God, My Father
I know, the title of this article is pretty close to last week's, and that's okay! Around two years ago, I went to a youth camp that lasted a week. During one of the services, the pastor spoke about the trust issues we can have with God when everything is supposed to be quite "simple" since He is our Father. And it was there that he began to develop the difficulties of our relationship with God our Father: our landmarks and earthly models of "father" can be very disappointing.
Eli brought it up two weeks ago, and it was when he told me what he wanted to talk about in his article that it occurred to me to expand on it. Certain points will be close, but it seems necessary to me to spend some time on this concept. This preaching just resonated in my heart and although I will be unable to transcribe it to you exactly as it was delivered, I will do my best. Since I have few problems with my father, I had to go online to find out what problems are quite common in a parent-child relationship, and especially between a father and his children (I admit, this is one of the problems of taking preaching notes on different programs, haha).
An absent father.
I cannot explain why, this is the first example that came to my mind. For many reasons, a father can be absent in a lifetime: incessant work, distance, ignorance, denial or abandonment. The reasons may be many, but the result is the same: huge disappointment and emptiness in the heart. So necessarily, presenting you God as your Father will not be able to make you want to know Him. But here is what the Bible says about it in Psalm 145: 8: "The Lord is near to all who call on him, To all who call on him with sincerity". If you call Him, He will answer you without a doubt.
A manipulative father.
It is very destructive. An oppressive and manipulative relationship is bad for humans. It hurts to be used to serve some other person's plans or goals, and when that person turns out to be a parent, the pain is even worse. I'm not a professional, but I have an idea of the impact this must have on the mind. However, God is not a manipulator, He cannot be tempted by evil (James 1:13) and we are the habitation of his Holy Spirit, which means that the Spirit teaches us the heart of the Father ( 1 Corinthians 3:16)!
In addition, God does not keep it a secret if we choose to be close enough to Him to listen to Him. This is what one version of Psalm 25:14 tells us, “The secret of the Lord is to those who fear him, to make known to them his covenant.” So the chances that He will choose to manipulate us are ... nonexistent!
A silent father.
A bit like what I developed in the first point, we can think of a father who is physically present but silent. Who does not give advice, who keeps his advice and opinions to himself. The Bible says that a father corrects his children, following God's pattern (Proverbs 3:12), and God Himself speaks to His children because He has plans for them. as a verse that we love very much in the team puts it so well: Jeremiah 29:11. These passages also show us that God is not a "lax" father who lets his children go, a model that a good parent has a duty to follow in raising their children in the manner of the Heavenly Father.
A "heartless" father.
Some parents may believe that a strict upbringing goes hand in hand with a loveless upbringing. The child thus grows up in an almost unhealthy fear of his parents. Once again, I am far from being a professional. But what I do know is that it seems even plants need love. So how much more a child! It is with love that God wishes to teach and educate us. And here is not one or two but four verses that show us the love and mercy that the Father wants to show us.
Psalm 103: 13: “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.”
James 1:17: “Every excellent grace and every perfect gift come down from above, from the Father of lights, in whom there is neither change nor shadow of variation.”
Luke 6:36: “Be therefore merciful as your Father is merciful”
Romans 5: 5: “Now this hope does not deceive, because the love of God is poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
So, I realize that our human parents are not perfect. And if they are nearing perfection, there is certainly one thing that may have disappointed you and caused you not to want to trust God, or to have difficulty understanding why to see Him as a good Father. But today, I invite you to see it differently; see the Father differently.
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