Our God and Father
Father’s Day is just around the corner and has got me thinking about my Heavenly Father. He is the best Daddy to all His children and He gives good gifts to us, blessing us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:3). Even those who don’t have a Dad present in their life, He is the Father to the fatherless, and will never leave or forsake us. (Psalm 68:5; Deuteronomy 31:6)
As I think on the good gifts that He has given, the main things that stand out to me are His unconditional love, physical life, abundant life here and eternal life to come through salvation in Christ Jesus, and the Holy Spirit whom indwells those who have believed in and follow Jesus.
In the beginning, God created us knowing we would fall and need saving, yet He still created us because of His immense and unconditional love for us all. As a parent, I know how disappointing and hurtful it is to watch my kids sin, both in general and against me, but I can’t even grasp what that would be like coming from a place of perfection. When I am sinned against by my children, sometimes my reaction is to sin in my anger. But God, being perfect, holy, loving, and long suffering, didn’t react in a rage and destroy us. He chose to redeem us instead.
That fact alone is amazing to me. I don’t feel worth saving, but He says and has acted otherwise. In our sin, we’re not worthy of anything, yet God sees us as the broken people we are, who were made in His image and in need of a Savior. As Jesus took whippings, had a crown of thorns pressed into His skull, walked down that road bearing the cross upon Him, received the nails in His hands and feet, and hung there on that cross as people looked on and mocked Him; He thought of you and me and felt love. There was never an ounce of regret in His decision to follow the Father’s will to the cross and spill His blood as the redemption for our sins. And the Father was pleased by His sacrifice, knowing it would reconcile us to Himself in a right relationship with Him.
When Jesus told us He came to give us life, it wasn’t just eternal, it was to give us abundant life as well here and now. Eternal life alone is more than generous considering we could never cross the chasm separating us from God that our sin has created, yet He not only provides Himself as the way but also is sanctifying us to be more like the image of Jesus that mankind has fallen from. He has given us His word, which is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that [we] may be competent, equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17). He has given us access to commune with Him, being united with Him and the Father by the Spirit. We get to experience, even now before we are glorified, unity with the Godhead as reconciled people unto our God. That is such a beautiful expression of His love toward us!
The Father gives us the Holy Spirit Who convicts us concerning sin, righteousness, and judgement and guides us into all truth. The Spirit has sealed us, and the guardianship of the covenant of the law has been replaced with that of grace through faith, making us children of God, by Whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”, bearing witness to our place as children of God (John 16:8,13; Ephesians 1:13-14; Galatians 3:25-26; Romans 8:15-16). It’s according to the Father’s glorious riches that He grants us strength through the power of Holy Spirit to comprehend what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that we may be filled with the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:18-19). The Spirit truly is a good gift from our Father of lights, who gives good and perfect gifts (Luke 11:13; James 1:17).
I may not know the details of your relationship with your earthly father, but regardless of whether it’s great, horrible, or non-existent, I can tell you with complete confidence that your Father in Heaven loves you, literally to death (of Christ), and He thinks good things towards you and has good plans for your future (Jeremiah 29:11). He has given us a living hope in Jesus and He will one day soon send Jesus back for us, the Bride of Christ, to live in the place He’s been preparing for us (John 14:3-4).
Today and everyday, let’s take comfort in and heed these Psalms, as we continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of God:
Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! (Psalm 34:8)
Know that the LORD, he is God! It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise! Give thanks to Him; bless His name! For the LORD is good; His steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations. (Psalm 100:3-5)