Happy Father’s Day! Read The Father’s Love Letter, a “letter from God” artfully composed with verses from scripture.“So he said, “When you pray, say, Father, Reveal who you are. Set the world right. Keep us alive with three square meals. Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.” Luke 11:2-4
God has many names that reveal various facets of His character, such as Creator, King, and Shepherd. But there’s a name that meets one of our greatest human needs in a special way: Father. Each of us was born with a deep desire to be loved unconditionally – so many of our hurts and scars come from this desire never being fully met. What security and wholeness there is in knowing that we can call God “my Father”! Scripture tells us He is “a father to the fatherless” (Psalm 68:5) and that He will never leave us, even if our earthly parents abandon us. (Psalm 27:10)
When Jesus taught the disciples how to pray, He used the term Abba (”Father” in Aramaic) for God. That was a brand – new concept at the time; God was referred to as a Father to Israel, but the word was used sparingly in the Old Testament. Even God’s personal name, Yahweh, was considered too holy to be pronounced out loud. Few people thought of having a personal, individual connection to almighty God.
Although the Lord has shown Himself to be a loving Father throughout all of history, it is only through Christ that we’ve inherited the privilege to call the Him our Father. (Galatians 4:4 – 7) The New Testament gives witness to Christ’s revelation of this wonderful relationship we can have with our heavenly Father: the name appears 245 times – over 100 times in John’s gospel alone. Paul opens each of his letters acknowledging God as our Father. Knowing God as our perfect parent continues to be a radical truth that Jesus has taught us.
Question: How can we still relate to God as Father, even if our own father was much less than a good example of how a father can be?
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