OH COME ALL YE FAITHFUL, OR FEARFUL, SICK OR SEEKING...COME ON IN THE LORD'S HOUSE!

FATHER I STRETCH MY HANDS TO THEE
1 Chronicles 4:10

Many of us are comfortable and content in our relationships with our Mothers. We have a pretty decent picture in our heads of what her role is/should be in our lives. She nurtures. She encourages. She teaches. She comforts. Even when our relationship with Mother shifts, changes or isn’t fully realized, we still have the picture of it, the concept of it as a measure of what Mother is.

But who is Father? What is our relationship with Father supposed to even be?

In so many homes across America, that is a tenuous question. In African-American households in urban environments, he is often missing or not in the home. However, in many affluent households—White, Black, Asian, Latino—he can be so caught up in working and providing for his family that he is equally as neglectful. In so many ways, Father is either absent or absentee. But we cannot fully discredit Father. Even if his appearance in our life was rare, he would impart certain life lessons that shaped with what think of him and what we believe he thinks of us. Father was the one who taught you or told you to fight back. Father was the one who told you to shake it off…get up. Father was the one who spoke of responsibility, even when he was being responsible. Father or that Father energy plays a very distinct and different role in our lives from Mother.

Yet, in the church, we are quick to call upon Father God. We feel like we are rocked and cradled and supported and nurtured and comforted by God, but we are often speaking to and of Father God, while we are delighting in Mother God energies. So I would like to have a new conversation about Father God today. We have to change our relationships with our fathers in order to change our relationship with THE FATHER.

The Provider Versus The Nurturer relationship is present in so many species on the Earth that it must be something that God ordained. The Father goes and hunts and provides sustenance, while the Mother often protects and provides substance. In Lions and Tigers and Bears…he hunts, she nurtures.

Mothers often are very nurturing even and especially in the ways of interaction with us. They can, not always, but often, be very patient and loving and attentive when we come to them for perceived to be short and impatient.

Get up, Boy.

What You Gonna Do About it?

Father can be very precise and pointed.

So let’s take that version of Father and that directness into this scripture.

1 Chronicles 4:10
The Prayer of Jabez

SOMEBODY STAND AND READ THAT FOR ME.

Father, step up and step into this and fulfill this void in me.
Then, give me more and stay with me!

But there is an essential word in this text that makes all the difference in the world….MY.

We are not Limited and we must expand our thinking….to GROW; Your space is finite, but your thinking IS NOT….so when you ask for expansion, you have to be willing to EXPAND!

Jabez’s request was pivotal because he was willing to sacrifice himself. Jabez called out to the God of Israel: "If only You would bless me, extend my border/enlarge my territory, let Your hand be with me, and keep me from harm, so that I will not cause any pain." Because his Momma named him after GREAT PAIN…and he considered who he was and what he was born into AND he still asked…And God granted his request.

The VS My….Definitive VS Personal

Use me
Expand me
Pull me
Stretch me

I and my son are really excited about the forthcoming movie “The Fantastic Four”. There are four (4) characters in the group of the Fantastic Four. One has the ability to catch fire when troubles come. He is young and youthful and always excited about his powers and his ability to destroy things that would seek to bring harm. One is able to turn herself invisible when conflicts rise and she can then materializes on the other side of the situation, with her enemies having no idea how she got there. One is blessed with the power to turn himself into a Rock, powerful, impenetrable, strong, forceful and mighty and you know how that can be useful in hard times.

Oh, but the Father of the group has the power to stretch. They shoot at him. He stretches. They launch missiles his way. He stretches. He needs to get across town or across the world, He stretches.

The power of that is right in Jabez’s request:

He knew that his situation had limitations, but he knew his God didn’t and he knew that if he stayed focused on that which he saw before him, he would never grow. So he prayed to GOD….STRETCH ME! ENLARGE ME! EXPAND ME! REMOVE LIMITATIONS FROM ME!

I was sinking in sin, but FATHER, I STRETCH!
I was on my way down, but FATHER I STRETCH!
I was told I would never make it, but FATHER I STRETCH!
I was worried that my enemies had finally won, but FATHER I STRETCH!
I thought that that breakup, that breakdown would kill me, but FATHER I STRETCH!
Somebody told me that I wouldn’t make it but, FATHER I STRETCH!


Poor –minded people who win the Lottery end up broke again, because they are still broken financially and mentally and they didn’t stretch even after their dollars got long!

If you want God to ENLARGE your territory, then you’ve got to be willing to ENLARGE, BROADEN,

STRETCH OUT in Jesus!

Stop speaking so much limit in your life and STRETCH!
Stop worrying about yesterday and imagine tomorrow and STRETCH!
Start seeing your life the way you desire it to be and not the way it has played out thus far and STRETCH!

I was lost in a world of sin, far from the peaceful shore, I was very lost indeed, sinking to rise no more. But the Master of the Sea, outstretched his hand and He rescued me.

God reaches out for you daily, saying GRAB MY HAND!

STRETCH!

Consider MORE than you see and STRETCH!

Know that I want to bless you and STRETCH!

Stop listening to your detractors and STRETCH!

I am right here, reaching out for you, my child, but you gotta STRETCH!

REACH OUT FOR ME!

REACH OUT!
GRAB HOLD!
EXPAND!
ENLARGE!

STRETCH!

In times of trouble, STRETCH!
When you are lost in darkness, STRETCH!
When you don’t know what to do, STRETCH!
When you are told that the end is near, STRETCH!