Your Father vs. God the Father (feat. Kim Zember)

Kim Zember explains how God the Father is the very best of fathers, and how our earthly parents can cloud our perception of His goodness.

Do you remember how your parents disciplined you as a child? Kim recalls something that her mom used to do whenever she did something bad: she would send Kim to her room to “think about what she had done.” As a kid in that room, Kim found herself sitting in shame and guilt instead of growing. As an adult, she finds it easy to transfer that to her relationship with God, and it can be easy to assume that God views the bad things we’ve done just as our parents would have.

But this isn’t true.

In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he says that it’s the kindness of the Lord that brings out repentance. It’s not the way he scolds us or punishes us. It’s his love that calls us to be better. And this is true today whenever we sin. Think of the woman “caught in many sins” that wipes the Lord’s feet with her tears. Jesus says that her ability to love has been granted through the forgiveness of her sins, and that the multitude of her past sins only leads to a greater capacity for love.

Now, of course, this doesn’t mean that we should just sin willy-nilly in order to receive grace. St. Paul points out that that would be an abuse of God’s mercy and would only result in graver sin. But there is comfort in the truth that God can bring such radical grace out of our sin and repentance.

We can’t do anything to change the heart of God. We can’t make him love us any more through good deeds, and we can’t make him love us any less through sin. We can’t forfeit or earn the Father’s love. His love for each of us is unchangeable. It’s been given to us freely and mercifully, and it’s our responsibility to share this love with those around us in for this infinite gift.

Are you striving to live a life that reflects this love? Are you using every opportunity to love him back?

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[Jen-CelticWarrior]

I never had a father while growing up. So it was always difficult for me to think of God the Father, and whatever kind of good that entailed, because I didn’t really know. So now I try to imagine what I would want in a perfect father, and God is so much more than that! So much more, that I cannot even imagine.💕💜

[carolusramusservusdei]

This couldn’t have come at a more opportune time, thank you. Praise the Lord 🙏

[SAi]

Very good message
The Holy Spirit Convicts
not to be confused with
Satan who Condems

[pbp]

Thank you Kim, we need to remember the love of God every day

[leoroy]

Awesome stuff!! God is good! Always!! 🙏

[kenbrower]

Wonderful message on Christ’s love for each of us and the importance of how our past can affect how we hear Christ.

[xty]

My many falls have been humiliating and difficult, but I look back and I can say that it is in those falls that I have learnt (and continue to learn ) Humility and most importantly rock bottom is where the abyss of Gods mercy kissed the abyss of my misery. Love is Mercy stopping down to misery and boy, has the transforming, enduring unfathomable love of God met my misery . This love is what has made me love him more and brought me closer to him. It increased my desire to return love for love. Now I understand what it means when scripture says we can only love him because he loved us first. That love is what converts sinners, what has converted and still converting this sinner here (Me)I am so grateful for Gods intentional and constant love, and knowing that after every fall(because of my frailty I will fall again ) I can, with Him, always begin again because he desires my sanctity even more than me and it gives me courage to keep going.Friends, come open. Let yourself be loved. Wounds that aren’t open will only fester and rot. Healing begins when the wound is open and thoroughly cleaned with a healing balm.

[IONov]

It can be difficult to realize the Lord loves you amidst your sin. I will be honest and I have a tendency to dislike people who abuse God's mercy. Surely, none of us are perfect but that is no excuse to willingly remain in sin because you know God is forgiving and merciful. As for me, to the outside world, I am a good law-abiding citizen but I know the depths of the wickedness in my heart. It can be difficult to approach the Lord when I have such evil desires and thoughts. It can be painful handing over your life to God so He can heal you. Although I am NO SAINT, I too carry wounds from rejection, abuse, insults, etc. It can be hard to believe the Lord loves us in spite of our very human weaknesses.

[kt-boundary]

“Fathers, do not provoke your children, so they may not become discouraged.”
‭‭Colossians 3:21

[tmts]

Just heard this today during spiritual direction, and I paraphrase, "use sin to springboard into His arms".

[Eirueth]

For those who were raised by abusive fathers, sometimes God looms overhead, like he's the scariest tyrant who can control you and punish you in all the ways your earthly father didn't have the power to. Certainly it's felt that way to me more than once. I think you've named a thing many survivors struggle with. Learning to distinguish what's really God's voice and what's the voice of my abuser trying to borrow God's authority has been the fight ever since childhood. Discerning the difference can be really hard when you were calibrated to register mistreatment and control as "love."

[izabelablawat]

Could You please pray for me? My name is Iza. God bless You Happy Lord made me find this Channel

[rosyflory]

Praise the lord thank you for explaining wonderful I'm very happy to hear u God bless you Amen Amen 🙏

[CatholicWhisper]

Beautifully said. To compliment what you said, I just listened to a priest online and he explained that when we accept Christ He comes inside us and abides in us but we must learn, in turn, to enter into Him and abide in Him as well. We do this when we make a decision to turn from sin and live to please Him. To love Him more than the pleasures of sin... Then, as He abides in us and we in Him, we begin to really KNOW HIM so that one day, He will not say those dreadful words at the end of our journey, “I never knew you”...

[YananoBere]

I LOVE this woman's depth and heart ♥. What a deeply edifying truth to reflect on when we feel worthless and broken. Thank you so much Kim.

[lilianafreitas]

Thank you for your amazing explanation 🙏🏻

[johnhealy]

Mom, wore the pants and dress in my life; she worked hard to provide, yet the softness was never there, she had to be tough!

[MariaHernandez-rdpf]

What a beautiful reminder....speechless! I hope we keep seeing more of you!

[jesitacarvalho]

I'm so glad to have you hear early in the morning about the love of God... wow... blessed...thank you

[gill]

That was quite good. I have two remarks to make though. A) This means that Jesus didn't change God's heart about us either. He could only change OUR heart towards God, if anything.
And B) I really appreciate what you were saying and I'm really glad that someone put it into words so well. But one question about this - what do we do about God's abandonment? He left Jesus to die there and be mocked when He cried out to God and He left many, myself included, to rot in their pain and suffering precisely when we cried out to God and tried to get back to Him in the darkness. What do we do about this factual experience?
God bless you and thank you for your message. 🙏🏼