God The Father

“When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, 15 the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”  – Ephesians 3:14-19.

“Daddy” is a powerful word. The word often describes the man you look to for love, strength, courage, and wisdom. The term “dad” stirs up a variety of feelings and memories in all of us. For some of us, our dads were a dominant presence in our homes. For others, our dads were people we barely saw. Many dads do not live up to the ideal.

But unlike human parents, God is perfect. He does not make mistakes like earthly fathers do. He loves us more than a human father could comprehend. God wants us to see Him as the perfect Father who loves us unconditionally. The Lord’s Prayer begins with “Our Father.” We are not praying to a distant, uninvolved, abstract thing called “god.” We are praying to the “… God of compassion and mercy, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.” (Psalm 86:15)

There was a feel-good story on the news about a single dad raising several kids. The mother was no longer in the picture, but the dad was determined to make a go of it, something his sons noticed and appreciated. The oldest child choked back the tears when he said his dad had two different full-time jobs. The child paused for a few seconds and said, “he works two full-time jobs for me…for me.”

God our Father, as revealed in the person of Jesus, loves us like that single Father, with commitment, steadfastness, and sacrifice. God the Father loves you more than you can imagine. 1 John 3:1 says, “See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him.”

I hope you see the privilege and the joy to call God Father today. He is the perfect Father we’ve always longed for and desperately needed.

God is our Father not only in that He is our Creator but that He is also our Redeemer; this is what distinguishes the Christian’s relationship to God and what allows us to relate to Him as Father.

Discussion Questions:

1. Do you feel comfortable addressing God as Father? What hesitations (if any) do you have about thinking of God this way?
2. Which particular aspect of God’s fatherhood (nearness, care, and provision) brings you the most comfort today? Why?