Quarantine Soul Care: The Father is Always

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This is part of an ongoing series during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. To engage further in the #QuarantineSoulCare series, click here.

Answers. Understanding. Insight. How we long for those! We want so desperately to know what is happening to us and what will become of us. When the days are dark and we feel overwhelmed by pain or sorrow or confusion, we beg for answers. We believe that if we could simply understand, then we would find peace. That relief would come in the same package as the answers to our questions.
The psalmist found insight. He found understanding and answers. And he calls them “sweet” [Psalm 119:104]. But there’s a difference between what the psalmist found and what most of us search for. Most of the time we’re scouring the temporal, hoping to find the answers to our present pains. Our perspective is short-term.
Our search is for a solution to our circumstances. The psalmist is talking about a different search.
He describes the joy that comes from knowing the Father and the Father’s ways. The words of the Father are sweet to him, full of insight and understanding. He delights not in knowing information about his circumstances, but in knowing the Father himself.
Today may be a hard day for you. Your circumstances may be out of control. Pain, fear, confusion, or sorrow may dominate your perspective. Stop for just a moment. Breathe deeply. Quiet your mind and listen. What, above all things, does your heart desire? In the depths of your soul, the Spirit calls to you. He speaks the words you already know to be true. What you want most, above and beyond all things, is the Father. You long to be with him—for his embrace to envelop you. More than anything you want to look into his tender eyes and know he is with you, right now.
Answers are good, but they are temporary. Our circumstances change and so do our questions. But the Father is always. Unchanging. Knowing him is life. Knowing him is peace. The things this life offer us do not compare with the life we have in the Father.
In all things dark and difficult, search for him. Sweeter than the relief of the moment are our Father’s everlasting words. Rest in his arms and trust him with the circumstances of your life. His eyes are on you.


By your words I can see where I’m going;
They throw a beam of light on my dark path.
–Psalm 119:105, The Message

May today you find time and space to stop, quiet your mind, and listen for the words of the Spirit reassuring you of the Father’s love for you. #quarantinesoulcare Click To Tweet

Today’s reading was taken from God in the Dark by Sarah Van Diest.

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