Devotionals

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I love what Zephaniah 3:17 says: “The Mighty One will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” Wow! Take a moment and just think about that if you will, our One Holy God, Creator of all that ever was is and will be, Lord of Lords, King of Kings, the One to which the entire universe bows down, is so happy to have you as His child that He will sing over you.

How humbling, the One we will one day spend eternity worshiping and praising, rejoicing in His presence, sings over us like a Father over His child. That He sings His songs of rejoice over us the very moment we accept Christ into our hearts. I still do not feel worthy of God's Own song, but the more I thought about it, the more I could grasp how my Father could sing songs of rejoice over me, His disobedient child.

Imagine a father waiting up late for his teenage daughter to return home from her prom, she looked so beautiful, so grownup when she was leaving the house earlier that evening. It is now 45 minutes after her curfew, and daddy is getting madder by the second. Such disobedience! Doesn’t she know why we have rules in the first place!? All sorts of horrible thoughts run through the father's head as he paces back and forth by the front door, he prays his daughter is alright, but even in all that worry the punishment for her disobedience is brewing in his mind.

Shortly before the 50 minute mark, the door slowly opens, there she is, her prom dress ripped, tears streaming down her face. Her daddy rushes toward her and embraces her, guides her to the sofa where he lets her cry into his shoulder. The father softly strokes his daughter’s hair, and asks her what happened. She goes on to tell her father about the post-prom party, at first she hesitated about going, but curiosity and temptation took over all rational thinking. Her prom date also had temptation, a different temptation than she, and when she wouldn’t give in, her now drunken prom date became furious and tried to force himself on her. The girl pushed her date away and ran out of the party. A classmate saw her running and gave her a ride home.

The father didn’t lecture her on the consequences of disobedience, he instead held her in is arms, softly quieting his daughter with his love. His anger had subsided with relief, he was disappointed in his daughter’s original disobedience, but yet proud that when what could have a huge temptation for her arose, she did the right thing. He felt relief that his daughter was safe, and in that moment on the sofa holding his heartbroken daughter, he felt in his heart a feeling of rejoice. Out of nowhere the father begins to sing a song to his daughter that they had made up when she was little. She smiles at him with such love, wipes a tear away and with a big smile she whispers “Daddy, you’re the greatest, I love you”. The father kisses her on the forehead, he knows she could never possibly love him more than he loves her, nothing can change that love. The anger and worry was gone, it no longer mattered that she was disobedient, she is safe and she came home, she poured all her feelings out to her father, he listened and all he felt was gladness, in his mind he had all the reason in the world to rejoice.

God is the same way, we are disobedient…that is the curse. We sin, but when we feel that conviction and we know we should stop, we need to go home to “Daddy”. Our Daddy is at home waiting for you 24 hours a day, ooh sometimes you make Him mad, but the times when you come to Him and pour out your heart, those are the times that make the One Holy God, sing over you with rejoice.

When is the last time you ran home to Daddy? He’s waiting.

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