By Chris WittsSaturday 16 Nov 2024Morning Devotions with Chris WittsFaithReading Time: 1 minute
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Transcript:
What do you call God? What’s the name that you call God? Do you know that some people call God a creator, a ruler? They might think of him as a judge or a law giver or some tyrant up there in heaven somewhere ready to punish us. But it’s an amazing thing to think that many people do not know God as a Father. That’s what I want to talk about this morning. God wishes to be known as Father. It’s a lovely word.
A loving father who created each one of us, created you and me. And of course, he created the world that we live in, all things around us, from all eternity. And that’s a hard concept for us to sort of get our head around – eternity. What does eternity mean? But from all eternity, long before we were even created, we were in the father’s mind. That’s a wonderful thing, that you and I were in God’s mind. And, until, of course, we were born and He continues to love us today.
What being a father means
We think of all the millions of people in the world. But I want to assure you today that God loves you as an individual. He doesn’t just think of you sometimes because he’s too busy with other things. But we’re told in the Bible that God loves you every moment of your existence. And in fact, we read in Jeremiah 31:3 – these wonderful words. I have loved you with an everlasting love. And I think they’re great words. I have loved you with an everlasting love.
So in creating us in the people that we are, God became our Father. So it sort of follows that if God is our Father, we become His children. In other words, we are the sons and daughters of God. We are brothers and sisters in the same, just as in the same family under the Fatherhood of God.
Do you know that for most fathers, it’s in their nature to love their children. If we love God, we also know that as our Father, He wants us to love our fellow brothers and sisters. We know this from what the Scripture says, because it says whoever loves God must also love his brother. That’s 1 John 4:21. It kind of follows, doesn’t it? God wants us to know him as a Father. That’s something that he wishes.
Didn’t he impress himself when he said, I will be a Father to you and you will be my sons and daughters? That’s in 2 Corinthians 6:18. Another verse says ‘How great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called the Children of God. And that’s what we are.‘ That’s 1 John 3:1. And there’s another verse which has a very tender meaning – it says – ‘Don’t be afraid little flock for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.‘ There’s the inference of a father talking to his children. So over and over again in the Bible, we see how God calls us his children.
What could make people more aware of the Fatherhood of God than by what he’s done for us? The creator, God, who loves us.
According to the Gospels of Matthew, Jesus uttered the word Father, actually, 41 times. In Luke we see it 14 times. In Mark the Gospel of Mark, 4 times.
And in the gospel of John, the word Father is mentioned 112 times. So it certainly is there, over and over. In the farewell address to his apostles at the last Supper, John says that Christ repeated that word Father 49 times. So, Philip of course said, Lord, show us the Father. And when teaching these disciples that most beautiful prayer the Lord’s Prayer what did he say? Jesus said that when you pray – pray to your Father.
In the sermon on the Mount, we hear him putting forth the glory of the Father. Let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds to the praise of your Father in heaven. Elsewhere in Scripture, we see, don’t worry about what you’ll eat or drink. Look at the birds of the air. They don’t sow or reap. And yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Here again, is that wonderful description of God as a heavenly Father.
So what I’m saying today is it’s clear that Jesus wants to impress on us the divine Fatherhood of God. A Father, a loving and tender Father.
Let’s Pray
Well, heavenly Father, we call you that deliberately this morning, thanking you that you love us. We are your children. And we thank you for that wonderful assurance in the name of Jesus our Saviour. Amen.