John 16:23-28: a reflection

As Jesus prepares his disciples for his departure, he gives them a wonderful assurance about the Father's own love for them: they may come directly to the Father, who himself loves them. In that day you will ask in my name, Jesus says; and I don't say that I will pray to the Father for you, for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. Jesus assures the disciples that the Father himself loves them, directly and personally; they need not think of the Father as distant or reluctant, needing to be persuaded on their behalf, for the Father himself loves them and welcomes their asking in Jesus' name. This shows the Father's own direct love for us, who welcomes us to come and ask. The Father himself loves you, directly and personally. We come to a Father who himself loves us. The Father is not distant, but himself loves us. God the Father welcomes our asking, for he himself loves us.

Notice the tender assurance Jesus gives about the Father. He tells the disciples they may ask the Father directly in his name, and will receive; and then he adds something precious: I don't say that I will pray to the Father for you, for the Father himself loves you. Jesus does not want them to imagine the Father as distant or reluctant, a God who must be persuaded or won over on their behalf, as though the Father needed convincing to be kind to them. No; the Father himself loves them, directly and personally. When they come to the Father in Jesus' name, they come not to a reluctant or distant God, but to a Father whose own heart is full of love for them. This is a truth we need to hear. We can imagine God the Father as stern, distant, reluctant, needing to be persuaded to love or help us, perhaps thinking of Jesus as the loving one who must win the Father over. But Jesus assures us: the Father himself loves you. When we come to the Father, we come to one whose own heart is full of love toward us, who welcomes us and our asking. We can come to the Father with confidence, knowing he himself loves us. The Father himself loves us, not reluctantly but with his own heart. We come to the Father as one who loves us, not one who must be won over. Do not imagine the Father as distant or reluctant; he himself loves you. Come to the Father with confidence, for he himself loves you.

That is worth resting in, for the Father himself loves us, directly and personally, and we can come to him with confidence, knowing his own heart is full of love toward us. We can imagine the Father as distant, stern, or reluctant, needing to be persuaded to love or help us; but Jesus assures us that the Father himself loves us, that we come not to a reluctant God but to a Father whose own heart is full of love. The Father himself loves you. When you come to God, come to a Father who himself loves you, not one who must be won over. Rest in the truth that the Father himself loves us, directly and personally, as Jesus assured his disciples that they might ask the Father in his name and receive, and that he need not say he would pray to the Father for them, for the Father himself loves them because they had loved Jesus and believed that he came from God; for we can imagine God the Father as stern, distant, or reluctant, a God who must be persuaded or won over on our behalf, perhaps thinking of Jesus as the loving one who must convince the Father to be kind to us, but Jesus assures us that the Father himself loves us, directly and personally, so that when we come to the Father in Jesus' name we come not to a reluctant or distant God but to one whose own heart is full of love toward us and who welcomes us and our asking, and we can come to the Father with confidence, knowing he himself loves us.