Yesterday was Father’s Day. I have been incredibly blessed with a father who has followed after God’s heart and led our family by the Word of God. My father was not perfect, but he was consistent and faithful. I am so grateful that the relationship with my natural father created a foundation for a relationship with my Heavenly Father.
Unfortunately when I look at the world around me it seems that good fathers are harder to find. This absence of good fathers in our world can create an obstacle when getting to know our “Good, good Father.” So many of the ways I look at my father seep into my relationship with my Heavenly Father. For good or bad it seems that happens with a lot of people. If you had an authoritarian father you may view God as a being above with a hammer waiting to strike. If you had a very lenient father it may be difficult to understand how a loving God could also be a God of judgement.
While I believe it is true that our relationship with our natural father can effect our relationship with our Heavenly Father I also believe that God is a healer. Whatever may have shaped our past, he can mold our future. Looking into the Word can show us what it is to be a perfect Heavenly Father.
“The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments.”
Psalms 103: 8-18 ESV
Lord, no matter my past let me always seek to know you more. Let me always look to your Word in order to be more like you.
That Could Preach 