Just a Moment…

Happy Father’s Day.  Jesus taught us to pray by calling God Father. We take these words for granted, but they would have been revolutionary in Jesus’ day. The OT Jew saw God in terms as Father only in relation to the nation of Israel – never personally. Abraham never prayed to God as his Father; neither did Moses. God was the Sovereign-Creator-Father. The OT onlyrefers to God as Father 14 times. 

Jesus prayed in a radically different way. In the 4 gospels he addresses God as Father 60 times! No one in Israel’s entire history prayed like this – no one! In fact, Jesus didn’t use the formal Greek word for father for he spoke in Aramaic. He used a word that a child would say when addressing a father, Abba. Abba is difficult to translate, but it means something like daddy, papa, but in a more reverent tone, perhaps dearest papa. Jesus teaches us that God is the believer’s Father. 

Unfortunately, that is not comforting to some. Their father-image has nothing to do with security but terror. We often develop our perception of God based on our human fathers – a vengeful deity that easily explodes or a passive, sentimental figure who ignores our sins. Both are wrong. The only God that exists is the one the Bible proclaims. We must believe what the Scriptures teach.

While there are no perfect human fathers – our heavenly Father is perfect. He is superior in all his ways. A farmer was showing Charles Spurgeon his barn when the pastor noticed the weather vane read God is Love.  Spurgeon asked, “Are you saying God’s love is as fickle as the wind?” The farmer said, “No, I’m saying God’s love is constant regardless of how the wind might blow. “

 “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God; and so we are…” 1 John 3:1a