Our good friends Pastor Francis and Rita Waive, Church of the Anointing, Warri, Nigeria, sent us this photo of them and their beautiful family

„Daddy, is your face turned towards me?“

By Helen Jesze, 3rd October 2016

“ The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.”

Numbers 6:24-26 NIV

Everybody in the family had gone to bed. Mum and Dad were the last ones to go, and were just settling off to sleep, when an anxious voice called out from the next room where the door had been left just a little open, for young Paul who slept there, was afraid of the dark — “Daddy, are you there?”

“Yes, Son, I’m here.” All was quiet for a minute, then the voice came again, urgently, “Daddy, is your face towards me?”

“Yes, Son, my face is turned towards you! Go to sleep, you’re safe!”

Pastor John Osteen of Lakewood Church, Houston, Texas, whom we knew personally and who was a wonderful pastor to pastors and millions over the world, used to tell this story about him and their son, Paul. How it spoke to my heart!

There are times when we seem surrounded by darkness or dark circumstances, when we feel pressed in by the silence of the night; when it seems that no-one knows what we are going through and have left us alone. But there is One who hears us when we cry to him, “Daddy, are you there? I can’t feel you. You seem so far away!”

The voice of our Heavenly Father comes to you and to me tonight, “I’m here, my child, whether you feel me or not – I am here! I will never leave you nor forsake you!”

Satan might come and say: Well, God might be there, but he has turned away because you have sinned or not trusted him as you should. But he is a liar, who tries to deceive us, and I want to encourage you tonight that not only is our Father there, with you, in the person of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, but his face is turned towards you! His love streams to you, his arms are outstretched to you – his mercy and grace are eternal.

Jesus went through the darkness which satan put him in; he knew the total cutting off in the spirit from his Father, when he hung on Calvary bearing our sins. God had to turn away his face from him, for Jesus – our Substitute – bore the spiritual rejection and separation from God which you and I would have had to bear. He took it all, so that we might be accepted in the beloved and be with him not only in this life, but for all eternity.