How did you come to believe in God and Jesus, to be a child of God, knowing God as your heavenly Father? What is your story? Perhaps your story is still being worked out.
Faith in God through Jesus, means we enter into a unique relationship with God the Father.
That relationship invites us to be intimate and personal with a “being” that can be otherwise mind-boggling, unapproachable, austere, frightening even.
God invites us, through faith, into a relationship where we can fully trust, feel completely safe and secure, be led and taught, know unconditional love, and so many more wonderful qualities.
Yet, sometimes we still struggle to know God in these ways.
That relationship invites us to be intimate and personal with a “being” that can be otherwise mind-boggling, unapproachable, austere, frightening even.
God invites us, through faith, into a relationship where we can fully trust, feel completely safe and secure, be led and taught, know unconditional love, and so many more wonderful qualities.
The word “Father” used by Jesus translates best into our English equivalent of “Daddy.” Commentators say this way of addressing God would have been virtually unknown to Jesus’ Jewish listeners.
God did talk about Israel being his son—“When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son” (Hosea 11:1), but that relationship relied on Israel’s obedience. With Jesus everything changed. Jesus fulfilled that obedience so we, through faith, are children of God (Hebrews 9:15).
WHAT WE STRUGGLE WITH
Sometimes we have a hard time separating our thoughts about God as our “Daddy” from thoughts about our earthly daddies. Yet, the term “in heaven” distinguishes God as different. God our Father is above the earth in majesty and power. We can be in an close relationship with this sovereign God.
We can get glimpses of what love, kindness, protection looks like when our earthly fathers express these qualities, but God tells us that they pale in comparison to himself.
“So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him” (Matthew 7:11 NLT).
Jesus invites us to pray to God, our heavenly Daddy, just as he did. For God is his Daddy Father too. This way of thinking was adopted by the apostle Paul, too. And I think it helps us—especially when we struggle to be intimate and trust God—to know him as a loving, heavenly Daddy.
WHAT HELPS US
One instance, at the beginning of Paul’s letter to the Galatians, caught my attention.
“Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father…” (Galatians 1:1).
Paul then gives his story of faith. He tells us how God became his Father.
He tells us of his life before he had faith in Jesus:
“For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers”
You know what I was like when I followed the Jewish religion—how I violently persecuted God’s church. I did my best to destroy it. I was far ahead of my fellow Jews in my zeal for the traditions of my ancestors” (Galatians 1:13-14).
He tells us how God rescued him:
“But even before I was born, God chose me and called me by his marvelous grace. Then it pleased him to reveal his Son to me” (Galatians 1:15-16).
In Acts we read about this dramatic encounter:
“As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied” (Acts 9:3-5).
And from then onwards, Paul knew God as his Father in heaven, his heavenly Daddy.
OUR STORY
I wonder for us, if we continually tell our story—to ourselves or others—of how God became our Father in heaven, we will pray to him more intimately, believing and trusting he is the perfect Daddy Father who protects, loves, comforts and showers us with good gifts?
Here’s my story
Pray
