Every Father’s Day Sunday we celebrate our dads at our church. During service and our sunday school classes in the morning, we usually hear our speakers tell us that we need to take the opportunity to thank our dads. They usually say something like this, “ your dads love you and take good care of you.” I really think on Father’s Day it’s a wonderful opportunity to show appreciation to our dads.
Today many children, teens, and families, are without a father figure in their lives. Whenever I think about how many people that have grown up without a father in their lives or their father left them when they were younger, my heart sinks. Many carry heavy burdens today from past relationships with their fathers. Many are from broken homes, where their fathers left them, and many have come from a violent, and abusive home because of their fathers. The difficult truth is that not all of them have been loved or have been well taken care of by their dads.
From stories and conversations I have had people I know and friends, many have been hurt deeply by their own father’s actions and abandonment. Some of the stories go like this:
“ My dad left me when I was a baby. I never saw him until I became a teenager. When I met him he made it seem as if he didn’t know me or want to even have a relationship with me.”
“ My mom had me when she was very young. My dad didn’t want to deal with all of the raising and taking care of, so he left us.”
“ My relationship with my dad hasn’t been so good for the past few months. I used to be very close to him but now we’re distant. I don’t know what I’ve done wrong.”
“ My dad never loved me or my siblings, he always hurt us with his words or physically, if things didn’t go his way.”
These stories struck a cord in me, I could feel the deep pain they all felt because I could also relate in my own way. When I was younger my parents got divorced, since then I have lived with my mom. I rarely ever got to see my dad anymore. I was heartbroken because I shared a special relationship with my dad. We grew apart and distant and I started to think that he didn’t love me anymore or even care. I began to tell myself that it was all my fault and that’s why he didn’t want to see me anymore. The way that satan twists things and lies really can make our reality and struggles affect our relationship with God and what God can do. I believe most people struggle to relate to God as our father because of their experiences with their earthly dads. It seems like a lot of people have fallen for the lie that God is just like our father here on earth. Misunderstanding who God is and how he feels about you can affect many areas in your life. It can make it very difficult for you to seek a complete relationship with God.
Once I read about how Jesus taught his disciples how to pray in Matthew 6:7-15. He began his prayer saying, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.”
1 Corinthians 8:6 says, “to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him.”
God is referred to as “the Father” or “our Father” over and over again. The kind of Father God is, is beautiful. Being in a relationship with God has really helped me to realize how much of difference there is between my heavenly father and earthly father.
This is who my heavenly father is :
1.) He is a caring father.
- Nahum 1:7 says, “the Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him.
- 1 Peter 5:7 says, “cast all of your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”
- John 16:27 says, “No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.”
2.) He is a consistent father.
- Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.”
- James 1:17 says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
- Malachi 3:6 says, “For I am the Lord, I change not.”
3.) He is a giving father.
- Matthew 6:31-33 says, “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? Or, What shall we drink? Or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
- Matthew 7:9-11 says, “Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?
4.) He is a father who disciplines us because He loves us.
- Hebrews 12:6-11 “because the Lord disciplines the one he loves.. God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? ..Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! ..God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”
- Job 5:17 says, “Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty.”
- Proverbs 6:23 says, “For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is a light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life.”
God also shows His love to us by putting people in our lives to fill the void of father in our life. My church is blessed with a lot of men that love God and show his love to the young people in my Church.
While God doesn’t show up in the flesh to be my Heavenly Father, He does use Godly men in my life to teach me, care about me, and encourage me, like a father should.
It is important for Christian guys to recognize their role as examples of the Heavenly Father’s love in the lives of young people and children around them, because there is a younger version of me out there that is searching for the love of a father, and they need to find Jesus in you.
Our earthly fathers aren’t perfect but our God is. You can trust God’s love for you. Somedays when you feel like no one cares, God cares. His love for you is never changing. He loves you unconditionally. Sometimes you may experience different behaviors from your dad or may never know what to expect but God is not moody.
Somedays you might not know what to do anymore or have someone there to help you but God is willing and able to provide all that we need. God is always looking for opportunities to do what he can for us. He is enough and can be trusted.
This Father’s Day take the opportunity to show your earthly father (or father figure) the love and goodness that God has given you and definitely take the time to praise and glorify our Heavenly Father for who he is.
Happy Father’s Day!
-Tani