Articles
Let Me Tell You About My Father
I will declare plainly that I don’t know what a life without a father is like. I grew up in a family where my father worked hard to support his family, instilled responsibility and a work ethic in all his children, and was ‘there for us’ even though he might not have been able to be home as much as he might have wanted. I grew up knowing my father was doing all he could to support his family, and I never knew what it was like to not have a father as an influence to me and who would shape my thoughts, habits, and behavior. I do not look forward to the day when I don’t have him in my life, but I know the day will eventually come.
While I may not know what is like to not have a father around, I know what it is like to have one around and I know what it is like to have a Father who has promised, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Heb. 13:5). I take great comfort in having a Father who genuinely cares for me, though I am nothing of importance in the grand scheme of things. Whether or not you have had an earthly father around all, most, or even just part of your life, I would like to share with you a few of the blessings you could enjoy if you had the same Father I do. Shall we take a look?
A Father Who Provides All I Need. I would point out that my Father provides all I need — not all I want; there is often a difference in the two. But what He has promised is that I will never lack for anything. Through the apostle Paul, He tells us He “has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1:3). If we should ever doubt our spiritual needs will be met, consider Paul’s admonition to those in Rome, when he asked, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32). In all reality, there is nothing that we need beyond what He has already given to us who are in Christ! If there was anything, we wouldn’t have to be worried about lacking it.
When it comes to our needs, there really should be no doubt that our Father would provide, for He cares for our needs, and knows our needs. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus discouraged useless and repetitive words in prayers as a means of getting God’s attention, noting, “your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him” (Matt. 6:8). I am convinced Jesus was not just speaking about spiritual needs, for He would later admonish the audience to not worry about everyday needs [again, needs, not wants] because God cares even for the birds of the air and flowers in the fields. His solution to worry was simple: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matt. 6:33). I have a Father who provides all I need, and you may rest assured that if He is your Father, He will do the same for you.
A Father Who Loves Me Unconditionally. This is one attribute that is sometimes hard to fathom or even fully accept, but it is true, nonetheless. How much does He love me? Well, if I may change a few words to make this personally applicable, He “demonstrated His own love toward [me], in that while [I was] still [a sinner], Christ died for [me]” (Rom. 5:8). And, He “so loved [me] that He gave His only begotten Son, that [if I believed] in Him [I] should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). He loved me while I was a sinner and was living an ungodly life; He loves me now that I am one of His adopted children, too.
As hard as it may be for us to comprehend, that love never ends. Through Paul’s words to the brethren in Rome, God tells us, “neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38, 39). Nothing can separate me from His love! Nothing! Now, I know some people like to say, “Only we can separate ourselves from His love,” but that is not true. Even if we abandon Him, He still loves us. Isn’t that the whole point of the parable of the Prodigal Son? The father didn’t quit loving the foolish son just because he was foolish and left him; in fact, what we find is, when the son came to his senses and returned, the father was awaiting him, and “when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him” (Luke 15:20). His father still loved him, even though he had abandoned him and had made some very foolish decisions. That’s my Father! Wouldn’t you like to have a Father like that? You can!
A Father Who Genuinely Cares. When I was a lot younger and after one particularly bad delivery of a lesson I had made, I was pretty down on myself for not having put as much preparation into it as I should have, and I really didn’t want to even face the brethren afterwards, so I just took a side exit and went and sat out in the truck and waited for my dad to come and just drive me home. Well, he eventually came and he got in the truck and started driving me towards home, not saying a word. On the way home, he stopped by an ice cream shop and had me pick out something to drown my misery. Though he didn’t say it in words, I knew he knew how I felt, and in his own way, let me know life wasn’t over just because I delivered one bad lesson. [I am pretty sure I got over that; I’m not sure about the audience.]
My heavenly Father genuinely cares for me, too. The psalmist reminds me, “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry” (Psa. 34:15), and, “The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles” (Psa. 34:17). As one who knew the Lord well, he could write confidently, “The Lord will hear when I call to Him” (Psa. 4:3), and, “The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He also will hear their cry and save them” (Psa. 145:18, 19).
In the New Testament, we are told, “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him” (1 John 5:14, 15). God’s people may know and be fully assured that their Father genuinely cares for them, and He is looking into our lives to know our hurt, our pain, our sorrow, and our discouragement and burdens. He is not a distant God who is too busy to listen, but a God who hears our every prayer and looks on us with care and concern even when we don’t come to Him in prayer. But we should go to Him in prayer! As Peter exhorts us, “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (1 Pet. 5:6, 7). He cares! My Father cares!
I am grateful for my earthly father, but much more so for my heavenly Father. As our Father, He rejoices with us in our joys, and hurts when we hurt — and all because He cares. We may not fully understand the love of our Father, but we should never doubt it. —— Steven Harper
