{"id":40795,"date":"2026-07-03T22:00:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T05:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=40795"},"modified":"2026-06-29T19:46:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T02:46:36","slug":"26-0704","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/26-0704\/","title":{"rendered":"Gifts From the Father"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: right;\">by Max Lucado<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-40797 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/260704_1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/260704_1.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/260704_1-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>James 1:17 says, \u201cEvery good and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Take this simple pocket prayer for you today:\u00a0<em>Dear Father, teach me to accept what you\u2019ve given. I may not always understand the circumstances, but show me how they are blessings and give me gratitude for all your gifts. Rain your blessings on my friends and family today. Give them hope whatever they face. Thank you that your blessings never end. In Jesus name, amen.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s my challenge for you: every day for four weeks pray four minutes. Then get ready to connect with God like never before.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-40565\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1-unnamed-7.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"188\" height=\"300\" \/>\u00a0 \u00a0Read more\u00a0<a title=\"Before Amen: The Power of a Simple Prayer\" href=\"https:\/\/maxlucado.us2.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=bed511e434184985961d50fcb&amp;id=c9668dc127&amp;e=0716428f80\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/maxlucado.us2.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u%3Dbed511e434184985961d50fcb%26id%3Dc9668dc127%26e%3D0716428f80&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1780708342826000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3_JhZBG08V_1_JUTXCvTKQ\"><em>Before Amen: The Power of a Simple Prayer<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>James 1:17 says, \u201cEvery good and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Take this simple pocket prayer for you today: Dear Father, teach me to accept what you\u2019ve given. I may not always understand the circumstances, but show me how they are blessings and give me gratitude for all your gifts. Rain your blessings on my friends and family today. Give them hope whatever they face. Thank you that your blessings never end. In Jesus name, amen.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s my challenge for you: every day for four weeks pray four minutes. Then get ready to connect with God like never before.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40797,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[148],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-upwords"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40795"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40798,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40795\/revisions\/40798"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}