Revealing God as Father
In order to pray effectively, we must first be a child of God, able to call God “Our Father.”
And, we must know God as our Father. Not just know he exists, like the man who lives down the road, but through a dynamic, ongoing relationship with Him. “Our Father” is the imperative call to intimacy with God. That is why we want to understand the characteristics of our perfect Father, so when we look to Him, we understand WHO He is, and how His desire is to listen to each request of His children. That alone will powerfully transform our prayer life.
You know, sometimes I truly feel like a child with God. I wake up and greet Him and I have a sense of being with my loving Dad. I feel young and alive inside, despite the truth of my years. Do you feel that way?
There’s a very popular song that declares about God “you’re a good good father, it’s who you are.”
And here is where many of us have to pause.
Good father.
This may be challenging to some people whose earthly fathers did not represent God the Father well. It could be the very word “Father” causes a streak of pain to run through our souls.
Earthly vs Heavenly
We all had a father. Somewhere. And we immediately associate our father with God the father. If we had an attentive and loving father, we revel in knowing we also have a heavenly father and feel free to run to Him and leap on His lap declaring “Abba” or Daddy.
If our earthly fathers abandoned us, or were cruel, it can be hard to shake the emotions associated with our earthly dad. I’ve known people who tell me they simply cannot do that. It’s too painful.
Did Jesus know people would feel this way when he initiates prayer with this phrase?
Yes. He did. In fact, it is very likely why He chose to reveal God the Father as, well, Father. He wants us to know, as psalm 27:10 states, that even though our earthly Fathers may forsake us, the Lord will take us up.
Which is why we need to know God the Father personally and intimately.
My own father was a bit of a good father. And a bit of not so good father. I suspect that is the case for most of us.
For instance, he was hard working, saved money, provided, and once, knowing my love of horses, planned a surprise trip with me (and me alone despite having 4 siblings) to see the Lippazan stallions. I was only about 12 at the time, yet that was memorable in so many ways. And surprising for me because he always seemed distant. He could be easily angered. I feared him. I felt he favored my sisters. He was even more angry when I found the Lord, as a young adult. and the rejection really stung. But in the end He found the Lord and even said those much coveted words “I love Joni.”
In some ways, sure, I could embrace God as my Father. In other ways, I thought God being my father meant I should fear God and tread carefully around Him.
Flawed though they may have been, we were given fathers for a reason. They are still shadows of God. No matter your upbringing, you know in your heart of hearts how a good father would and should be, and you long for a perfect child-father relationship.
What does that look like?
Likewise,
What special attributes do good fathers posses? We want to look at what the Bible tells us about Fathers roles, not what society may be telling us. Therein we can embrace and understand who God the Father is.
A Good Father Protects and Defends
Psalm 12:5 “I will protect them from those who malign them
When a good man is in charge we can relax and trust someone is there to keep enemies away. One of our bus drivers moved to our town this past summer. He has a middle school son who rides my bus. His son, being new to a smallish town, was bullied by some older kids at school who actually rode his dads bus.
Cory told me how when he learned about it he asked the bullies if they knew his son. They said they did.
“Look,” Cory responded calmly, “He’s new to town and I’d sure appreciate it if you could help him out by saying Hi. Just let him know he’s ok. Because if I heard about you all mistreating him, I may have to let your parents know, or even the principal. So can you do that? Tell him Hi once in a while.”
The two bullies nodded.
The next day they told the son “hi.”
Cory related that there had been no problems with the two after that.
There is something about a good ‘ole fashioned man to man talk that can make all the difference.
That, I thought, is a good father. He was calm, he was firm, and he was clear in defending his son.
A Good Father Provides
A good father looks out for the needs of His family.
In the Bible God was initially called “Jehovah Jireh,” or “God provides” in Genesis 22:1-8 when He provided a substitute ram for a sacrifice instead of Abrahams son. God provided manna, quail, and water throughout the Exodus of the children of Israel, he provided a well when Hagar was certain her child would die, He provided food thorough Ravens when Elisha was in exile.
