Dear Lord; Good afternoon Father.<\/p>\n
Today Lord, I\u2019d like to start out with a quick prayer of support for my wife Shannon.\u00a0 Between being ill for the past week, a busy work schedule, college classes and symphony she\u2019s been burning the candle at both ends, and has been feeling the results the last couple days.\u00a0 Please bring her Your Loving Comfort and grant her the rest she so dearly needs.<\/p>\n
This morning Father I decided to get Jonathan and Aidan involved in our conversation.\u00a0 Therefore, on the way to school I asked them both if they had anything to tell You or ask of You.\u00a0 The responses I got were not exactly what I expected, but I felt good ones all the same:<\/p>\n
Aidan (8) : \u201cIs watching over everyone all the time hard?\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n I don\u2019t think Aidan realizes what a significant and deep question this is Father.\u00a0 The more I thought about it, the more I realized that while we don\u2019t have a definitive answer that fits in our limited understanding, there are some scriptural passages which shine some light on this question.<\/p>\n First off, we refer to You as \u201cAlmighty God\u201d<\/em>, which implies the omnipotence of Your Power and that You are \u201cAll-ruling\u201d<\/em> (from the Greek word pantokrator used in the early Bible translations) over what You have created.\u00a0 Jesus summed it up quite clearly in Matthew 19:26:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cJesus looked at them and said, \u201cWith man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.\u201d\u201d (NIV)<\/strong><\/p>\n You created us all, and have reign over all You have created; Your Word states this over and over quite distinctly.\u00a0 This tells me You have the power to watch over us all without question.<\/p>\n The other piece of this answer in my mind, would be the omnipresence of Your Spirit.\u00a0 Again, referencing scriptures for this I found Psalm 139:7-12:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWhere can I go from your Spirit? Through Your Spirit, You reach out and have complete access to the whole of Your Creation.\u00a0 Ok, so you have the Power, and the Presence. \u00a0I realize that this doesn\u2019t answer Aidan\u2019s question specifically about whether or not it\u2019s hard for You Lord, but Your Word clearly establishes the ability for You to do so, and the promise You gave us:<\/p>\n \u201cHave I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.\u201d \u2013 Joshua 1:9 (NIV) <\/strong>(one of my all-time favorite verses)<\/em><\/p>\n Great question Aidan!\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n Jonathan (11): \u201cWhat does God have planned for the people of Japan now?\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Bless him Father, he worries about so much and so many people for an 11 year old.<\/p>\n I explained to him that in cases like this, we have to understand that we don\u2019t truly have the \u201cBig Picture\u201d<\/em> that You do, but that You were still there for those people, still loved them and were still in control.<\/p>\n I\u2019m sure he\u2019ll be talking with You directly later on about this Lord.\u00a0 Maybe You can give him a better answer than I was able to at 7:45 this morning.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n Heavenly Father, I thank You for the lessons I learn each day through my children.\u00a0 I love seeing them growing in Your Kingdom and yearning to know You better.\u00a0 Please continue to guide them along the path You have chosen, and help me bring Your Love and Wisdom to their hearts and minds.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n ~Phather Phil<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Lord; Good afternoon Father. Today Lord, I\u2019d like to start out with a quick prayer of support for my wife Shannon.\u00a0 Between being ill for the past week, a busy work schedule, college classes and symphony she\u2019s been burning the candle at both ends, and has been feeling the results the last couple days.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"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":[505,181,359,1091,243,168,1095,286,132,27,581,556,43,944,915,173,442,619,966,457,534,686,140,273,593,916,47,269,116,313,345,904,907,104,880,133,422,96,1092,783,141,274,506,670,1093,1094,887,81,688,587,217,205,41,253,1090,291,613,683,174,1089,227,796,117,469,95,817,764,672,114,697,300,1019,481,791,157,504,142,348,138,424,819,685],"class_list":["post-754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-emails-to-god","tag-afternoon","tag-aidan","tag-bible","tag-bible-translations","tag-big-picture","tag-bless","tag-burning-the-candle-at-both-ends","tag-child","tag-children","tag-comfort","tag-control","tag-conversation","tag-courage","tag-darkness","tag-dear-lord","tag-father","tag-favorite","tag-feeling","tag-god","tag-grow","tag-growing","tag-guide","tag-heart","tag-hearts","tag-heavenly","tag-heavenly-father","tag-heavens","tag-jesus","tag-jonathan","tag-joshua","tag-learn","tag-lie","tag-lies","tag-light","tag-long","tag-love","tag-loved","tag-loving","tag-loving-comfort","tag-matthew","tag-mind","tag-minds","tag-morning","tag-night","tag-omnipotence","tag-omnipresence","tag-passage","tag-path","tag-possible","tag-power","tag-pray","tag-prayer","tag-presence","tag-psalm","tag-psalm-139","tag-question","tag-real","tag-realize","tag-school","tag-scriptural-passages","tag-shannon","tag-significant","tag-son","tag-sons","tag-spirit","tag-start","tag-support","tag-talking","tag-thank-you","tag-understand","tag-understanding","tag-used","tag-week","tag-whole","tag-wife","tag-will","tag-wisdom","tag-word","tag-work","tag-worries","tag-yearn","tag-yearning"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p18mMc-ca","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754","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=754"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":757,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754\/revisions\/757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nWhere can I flee from your presence?
\nIf I go up to the heavens, you are there;
\nif I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
\nIf I rise on the wings of the dawn,
\nif I settle on the far side of the sea,
\neven there your hand will guide me,
\nyour right hand will hold me fast.
\nIf I say, \u201cSurely the darkness will hide me
\nand the light become night around me,\u201d
\neven the darkness will not be dark to you;
\nthe night will shine like the day,
\nfor darkness is as light to you.\u201d (NIV)<\/strong><\/p>\n