God as a Father

It was shocking news. A three-year-old girl, nick-named “Pumpkin,” was abandoned by her father at Southern Cross railway station in Melbourne, Australia September 2008. They had come from New Zealand and the father continued on to USA. The story attracted international news coverage, as the man was sought in the USA for questioning concerning the death of the girl’s mother. After a five-month chase, he was taken into custody.

What kind of a father would abandon his three-year-old daughter in a strange place? Apparently, eight years previously he abandoned his eldest daughter in Auckland. She was 19, spoke no English and had no money.

The Bible pictures God as a Father. What kind of a Father is God?

His Children

1. How did Jesus say we should address God in prayer? Matthew 6:9-13

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed [holy] be your name.”

2. What are we called because of God’s great love? 1 John 3:1

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”

As Father, God has blessed us with “every spiritual blessing in Christ.” (Ephesians 1:3)

3. What endearing term is used to describe God as Father? Galatians 4:6

“Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’”

“Abba” is the intimate Aramaic word for “father,” equivalent to the English “Daddy,” or “Papa” emphasizing the close relationship between God and humans — through Jesus, we are God’s children, not servants.

God of All Comfort

4. Who did Jesus say God is like? John 14:6-9

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. … Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”

5. What kind of Father is God? 2 Corinthians 1:3

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort.”

6. Who especially is God a Father to? Psalm 68:5

“A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.”

7. What will God never do? Hebrews 13:5

“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

8. What does God’s compassion take into account? Psalm 103:13-14

“As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.”

Is God “Unfair”?

9. In what way does God qualify us? Colossians 1:12-14

“Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.”

10. Whose will was it that Jesus should die for our sins? Galatians 1:4

“Grace and peace to your from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father…”

11. In what way does God treat us unfairly? Psalm 103:10-12

“He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”

If God treated us fairly we would not survive, for the “wages of sin is death” and that’s what we all deserve. God treats us with grace, which is unmerited favor, for “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ” (Romans 6:23). Have you accepted His gracious gift?

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Bible Discovery by Errol Webster. Reprinted with permission by SIGNS. Biblebay © 2001-2014, Westlake Village, CA.

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