material lives, we will realize, unlike the granddaughter who was protected from the sting bees but still panicked, with assurance of our invincibility and immortality, calmly lay down our material lives and prepare for the next round of faith and trust in the Father’’s love and goodness.
This concludes today's message on the over care of the heavenly Father. We hope you find something in this message to ponder and pray about as you go about your day.
Until next time, this is Dr. James Perry.
Your Kingdom Come; Your Will Be Done!
Inspirational Messages
By Dr. James Perry
The Watch Care of the Heavenly Father