Has He provided for you?
I have an abundance of stories of finding the check in the mail in my hour of desperation. God dint stop providing after the Bible was canonized.
He always will. It is His character. His nature! He tells us in Matthew 6:31-32 the Bible says he knows we need clothes and food, and will take care of us as we seek him!
A Good Father Disciplines
There was a show called “Wait till your father gets home” back in the 1970’s. The phrase caught on, because a child may not enjoy it when Moms mad, but the nurturing nature of a mother usually leans towards mercy. Dad’s meanwhile, are a foreboding force. They are usually more willing to suffer a Childs momentary anger in order to teach them important lessons. I still tremble when I remember my dad loosening his belt when I was being mouthy.
Discipline is necessary, and good fathers meet it out in a way that provokes deeper relationship and love in their children.
Think about these verses from Hebrews 12: 8-10
8 But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.
God disciplines us out of love. Out of a desire to see us grow in holiness!
A Good Father Loves and Accepts
There are so many verses in the Bible that tell us we are loved, accepted, wanted, desired, by God. I am going to provide some in my Bible study attached to the email. We can start with John 3:16 “For God so loved the world.”
I ran across this story in Charisma magazine. It was told by David Bradshaw, the founder of a powerful prayer ministry called “Awaken the Dawn.”
I am going to pick it up where David is overwhelmed with a huge undertaking he has begun. He falls asleep after battling his fear and anxiety.
“In the middle of the night I was jolted awake. I went from a deep sleep to wide awake with my heart racing in a second.
I heard an audible voice.
It sounded like my fathers voice and he said only one word. My name. “David.” In one of my most profound moments of insecurity God spoke identity to my heart simply by calling my name. That’s all He said. That’s all I needed to know.
Ironically, I was scheduled to speak the next morning at our church about the fathers love. I had the whole message prepared, but as I stood up before the church that morning, I broke down in tears.
God spoke the one thing I needed to hear more than anything else, and it was not strategy. It was affection.”
By telling us to call the Almighty “Our Father” Jesus is drawing us into a deeper relationship with God. He wants us to understand our prayers begin by being in Gods family, accepted into His home, and having rich fellowship with Him. Jesus wants us to know God can be trusted to provide, protect, defend, and accept us.
“Our Father” means we look heavenward with the trusting gaze of a child with her father.
Who can call God “Father?”
Which leads me to a very important point:
Is everyone a child of God? I hear we all are all the time.
In the sense that we are all created and loved by Him, yes.
But in the sense that we have a right to boldly leap on His lap and expect to be taken care of, accepted, and heard by Him?
Of course, we must look at scripture to answer this. And John 8 does exactly that.
Jesus is having quite the discussion with the Pharisees.
They are convinced they are the chosen, righteous, elite of God. They are challenging Jesus authority. We will pick it up in John 8:42 where Jesus tells them this:
Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. 43 Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do.
John 8:42
So… that got them a bit angry.
Their father is Satan? OH they were spitting mad! By the end of it all they are taking up stones to kill Him! Proving Jesus point, I may add.
There is no where in scripture it says “We are all children of God.”
Rather, like John 1:12 states:
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.”
Receive, Believe, and Become
If a neighbor boy asks my husband for a favor. He may or may not grant it. He has no obligation. He may like the kid. He may respond because he’s a friend of one of his sons, but there is a vast difference when the neighbor boy has a need than when one of his own sons has a need!
Just last weekend my husband Charlie drove out of town to help his son pick up a dresser, carry it up a couple flights of stairs, and go to dinner. Why? His son needed him. He’ll always be there for his own son. Its family. His family.
When you come to God, you must first know that you have received Jesus. Believed in Jesus name as the only way of salvation. Only then, will you have the right to begin your prayer with “Our Father, who are in heaven.”
