what does it mean for God to be your father?

☀️📖👉🏻 One of the interesting things about communication is how difficult it is. So many pieces have to come together for good communication to happen. 

First, you have to share a language. Then there are tones, body language, and sometimes even timing that need to align to understand each other. 

Even if you get all those things right you can still miss it because we all assign different meanings to words based on our backgrounds. 

When I first moved to Texas I realized the men here found the gun range relaxing. To them, it was a fun way to release stress and unwind. For me, not so much. Why? Because I have a different background with guns. When I was sixteen I was shot through the stomach and the bullet exited out of my back. With my background being around guns didn’t relieve stress, it caused stress. 

I had to rewire my thinking about guns. I had to start thinking of them as something that could protect me instead of harm me. It wasn’t easy at first but eventually, with enough good experiences, I became more comfortable. Now I enjoy going to the range and relieving stress by taking out an apocalypse of paper zombie targets. 

Many people experience the same disconnect when they are told God wants to be their father. In a perfect world, this should elicit feelings of love and protection. Unfortunately, we live in a fallen, imperfect world, and father doesn’t always mean what God intended it to mean. 

If your father abandoned or abused you, then you may not want to relate to God as your father. The idea of relating to God as your father may actually create agitation, fear, and anxiety. The idea may leave others feeling confused because they don’t even know how to relate to a father figure. 

Like the prodigal son, some people had an amazing father but broke the relationship through their own poor choices. The idea of coming to God as father fills them with feelings of shame and regret. 

I don’t know what your experience was with your father. But I can tell you that God’s plan for fatherhood was good. Fathers were meant to love and protect their children. To pave the way for them to have a better future and leave them an inheritance. Fathers were meant to be a life support with wise counsel and direction for their children. Ultimately, God planned fathers to be in deep relationships with their children as living models of his heart. 

If that wasn’t your experience, I’m sorry. I hate that you missed out on such a beautiful relationship. But I want you to know it’s not too late to experience it. Your earthly father may not have modeled God’s heart but it is still his heart for you. 

The reason Jesus died on the cross wasn’t to save you from hell. It was to reconcile you with your Heavenly Father. 

Sure being saved from hell is a pretty nice bonus, but his motivation wasn’t rescue— it was relationship. 

Whatever your background might be, I pray the Holy Spirit will speak to you through these verses. I pray he will speak to you as you read them and help you hear what he has always wanted you to hear, he loves you and wants to be close to you. He wants to protect you, provide for you, and lead you to an abundant life. He wants to give you an inheritance of blessing and favor. Through Jesus, he made a way for you to know him this way. It may not be comfortable at first but he is patient. He will walk with you one step at a time and build the father relationship with you that he wanted every child to experience. 

📖 John 3:16-17
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

📖 Romans 8:16-17
The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.

📖 1 John 3:1-3
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known.

📖 2 Corinthians 5:17-20
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.

📖 Ephesians 3:16-19
I pray that out of his glorious riches, he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,  may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,  and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

🙏🏻 As you reflect on the verses you just read, ask the Holy Spirit to show you your Heavenly Father’s love for you. Ask for him to speak to you about any past experiences keeping you from fully embracing his love. Talk with God about where you’re at. Be real about where you are and ask him to help you draw closer to him.  Today can be the beginning of a deeper connection with your Heavenly Father in the way he intended every child to experience it. 

Blessings and favor,
pastoer Andy