WE MAY NOT CALL HIM DAD, BUT HE WANTS THAT KIND OF LOVING RELATIONSHIP WITH US

Heavenly Father, God, Lord, Father God, Abba, Yaweh, but not Dad. It's too informal, too friendly. Yet that's exactly the personal relationship He wants with His children.

Well, maybe not the Dad part. Because He is sovereign. In everyway, in everything.

And the beautiful thing is, He pursues us. So many times we go looking for Him. He is there. In everything. Especially smack in the middle of our lives. Working for us. With His grace, He's trying to bless us. He's trying to love us.

But it's not a one-way relationship. Well, in fact, sometimes it is. How that must disappoint Him. And it's never the other way where we pursue Him, but He's too busy. That's never a problem. While we might not be able to pick up our cell phone and call President Bush or Condi Rice or even Oprah, we have full 24/7 access to the Father. He won't even put us on hold. With celestial hymns while we wait. We have His attention when we want it. Wow! And immediately.

It's not enough though. It's not relational until we spend time with the Father. The more time we spend with Him, the more we grow in Him. The more He speaks to us. The more He asks of us.

This is what we're learning in our Bible study in Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby. It's about God's pursuit of us. And God's pursuit, we're finding out is anything but trivial.