“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” – A.W. Tozer
What we think and believe about God can’t be overstated because what we believe about God determines our identity, and our identity dictates how we view ourselves and those around us.
Our identity determines our philosophy of life, ethics and behavior, and how we make all our decisions. Thus, nothing will influence our lives more than how we think about and relate to God. The question is: “How can we relate to God”?
Not Everyone Knows God as "Father"
To call God “Father” is to connect with Him in a unique way. What makes God “Father” isn’t that He created us; it’s that He adopted us, and now we belong to Him as His own.
Adopted children are rescued from ill circumstances. Before adoption, children typically yearn to be loved and known. Something is missing; they long for completion.
Our adoption by God gives us a new life, a new family to belong to, new wisdom to grow in, new freedom, and a new future. We are no longer alone, nor incomplete. We can always find our completion in Christ regardless of whether we have family here on earth. Through Jesus, we have access to God as “Father.”
Jesus (Perfectly) Knew God as "Father"
Jesus did nothing apart from his Father. He often withdrew for several hours in the night, in solitude, to be alone with his Father. Dying, his very last words were, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit (Luke 23:46).”
His relationship with his Father was uniquely perfect and stands in stark contrast to our culture, which emphasizes individuality. Jesus didn’t value individuality. He valued dependence on his Father. It’s good and perfect for us to recognize our need for our Father.
Jesus Gives Hope to the Fatherless
Odds are you don’t have a father, or at least one present in your home. By present, I don’t mean physically present. I mean, relationally present. It’s true that a father and child can live in the same house and still be alienated from one another. Thus, the child grows up (effectively) without a father.
But Jesus gives hope to the fatherless. While several (if not most) people have an ill view of “dad,” Jesus brings us into the family of God, giving us a perfect Father. Every good and perfect gift is from the Father (James 1:17).
God Our Father
God, our Father, eagerly meets us where we are. Faithfully, He meets us at the end of ourselves. At our lowest point, He is there, present and ready to heal.
Showering us with the gift of grace, He cleans us with the washing of His Spirit, clothes us with the righteousness of Christ, and calls us His own, as sons and daughters.
Now adopted and made new, and through Christ, we can now call Him “Father,” a privilege known only to Jesus Christ- until now.
“The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God.” – C.S. Lewis
