My Father Cares!

Like gold refined in fire, so my soul learns to see—not just hear—my Father’s care.

Devotional insights from Abide Above
Image Credit: Unsplash

This morning’s reflection centers on the necessary dismantling of our self-sufficiency so that we might behold the sufficiency of Christ. Drawing from Job’s final declaration—“I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear… but now mine eye seeth Thee”—the devotional presents a hard yet hopeful truth: God's loving intent in our trials is not to pamper us, but to purify our vision. We may hear about God through religion, tradition, or even study, but we often do not see Him until we are brought low and emptied of everything else.

T. Austin-Sparks challenges the structure-bound believer who is clinging to Christian externals but resisting the inward work of the Holy Spirit. According to him, only when these external dependencies are shaken—sometimes drastically—can the Spirit begin His deep work. Similarly, C.H. Mackintosh reminds us that even the faithful servant, like Job, needs the revelation of both his own frailty and God’s unshakable trustworthiness.

This process is not an act of divine cruelty, but of divine care. Our Father is not out to devastate us, but to deliver us—from ourselves, from shallow religion, and from any vision of Him that is less than holy love.

Personalized Journal Entry — The Voice of the Holy Spirit Through Scripture

I am the One who searches your heart not to condemn but to refine, that you may share in My holiness. I do not forsake you when the storm comes—I guide you through it, because I know that fire removes what cannot remain. Do not fear the shaking. What can be shaken will be removed, so that what cannot be shaken may remain.

You are My workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for works I prepared beforehand. But the work begins deeper still—in your knowing Me. For many know Me by ear, but I have called you to see Me with the eyes of your heart enlightened, so that you may know the hope to which you have been called.

The suffering you endure is not random—it is allowed in love, that you may be conformed to the image of My Son. When you pass through the waters, I am with you. When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned, for I am the Lord your God, and I have called you by name.

Lift your eyes—I am not a distant God. I carry you close to My heart. I will never break the bruised reed nor extinguish the faintly burning wick. Let Me uncover what is hidden, remove what entangles, and awaken what is eternal. You are not alone in the refining fire—it is there that I draw near.

—Hebrews 12:10–11, Ephesians 2:10, Ephesians 1:18, Isaiah 43:1–2, Isaiah 40:11, Matthew 12:20

Prayer of Trust and Confidence

Father, I do not recoil from the refining, because I know the Refiner. I thank You that You are too loving to leave me clinging to shadows, and too wise to let me settle for secondhand faith. Where I once relied on the hearing of others, You are training my spiritual sight to behold Your beauty firsthand.

Whatever must be shaken, let it be. You are my unshakable portion. I trust You to accomplish in me what I could never manufacture through effort—Christlikeness. And I rejoice that You do this not in judgment but in love. I no longer see trial as a sign of Your absence, but as proof of Your intimate care.

You have given me all things in Christ. And in this moment, I rest—not in ease, but in You.