I watched this video:
A Father's Love and it came with references, so I went and took them and read them for myself directly as they were written. Here it is, word for word from His own heart. This is RATHER long, so please watch the video instead if you want (it's 6 mins). Reading it just made it… more real(?) to me. :) (using God's Word Translation.)
Dear child,
Psalm 139: 1-3
1 For the choir director; a psalm by David. O Lord, you have examined me, and you know me.2 You alone know when I sit down and when I get up.You read my thoughts from far away.3 You watch me when I travel and when I rest.You are familiar with all my ways.
Matthew 10: 29 – 31
29 “Aren’t two sparrows sold for a penny? Not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father’s permission.30 Every hair on your head has been counted. 31 Don’t be afraid! You are worth more than many sparrows.
Genesis 1: 27
27 So God created humans in his image.In the image of God he created them.He created them male and female.
Acts 17: 28
28 Certainly, we live, move, and exist because of him. As some of your poets have said, ‘We are God’s children.’
Jeremiah 1: 4-5
4 The Lord spoke his word to me,5 “Before I formed you in the womb,I knew you.Before you were born,I set you apart for my holy purpose.I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations.”
Ephesians 1: 11 – 12
11 God also decided ahead of time to choose us through Christ according to his plan, which makes everything work the way he intends. 12 He planned all of this so that we who had already focused our hope on Christ would praise him and give him glory.
Psalm 139: 15 – 16
15 My bones were not hidden from youwhen I was being made in secret,when I was being skillfully woven in an underground workshop.16 Your eyes saw me when I was only a fetus.Every day of my life was recorded in your bookbefore one of them had taken place.
Acts 17: 26
26 From one man he has made every nation of humanity to live all over the earth. He has given them the seasons of the year and the boundaries within which to live.
Psalm 139: 14
14 I will give thanks to youbecause I have been so amazingly and miraculously made.Your works are miraculous, and my soul is fully aware of this.
Psalm 139: 13
13 You alone created my inner being.You knitted me together inside my mother.
Psalm 71: 6
6 I depended on you before I was born.You took me from my mother’s womb.My songs of praise constantly speak about you.
John 8: 41- 44
41 You’re doing what your father does.”
The Jews said to Jesus, “We’re not illegitimate children. God is our only Father.”42 Jesus told them, “If God were your Father, you would love me. After all, I’m here, and I came from God. I didn’t come on my own. Instead, God sent me.43 Why don’t you understand the language I use? Is it because you can’t understand the words I use?44 You come from your father, the devil, and you desire to do what your father wants you to do. The devil was a murderer from the beginning. He has never been truthful. He doesn’t know what the truth is. Whenever he tells a lie, he’s doing what comes naturally to him. He’s a liar and the father of lies.
1 John 4: 16;
16 We have known and believed that God loves us. God is love. Those who live in God’s love live in God, and God lives in them.
1 John 3:1
1 Consider this: The Father has given us his love. He loves us so much that we are actually called God’s dear children. And that’s what we are. For this reason the world doesn’t recognize us, and it didn’t recognize him either.
Matthew 7:11;
11 Even though you’re evil, you know how to give good gifts to your children. So how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him?
1 John 5: 48
48 That is why you must be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.
James 1: 17
17 Every good present and every perfect gift comes from above, from the Father who made the sun, moon, and stars. The Father doesn’t change like the shifting shadows produced by the sun and the moon.
Matthew 6: 31-33
31 “Don’t ever worry and say, ‘What are we going to eat?’ or ‘What are we going to drink?’ or ‘What are we going to wear?’32 Everyone is concerned about these things, and your heavenly Father certainly knows you need all of them. 33 But first, be concerned about his kingdom and what has his approval. Then all these things will be provided for you.
Jeremiah 29:11
11 I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord. They are plans for peace and not disaster, plans to give you a future filled with hope.
Jeremiah 31:3
3 The Lord appeared to me in a faraway place and said,“I love you with an everlasting love.So I will continue to show you my kindness.
Psalm 139: 17-18
17 How precious are your thoughts concerning me, O God!How vast in number they are!18 If I try to count them,there would be more of them than there are grains of sand.When I wake up, I am still with you.
Zephaniah 3: 17
17 TheLord your God is with you.He is a hero who saves you.He happily rejoices over you,renews you with his love,and celebrates over you with shouts of joy.
Jeremiah 32: 40
40 I will make an eternal promiset to them that I will never stop blessing them. I will make them fear me so that they will never turn away from me.
Exodus 19: 5
5 If you carefully obey me and are faithful to the terms of my promise,t then out of all the nations you will be my own special possession, even though the whole world is mine.
Jeremiah 32: 41
41 I will enjoy blessing them. With all my heart and soul I will faithfully plant them in this land.
Jeremiah 33: 3
3 Call to me, and I will answer you. I will tell you great and mysterious things that you do not know
Deuteronomy 4: 29
29 But if you look for the Lord your God when you are among those nations, you will find him whenever you search for him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Psalm 37: 4
4 Be happy with the Lord,and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Philippians 2: 13
13 It is God who produces in you the desires and actions that please him.
Ephesians 3:20
20 Glory belongs to God, whose power is at work in us. By this power he can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.
