I LOVE THE FATHER
The One True Father
As we come to this exciting series about the Fatherhood of God I want to start by saying, there is simply no greater blessing on this earth than to be able to proclaim with all of our being, “I love the Father”. Jesus – the Son – by his death and resurrection has removed everything that would or could separate us from the Father, and the Holy Spirit now reveals to us and cries out within us, “Father, dear Father”. We were made to be children of the Father, and as we know this we will find the greatest freedom and joy that can be found in this world. As I write this letter in plain words, I am aware that they cannot contain the true joy that I am trying to describe. We can know the Father!!
My prayer for you over the weeks that come is that you will know the Father, that you might relate to Him as his child, and that you would receive his fullness of joy. Bilquis Sheikh, a former Muslim who became a Christian called her story: I Dared to Call Him Father’. Dare we call Him Father? We know He is the almighty and all powerful God, but Father is such an intimate name! Do we dare call Him Father?
For many reasons the fatherhood of God has been diminished in today’s church. A Pentecostal church leader called Thomas Smail wrote a book in 1980 called, “The Forgotten Father”. He says that today the church has ‘forgotten’ the Father similar to the way it ‘forgot’ the Holy Spirit in years gone by. He says, “we are summoned to an opening of our hearts, a reorientation of our faith, a personal and corporate restoration of our relationship, so that we realise anew with praise and wonder that in Christ we have, not only forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Spirit, but above all access to the Father!”
The heart of the Christian faith and all of life is to know and love the Father.
Derek Schiller
Father! Our Deepest Need Monday
Read 1 Cor 8:5-6
Key Bible Verse
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Eph 1:3).
Thought
It seems like a big statement to make that the deepest cry of the human heart is “Father!” To know the Father, Who is our Father – Who created us, Who loves us – is in a sense the cry which puts us at the centre of who we are created to be. The Father created us, and we can only truly know who we are as we know the One Who created us, Who loves us, and Who has brought us to know Him.
The Bible teaches us that the Lord Jesus Himself knew, with wonderful intimacy, that God was his Father, that God is our Father, and that God is my Father and your Father (John 20:17). And that this knowledge is not a mere notion, concept, metaphor, idea, theological formulation, or even merely the correct Trinitarian grammar when speaking of God; rather, to know God as Father, is a very deep, very tender, very true cry. It is a direct cry to our one true Father.
Jesus cried out to his Father using the word “Abba” (Mark 14:36). This word carries the thought of a young child or toddler running to the arms of their father. It is an intimate cry which shows a direct relationship with the Father that the child knows, loves and trusts dearly.
It is like the cry “Dear Father”. Before Jesus spoke of the Father as “Abba”, there is no record of this word ever being used to speak of God. The Jews considered this word far too familial to be used of God. But Jesus truly understood the nature of his relationship with the Father.
Prayer
Abba Father, I run to your strong and loving arms. I need You and I love You. Like an orphan who has finally seen his true home of love that has earnestly been longed for I come to You, all through the forgiveness which came through Jesus. Amen.
He is the Father of All Tuesday
Read Acts 17:24-31
Key Bible Verse
“…. Lamech, the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalalel, the son of Kenan, the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.” (Luke 3:36-38)
Thought
God is the Father of all humanity. Paul says that “We are his offspring.” (Acts 17:28). All of humanity has God as Father. As the Apostles Creed says, “I believe in God, theFatherAlmighty, the Creator of heaven and earth”. The Creator of all is the Father of all, and yet not all have God as their Father. In fact the Creed says, “I believe in God, theFatherAlmighty, the Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.” How does it work for us that the Father of all has only one Son?
The Father is the ‘holy Father’ (John 17:11), and all those whom He created have rejected Him, and sought out slavery rather than to love Him. Thus humanity stands under the Father’s righteous and holy anger. So how can it be that we could be called sons of God?
Fanny Crosby says in her hymn, “O Come to the Father, through Jesus the Son, and give Him the glory, great things He has done”. We can only know the Father as we come to Him through and in Jesus – his only Son. Paul says, “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” (Gal 3:26-27).
We can come to the holy Father of all only through faith in Jesus. “In Christ” we are clothed in Him and we are one with the Son: true children of the Father. He is not merely the Creator of all; He is our Father, and the Father of all who will who are in Christ.
Prayer
Father it is true that I have rejected You. I am not worthy even to gather up the crumbs from under your table. And yet through your love and your gift of Jesus Who bore the punishment for our rebellion, I can call Father. Praise be to You Father of all grace. Amen.
Fatherhood Comes From Him Wednesday
Read Eph 3:14-21
Key Bible Verse
“For this reason I kneel before the Father from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derive its name”. (Eph 3:14)
Thought
Using the word father can cause us to think of our earthly fathers. It is easy to think that if God is Father that we could look at our earthly fathers, and that God would be like them. Actually it is our earthly fathers that in a small way reflect Him. He is the Father from whom all fatherhood comes. If we want to see what a father is like we cannot look to our earthly fathers or even any ‘ideal’ father.
