Our Heavenly Father

https://odb.org/2023/11/21/precious-to-god-2

I believe most of us would have heard of the impact of our relationship with our natural father with regards to our relationship with God the Father. It is unavoidable that our experience on earth colours our experience with God in the spiritual realm. This is because as God is our Father, we will see Him as though He is like our earthly father. Thus, those who had a bad experience relating to their earthly fathers tend to struggle a little relating to God. Not that we expect God to treat us badly, too. Just that we are likely to feel that He is distant, cold, and unsupportive.

For example, if we had grown up being rejected 9 out of 10 times when we asked for things, we would likely feel that God would reject our prayer requests. Thus, the coping mechanism that we have built up over the years dealing with rejections from our earthly father will automatically kick in when we relate to God. This may be detrimental to us as we may be unconsciously praying with little expectation or hope. But we know faith, trust, and hope are necessary when praying and seeking direction from God.

There is, therefore, a need to reeducate and reorientate our minds to relate to God as we journey with Christ in faith. Over time, we will know and experience that God as our Heavenly Father do actually grant us the deepest sanctified desires of our hearts as we strive to live in the centre of His will for our lives. We may not have gotten the table fan or the nice clothes or Adidas sneakers we so wanted when growing up, but God, as the creator of the world, is definitely infinitely more capable than our earthly father could ever have been. Most of the times our earthly fathers would have wanted to give us the things we wanted, but there is always a question of affordability and the best practical use of money.

We will all relate to God differently based on our unique relationship with Him over time. The message today is to discard the lens of looking at God like we looked at our earthly fathers. Our earthly father loved and still loves us dearly. He may have his own way of relating to us amidst his own struggles with life, his job, and raising the family. Our Heavenly Father, however, is loving, compassionate, and gracious. He will work all things out for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes. We hold on to this exaltation of Paul in Romans 8:28 and trust Him that He always has our best interests in His heart at all times!