{"id":1925,"date":"2012-01-18T15:26:35","date_gmt":"2012-01-18T19:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/?p=1925"},"modified":"2012-01-18T15:26:35","modified_gmt":"2012-01-18T19:26:35","slug":"a-very-special-gift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/?p=1925","title":{"rendered":"A Very Special Gift"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Lord; Happy Wednesday Father!<\/p>\n

Today Lord, I simply want to say thank You.<\/p>\n

As You know Father, the last couple weeks have been particularly stressful for me, and I\u2019m afraid in several situations I allowed myself to weaken and give audience to Satan\u2019s voices of dissent within my heart\u2026<\/p>\n

You\u2019re not worthy of God\u2019s attention\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

You\u2019re weak\u2026\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

You\u2019re alone\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I can still get to you\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

And yet, through all these attacks on my spirit Lord, You were right there.\u00a0 You\u2019ve quietly reminded me of my true identity<\/a>, sent me fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to bolster my reserve, and through Your Word have helped keep my eyes focused on Your Kingdom.<\/p>\n

And then this morning, You gave me a very special gift\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve mentioned before Father, I quite enjoy the path I take to work each morning.\u00a0 I consciously avoid the highway, and instead travel a series of smaller back roads that run through much more rural settings.<\/p>\n

My route also holds one further benefit.<\/p>\n

For a short portion of the drive, my truck heads due East; affording me a wonderful front-row seat as the sun lifts above the horizon behind the farmlands ahead.\u00a0 Most mornings it\u2019s a lovely scene, but today it was particularly breathtaking.\u00a0 The air was vividly clear, save for a thin line of clouds that dotted the horizon.\u00a0 Lying behind that smoky veil, the morning sun\u2019s radiance streamed upwards, seeming to burn rays of light into the heavens.\u00a0 It was truly a marvelous sight, and as I smiled in recognition of Your handiwork, You let me know why\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s for you\u2026\u201d You said.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

For me??\u00a0 I momentarily struggled with my disbelief, but it was just too powerful; the wall came crashing down and I clearly understood Your message:<\/p>\n

You love me Father, and You\u2019d move heaven and earth that I should know it.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

What an amazing gift Lord\u2026 I am truly humbled, and forever changed.<\/p>\n

Amen.<\/p>\n

~Phather Phil<\/p>\nPin It<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Lord; Happy Wednesday Father! Today Lord, I simply want to say thank You. As You know Father, the last couple weeks have been particularly stressful for me, and I\u2019m afraid in several situations I allowed myself to weaken and give audience to Satan\u2019s voices of dissent within my heart\u2026 You\u2019re not worthy of God\u2019s […]<\/p>\nPin It<\/a>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[2595,2585,2588,9,350,2582,99,549,2319,2591,473,2584,1540,1652,866,915,702,196,173,42,2600,2587,966,2596,1450,2597,1391,444,731,140,47,808,222,2577,133,2590,2344,141,506,2598,2583,2580,2569,2578,81,587,572,69,2594,2586,615,2579,732,836,73,2593,373,384,2342,777,2589,114,485,2599,553,612,2592,71,2581,663,481,378,379,138,97],"class_list":["post-1925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-emails-to-god","tag-a-marvelous-sight","tag-a-very-special-gift","tag-above-the-horizon","tag-alone","tag-amazing","tag-attacks-on-my-spirit","tag-attention","tag-avoid","tag-back-roads","tag-breathtaking","tag-brother","tag-brothers-and","tag-brothers-and-sisters","tag-brothers-and-sisters-in-christ","tag-cloud","tag-dear-lord","tag-drive","tag-eyes","tag-father","tag-focus","tag-forever-changed","tag-front-row-seat","tag-god","tag-gods-handiwork","tag-gods-kingdom","tag-gods-message","tag-gods-word","tag-happy","tag-head","tag-heart","tag-heavens","tag-high","tag-joy","tag-last-couple-weeks","tag-love","tag-lovely-scene","tag-men","tag-mind","tag-morning","tag-move-heaven-and-earth","tag-my-true-identity","tag-not-worthy","tag-our-true-identity","tag-particularly-stressful","tag-path","tag-power","tag-powerful","tag-quiet","tag-rays-of-light","tag-rural-settings","tag-satan","tag-satans-voices-of-dissent","tag-situation","tag-situations","tag-smile","tag-smoky-veil","tag-special","tag-stress","tag-strong","tag-struggle","tag-sunrise","tag-thank-you","tag-travel","tag-truly-humbled","tag-upwards","tag-vivid","tag-vividly-clear","tag-voice","tag-weak","tag-wednesday","tag-week","tag-wonder","tag-wonderful","tag-work","tag-worth"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Sunlight-Above-the-Clouds-1-Cropped.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p18mMc-v3","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1925"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1928,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1925\/revisions\/1928"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}