God Our Father

Doubtless You are our Father… You, O Lord, are our Father; Our Redeemer from Everlasting is Your name. — Isaiah 63:16

When people hear the word father, many different images, memories, and feelings immediately occur. For some, thoughts of a father connote feelings of love, affirmation, guidance, and provision. For others, feelings of rejection, criticism, and abandonment come to the surface.

In Old Testament times God’s chosen people generally understood that He was Father to them. This verse from Isaiah, however, is one of the few direct Old Testament references to God as a Father.

In the New Testament, Jesus addresses the almighty God as “Abba” or “Daddy” (Mark 14:36). The apostle Paul adds that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we believers are privileged to cry, “Abba, Father” as well (Romans 8:15). The term reflects a healthy tension between respect and intimacy, a tension you may or may not have known with your earthly father.

Our view of God our Father must come from Scripture, not from our childhood experience.

The Bible clearly teaches that our heavenly Father guides His children, enjoys fellowship with them, and is glorified through them (v. 14). Allow your heavenly Father to develop the loving, fatherly relationship with you that He is seeking, and enjoy it for all eternity.

Excerpted with permission from Being Still With God Every Day by Henry Blackaby, copyright Thomas Nelson.

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Your Turn

Take time out of your scheduled plans today and ask the Lord what it means that He is your Father and pursue deeper relationship with Him. Ask the Holy Spirit to dig into the father-need that we all have and to heal and fill that place with Himself. Come join the conversation on our blog! We would love to hear your story of how God showed Himself in your life as Father. ~ Devotionals Daily