God the Father
Our triune God is mighty. It can be challenging to wrap our heads around this idea of the Godhead, that God is 3 in 1. Each Person of the Godhead has His own unique role and this week I aim with my human mind to briefly unwrap "God the Father"- one of the Persons of the Godhead and how He is our ultimate Father and that our relationship with our earthly fathers mirrors our relationship with God the Father and how we see Him.
For those who have bad or have had bad, or not so good earthly fathers, it’s often hard for them to see God as being a loving God. God created the family unit, and He wants parents to raise their children in the love and admonition of Himself. And, He wants children to be able to see their HIM in their earthly parents.
Being a parent is a leadership position and to whom much is given much is required. Leaders will be judged at a higher level than those who don’t have leadership positions, so earthly fathers will be judged by God on how they fathered their children on earth. Woe to the man that doesn’t do his part as a father and makes God the Father look horrible in the eyes of his children- woe to that man on judgment day.
God deeply cares about every human He makes, and He views those who follow Him as His children. If we look at a conversation that God had with David on building the temple, God told David that it would be his son Solomon that would build the temple- not David himself. And when God talks of Solomon building the temple, He speaks of Solomon in an intimate way as his son. God says, “He [Solomon] shall build a house for My name, and he shall be My son, and I will be his Father; and I will establish the throne of kingdom over Israel forever.” (1 Chronicles 23:20)
In Hosea 11:1 God says: “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son.”
Jesus, God the Son, who we will look at next week refers to God the Father in Mark 14:36 as “Abba Father” AKA “Our dear Papa.”
God our Father looks on us as the “apples of His eye.” (Deuteronomy 32:10).
God our Father is a Father to the fatherless (Psalm 68:5).
God our Father is our rewarder to those who do good, who ask Him for what they need (Matthew 6:4, Matthew 7:11).
God our Father cares for the animals and nature, but He cares for us humans even more (Matthew 6:26).
God our Father welcomes us with open arms when we turn away and return to Him (Luke 15: 20-24).
God our Father is Father to His sons and daughters (2 Corinthians 6:18).
God our Father is love and He lavishes that love on us and makes us His own (1 John 3:1).
These Biblical examples of the person of God the Father shows Him as a loving papa. He is so personal and so real. My earthly papa (dad) and I are extremely close and because my dad is a believer and we are close, my view of God the Father is so intimate. I see God the Father as my best friend, like someone who I talk to walking down the street, someone who provides and takes care of me, someone who convicts me of my sin, someone that gives me good gift, and someone that orders my steps. This is how earthly fathers are supposed to walk with their children so that they get a true understanding of God the Father and repeat the cycle of good fatherhood, mirroring God our Father.
Enjoy the weekend and walk in the knowledge that as a believer, you’ve got a Heavenly Father that sees you as the apple of His eye!
Happy Friday