Each one of us has had a father. As you grew up, your father had an impact on you based upon your relationship with him. He may have been close to you or distant or even absent. He may have been loving, caring and supportive or cruel and harsh and unsupportive. He may have been godly or ungodly. There are many things that your father may have been to you. Your father was an imperfect individual and you may need to forgive him for his failings. But your God has chosen to be your Father in heaven and He is a perfect Father.
Many times, Jesus referred to God as our Father. Consider the beginning of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9 “In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.” Jesus wanted us to know that our relationship with God is that of a Father to us as His children. He has adopted us. Romans 8:15-17a ”For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs — heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.” It is a very special relationship that we can be the children of the King of the Universe.
One of the reasons that Jesus came was to show us the Father. Jesus said in John 14:7-9 “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.’ Philip said to Him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” By seeing how Jesus was on earth and how He described the Father, we can have a greater knowledge of our Heavenly Father. Let us briefly look at some of the characteristics of God as our Father.
Jesus revealed much about the Father. Jesus describes Himself as gentle and lowly in heart. Matthew 11:27-30 “All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Since Jesus is like the Father, we can understand that the Father can be gentle and lowly of heart and His yoke is easy and His burden is light.
In many respects, our Father wants us to be like Him. Matthew 5:43-48 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” If we are to be children of our Father in heaven, it should come as no surprise that we need to be like Him. Here we are told to love our enemies and others that don’t love us because our Father loves all mankind and sends His blessings on all.
Our Father blesses us. Ephesians 1:3-5 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.” Our Father has given us every spiritual blessing.
Our Father knows what we need and gives good gifts.Matthew 6:8b “For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.” Matthew 7:7-11 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”
Sometimes we mess up and misbehave. He is willing to forgive us of our sins, but He has a condition. Matthew 6:14-15 “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” For Him to forgive, we need to forgive others. When we need correction, He chastens us. Hebrews 12:5-10 “And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: ‘My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.’ If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.”
We have a Father in heaven who loves us, who blesses us, who gives us what we need, who forgives our misdeeds and leads us in the way that we should go. He is close to us and we can always talk to Him in prayer and share our problems and desires. 1 John 3:1 “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!”