We have just observed “Father’s Day.” A time of remembrance of the role that our earthly fathers play in the stability and security of society’s most important element, the family.

Now, let’s widen the scope of this fatherhood discussion to include our Heavenly Father. It’s not possible to overstate His role as Father in the lives of His spiritual children.

Far from being a cold, detached “force” or “power,” our God is a fully engaged, heavily invested, personal caring Dad who can hear the cry of one of His own from across time and space.

The Lord Is Near

One of the most comforting passages in all of scripture is also one of its shortest, from Philippians 4:5: “The Lord is near.”

The next verse (verse 6) tells us, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and pleading with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”

The underlying reason for our confidence is that the Lord is near.

But His nearness is only the beginning of the Christian’s “benefit package” from the Father. Here are a few key roles He plays in every believer’s life:

• Unconditionally loves us
• Reveals Christ to us
• Provides for us
• Guides us
• Protects us
• Disciplines us
• Forgives us
• Remains with us
• Watches over us

This is a God who means business about being a responsible, invested Father to all mankind IF they will receive Him into their lives. He doesn’t force Himself upon anyone. It’s a choice that we make.

We should be careful not to detach His manifold eternal benefits (effects) from His overflowingly beneficent character (cause).

The beating heart of the universe is God, who is good, from Psalm 103:8-14:

“The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
Slow to anger and abounding in mercy.
He will not always contend with us,
Nor will He keep His anger forever.
He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
Nor rewarded us according to our guilty deeds.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him.
As far as the east is from the west,
So far has He removed our wrongdoings from us.
Just as a father has compassion on his children,
So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.”

God the Father has sometimes been given a bad rap for being strict, grumpy and selective.

Nothing could be further from the truth, as explained in 2 Peter 3:9: “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.”

Astoundingly, He visited our neighborhood 2,000 years ago.

In John 14:8-10, in a particularly poignant moment in His ministry, Jesus Christ let His followers in on a bombshell revelation as to His identity:

“Philip said to Him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you for so long a time, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? The one who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own, but the Father, as He remains in Me, does His works.’”

Talk about NOT being distant, God paid us a personal visit in the Person of His Son so we could meet Him, hear Him, touch Him and love Him.

Spreme Risk-Taker

C.S. Lewis wrote:

“God, who needs nothing, loves into existence wholly superfluous creatures in order that he may love and perfect them … God is a ‘host’ who deliberately creates his own parasites; causes us to be that we may exploit and ‘take advantage of’ Him. Herein is love. This is the diagram of Love Himself, the inventor of all loves.”

At the center of the universe, we discover a heavily invested creator, a risk–taker, a giver, a long–suffering and patient parent who is desperate for the company of his children (us!). A dad who withholds judgment in the face of continuous rejection and who is stirred to deep emotion when one of his own returns to him.

How About You?

As explained in Romans 8:14-16, our Father wants you with Him in glory as members of His own family:

“For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons and daughters of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons and daughters by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God …”

Have you joined up?

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