My dad was the most honest person I’ve ever known, absolutely guileless. I could always depend on my dad to tell the truth. I’m grateful for this, because it made it easier for me to believe the word of God. My dad modeled for me what it’s like to have a father figure who was always honest and trustworthy. I had a father who was determined to be fair. He didn’t always get things right, but he was determined to be fair. I had a father who was affectionate. Whether I was being tickled or being punished, I always knew he loved me. He wasn’t perfect, but he was a good father.
I work with children who have had a very different kind of experience. I work with children who have been molested. I work with children who have been beaten and abused in other ways. I work with children who have been abandoned. I work with children who have had horrible experiences with their parents. Some fathers and mothers have done terrible things to their children. What I find is that these children have a much more difficult time learning to trust the love of their heavenly Father.
I don’t know what your experience was with your father. I don’t know if you have tried to work through whatever pain you carry from your childhood, but I can guarantee you that your relationship with your earthly father has made a significant impact on how you view your heavenly Father.
When Susan and I were first married, we took a position as houseparents at a children’s home in Mississippi. One of my responsibilities was to lead family devotions for the boys in our home. I wanted them to learn the Lord’s Prayer, but when I began the Lord’s Prayer with, “Our Father,” some of the boys would immediately turn away. Apparently, these boys were thinking: “If God is like my father, no thanks, this is not for me.” Because many of their fathers were a very poor representation of our heavenly Father, Susan and I had to work prayerfully and diligently to overcome the barriers that came up because of the experiences these young people had had with earthly fathers.
What do you do if you have painful memories of childhood? What if your images of a father make it very difficult for you to want to call God, “Daddy”?
We must get an accurate picture of what God is like. Where can you get such a picture?
In John 14, Jesus is explaining to His disciples that He has to go away, and one of them says, “Lord just show us the Father, and we’ll be satisfied.”
Jesus looked at him and asked, “Have I been with you this long and you still don’t know who I am? I am telling you the truth. If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.”
Focus on Jesus. Learn everything you can about Him. Memorize His words and meditate upon them. When you look at Jesus in the pages of Scripture, you begin to see God in a way that you can’t see Him anywhere else. As you begin to discover what Jesus is like and the sacrifice He was willing to make for you, you begin to get a glimpse of the heart of the Father. And you find that there is ONE person you can trust completely. Jesus will never hurt you. He will never leave you or forsake you.
Are you praying? Who do you think you’re talking to?