2 Thessalonians 2: 16-17
16 God our Father loved us and by his kindnesst gave us everlasting encouragement and good hope. Together with our Lord Jesus Christ, 17 may he encourage and strengthen you to do and say everything that is good.
2 Corinthians 1: 3-4
3 Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! He is the Father who is compassionate and the God who gives comfort.4 He comforts us whenever we suffer. That is why whenever other people suffer, we are able to comfort them by using the same comfort we have received from God.
Psalm 34:18
18 The Lord is near to those whose hearts are humble.He saves those whose spirits are crushed.
Isaiah 40:11
11 Like a shepherd he takes care of his flock.He gathers the lambs in his arms.He carries them in his arms.He gently helps the sheep and their lambs.
Revelation 21:3-4
3 I heard a loud voice from the throne say, “God lives with humans! God will make his home with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There won’t be any more death. There won’t be any grief, crying, or pain, because the first things have disappeared.”
John 17: 23
23 I am in them, and you are in me. So they are completely united. In this way the world knows that you have sent me and that you have loved them in the same way you have loved me.
John 17: 26
26 I have made your name known to them, and I will make it known so that the love you have for me will be in them and I will be in them.”
Hebrews 1:3
3 His Son is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact likeness of God’s being. He holds everything together through his powerful words. After he had cleansed people from their sins, he received the highest position, the one next to the Father in heaven.
Romans 8:31
31 What can we say about all of this? If God is for us, who can be against us?
2 Corinthians 5: 18-19
18 God has done all this. He has restored our relationship with him through Christ, and has given us this ministry of restoring relationships.19 In other words, God was using Christ to restore his relationship with humanity. He didn’t hold people’s faults against them, and he has given us this message of restored relationships to tell others.
1 John 4: 10
10 This is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the payment for our sins.
Romans 8: 31-32
31 What can we say about all of this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 God didn’t spare his own Son but handed him over to death for all of us. So he will also give us everything along with him.
1 John 2: 23
23 Everyone who rejects the Son doesn’t have the Father either. The person who acknowledges the Son also has the Father.
Romans 8: 38- 39
38 I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love which Christ Jesus our Lord shows us. We can’t be separated by death or life, by angels or rulers, by anything in the present or anything in the future, by forces 39 or powers in the world above or in the world below, or by anything else in creation.
Luke 15: 7
7 I can guarantee that there will be more happiness in heaven over one person who turns to God and changes the way he thinks and acts than over 99 people who already have turned to God and have his approval.”
Ephesians 3: 14-15
14 This is the reason I kneel in the presence of the Father 15 from whom all the family in heaven and on earth receives its name.
John 1: 12-13
12 However, he gave the right to become God’s children to everyone who believed in him. 13 These are people who haven’t been born in a physical way—from a human impulse or from a husband’s desire to have a child. Their birth was from God.
Luke 15: 11 -32
11 Then Jesus said, “A man had two sons. 12 The younger son said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the property.’ So the father divided his property between his two sons. 13 “After a few days, the younger son gathered his possessions and left for a country far away from home. There he wasted everything he had on a wild lifestyle.14 He had nothing left when a severe famine spread throughout that country. He had nothing to live on.15 So he got a job from someone in that country and was sent to feed pigs in the fields. 16 No one in the country would give him any food, and he was so hungry that he would have eaten what the pigs were eating.
17 “Finally, he came to his senses. He said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have more food than they can eat, while I’m starving to death here?18 I’ll go at once to my father, and I’ll say to him, “Father, I’ve sinned against heaven and you.19 I don’t deserve to be called your son anymore. Make me one of your hired men.” ’
20 “So he went at once to his father. While he was still at a distance, his father saw him and felt sorry for him. He ran to his son, put his arms around him, and kissed him. 21 Then his son said to him, ‘Father, I’ve sinned against heaven and you. I don’t deserve to be called your son anymore. 22 “The father said to his servants, ‘Hurry! Bring out the best robe, and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let’s celebrate with a feast. 24 My son was dead and has come back to life. He was lost but has been found.’ Then they began to celebrate.
25 “His older son was in the field. As he was coming back to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 He called to one of the servants and asked what was happening. 27 “The servant told him, ‘Your brother has come home. So your father has killed the fattened calf to celebrate your brother’s safe return.’28 “Then the older son became angry and wouldn’t go into the house. His father came out and begged him to come in. 29 But he answered his father, ‘All these years I’ve worked like a slave for you. I’ve never disobeyed one of your commands. Yet, you’ve never given me so much as a little goat for a celebration with my friends. 30 But this son of yours spent your money on prostitutes, and when he came home, you killed the fattened calf for him.’31 “His father said to him, ‘My child, you’re always with me. Everything I have is yours.
32 But we have something to celebrate, something to be happy about. This brother of yours was dead but has come back to life. He was lost but has been found.’ ”
Love,
Dad (Almighty, in case you forget, as usual)