We must look to Him. To understand and know fatherhood we must look at the Father of whom human fathers are a dim reflection. We could say that everything that God is like, our fathers are a bit like that, but everything that our fathers are like, God is nothing like that. God says, “To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” Isa 40:25). If we liken Him to a human father, then we’re wrong! He’s not like a father. We can’t start by thinking about human fathers. We can however liken a human father to God as Father. There is then a very faint likeness, but God is not like a man!
This gets rid of any problems we might have with calling God Father because of imperfections we have experienced in any earthly fathers. God as Father has nothing to do with earthly fathers. Our fullness of joy will come when we know the true Father – when we “kneel before the Father from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derive its name”. To see God as the fountain of all fatherhood is to submit to Him and to confess that his nature and character are all that is true.
Prayer
Father, I see that You are the one true Father, and I have made idols by seeking to find false fathers in other places. I have made fathers to suit my own ways. Reveal to me your Fatherhood that I might submit to You, as your child, beloved in Christ. Amen.
Our Fathers Fall Short Thursday
Read Matt 23:1-12
Key Bible Verse
“And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and He is in heaven.” (Matt 23:9).
Thought
I consider myself to have had a good earthly father. Many others would not consider this of themselves. In any case as we have seen, we will end up with a distorted view of God the Father if we look to our earthly fathers. Indeed He is far and above the best of them so much so that He is just as far above the worst of them!
If we look carefully we can see in ourselves the profound effect our relationship with our earthly father has had on our lives. However we cannot in the end blame our earthly fathers for the way that we are! In fact as we blame them, we fail to honour them – we actually rebel against the authority of the Father Who commands, “Honour your father and mother”.
C.S. Lewis said: ‘We have learned from Freud and others about the distortions in character and errors in thought which result from a man’s early conflicts with his father….. Fatherhood must be at the core of the universe….the relation of the Father and the Son is of all relations the most central’.
We can be overwhelmed at the failures of our fathers, and subconsciously we are deeply affected by them. Ultimately we must know the Father if we are to be free of this cycle of blame and regret. We can do this as we confess our guilt of rebellion against the Father, knowing that Jesus has completely borne this guilt on the cross.
The fact that our fathers have fallen short and the profound effect that this has is proof that we need the true Father. Knowing the Father is at the core of the universe!
Prayer
Father, I confess my self-justification, blame and guilt. They are filled with the stench of death. I am the rebel, guilty of great sin. Be praised for your love and grace given to me to reconcile me to You.
The Father Loves and Serves Friday
Read 1 John 3:1-3
Key Bible Verse
Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave – just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matt 20:26-28).
Thought
It is simply a fact that the human race is a fallen, sinful, rebellious race. We have developed certain attitudes to life, to the world around us, and to others. These attitudes are for the most part self-preserving, self-extending and self-insistent. For this reason we serve ourselves before we serve others. This selfish way of life is opposed to serving others above ourselves.
However, Jesus served others at great cost to Himself, and the nature of God the Father is to serve the human race. At the Father’s command, and in his grace and love, the Son gave up his claims and privileges of Godhood in order to serve mankind, redeeming them through his suffering.
He was not humiliated by this work. He actually wished to do it, and greatly loved his task of liberating humanity. Thus, Jesus revealed the true nature of the Father. The Father loves and serves, as do the Son and the Spirit – for this is the nature of God.
It is also the nature of the children of God – who are in the image of God. As the Father loves and serves his children, so they join in the work their Father is doing, and they too love and serve. It is our nature too, as we are born anew as children of the Father.
Prayer
Father, thank You for the incredible truth that You serve me! I am amazed at your grace and love to me an undeserving sinner. Thank You that I may now participate in your divine nature and love and serve You and others. What a privilege, what a joy. Through Jesus’ Name, amen.
To Know the Father Saturday
Read Jere 31:33-34
Key Bible Verse
“Now this is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent”. John 17:3).
Thought
Many Christians do not know God as Father. Knowing the Father is living in the fullness of the Gospel, (Gal 4:4-6). We know the Father through his revealed character specifically through the work of the Son. No one can know the Father through Jesus unless the Father enables them, (John 6:65).
The way in which the Son knew the Father reveals that true sonship is full obedience to the Father, and full participation in his will and work, (John 5:17-27).
The effect of receiving forgiveness from the Father will be to love Him, and to be freed from guilt and so to forgive others. Any lack of fatherhood will now be compensated by this divine Fatherhood. Since all family-hood comes from Him (Eph 3:14), previous deficiencies in relationships will now be healed, so that full relationships may flow. This is the heart of all living.
And it all comes as we know the Father, this is full and free eternal life. This is fullness of joy; this is being marked with the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ” (Eph 1:3).
Prayer
Father, knowing You is true life. Abba, Dearest Father I run to You. In You is fullness of joy, all through your love and grace lavishly poured on me through your Son Jesus, amen.