Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Matthew 6:9.
What an amazing reality to call the Creator of the Universe our Father. I read Daniel 7, which describes the Ancient of Days, and was overwhelmed to say this description is about my heavenly Father. I read Isaiah 40:12-26 and was stunned to see the immensity of His presence dwarfs my biggest life issues. My Father is awesome because I read one of the most used texts from the Old Testament and see His character:
The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” – Exodus 34:6-7.
To put it in very down-to-earth language, that’s my dad! If I stated this more formally, that would describe my heavenly Father! His character exudes His love, and His forgiveness means I am always safe, even when I struggle; He cares enough to always help me when my heart wanders. That is so awesome and comforting!
Those who had a horrible father figure may find it hard to relate to God this way. Bad experiences seared into their memory prevent some from seeing any value that God is their Father. Their experiences function like acid reflux. The very thought of anyone being their father is buried under a lifetime of bad memories. But our heavenly Father is greater than our experiences.
While having a great earthly father is an advantage, no one has an earthly father like our heavenly Father. Those who have had difficult home experiences face challenges in understanding their heavenly Father. But no matter who you are, one of our greatest faith steps is to embrace a heavenly Father who transcends our worst experiences and supersedes our best models. We must learn how the Scriptures describe our Father and allow the Spirit of God to teach us new things.
The key to embracing our spiritual stepfather is faith. He has adopted us through our faith in Christ. He has granted us to be full heirs with Christ, so He is our heavenly Father in every sense of the word. We must, by faith, allow the Holy Spirit to create a new picture in our minds of our new Dad and value who He is on His own merits. He is far greater than we can imagine. He is far more than the best example of our earthly fathers. We will spend our whole lives getting our minds and hearts around a perfect heavenly Father who loves and forgives. That Father is worthy of pursuing.
In His grace,
Pastor Brad.
