By Dennis Pollock
The prophet Isaiah wrote: “Doubtless You are our Father, though Abraham was ignorant of us, and Israel does not acknowledge us. You, O LORD, are our Father…” (Isaiah 63:16). In this single verse, Isaiah declares that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Almighty Creator of the universe, was the Father of His people. The Jews never seemed to embrace this concept. They were so determined to reverence their holy and Almighty LORD, they seemed to feel that it would have been too irreverent to commonly refer to God as Father.
But when Jesus came along, He held this title with both hands and would not let go, speaking repeatedly of God as Father. And in His classic sermon, which we call the “Sermon on the Mount,” in which He gave us the pattern for the lifestyle of His disciples, He refers constantly to the Father.
He tells us that when we pray, we are to begin with the words “Our Father who art in Heaven.” Not our great Commander of heaven, not our mighty LORD, not our holy Creator, although all those things are true of God. But Jesus tells us to address our Creator as our Father in Heaven, or as we often say, our Heavenly Father.
This famous sermon on the mount is riddled with references to God our Father. Jesus says that His disciples are the light of the world and charges us: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).
One of Jesus’ Themes
God being our Father is one of the major components of Jesus’ teachings. Often, during my African meetings, I would go over the major teachings of Jesus, and I always made a point of telling my audiences that Jesus declared repeatedly that God is our Father. Anytime you read a lengthy passage of His teachings, you will likely hear him address God or speak of God this way. Jesus had a passion to tell us all that the Almighty Creator who made heaven and earth, the stars, the planets, the mountains, and the rivers, wants to be a Father to the people He has placed on this planet.
In another place in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says:
But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust (Matthew 5:44-45).
We are told that this great God, who is our Father in Heaven, not only blesses His children and the people who love Him. He even blesses evil, unjust people. When there has been a drought, and God sends rain to refresh the land, that rain does not fall only upon the Christians, those who pray, read God’s word, and treat people with kindness and respect. He also sends the rain on liars, thieves, selfish, immoral, and God-mocking people. And Jesus tells us we must be the same way, treating both the godly and the wicked with kindness and mercy. It turns out that this divine Father of ours is very, very good to His creation.
When we think of a good father, we think about security. As valuable and as special as mothers are, there is a little extra sense of security in a family led by a caring, generous, protective, and wise father. In my own childhood, I was blessed with such a father. In my growing-up years, I never worried about our family being homeless. Dad always got up earlier than any of the rest of us and went to work at the McDonnell Douglas Aircraft company nearby. By the time I ate my breakfast, Dad was already at work, except on the weekends.
When I was around 4 years old, he bought a house for us to live in. It was not big or fancy. In fact, the ground-level portion where we lived was about 750 square feet. It did have a basement, but we didn’t spend much time there. Our house had clearly been built for people who did not have a lot of money. It never occurred to me that we were lower- middle-class, though. I just knew that that house was home, and that is where I returned every day after school. Those Missouri winters could get mighty cold, sometimes with subzero temperatures, but we were always warm in our little cracker-box house.
I never worried that we might be homeless. Dad would make sure that we had a place to live. And day after day, and year after year, Dad did what he always did: Monday through Friday, he got up early and went to work, earning his small salary, which paid the bills so that we could enjoy that house. Nor was I ever concerned about whether there might be food on our table for breakfast or dinner. We didn’t go out to eat much, but Mom always had the groceries to make spaghetti, roast beef with noodles, tuna casserole, cornbread and beans, or sometimes biscuits smothered with sausage gravy. Never once was I told, “We have no food for dinner tonight.”
Nor did I worry about Dad abandoning our little family. He was… Dad, and dads just don’t do that. Only after I grew older did I learn that many dads do leave their wives and children. But had someone told me that some dads do this, it wouldn’t have worried me much. Some dads might, but my dad wouldn’t. He just kept providing for us, kept demonstrating his love and loyalty to his family by being there for us. Not just by providing an income to keep us going, but also by providing guidance, wisdom, correction, encouragement, and just being present in our lives. He took us to church regularly and emphasized the importance of reading the Bible and living as a Christian.
In my later teenage years, it appeared as though Dad’s instructions and encouragement for us to live for Christ had not done me much good. Between the ages of fifteen and eighteen, I was a wild, unruly, and wayward youth, but before I turned twenty, I discovered Jesus for myself and realized that Dad knew more than I thought he did. Dad has been gone a long time now, but his loyalty to God and Christ and his family stayed true to the end, and my respect for him is immense.
Jesus tells us we have a Father in heaven who is far superior to the best dads to be found on earth. He is loyal to His family in a way that infinitely surpasses my dad’s loyalty to us. He is very protective of His children, and He is incredibly generous. In another passage from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us:
“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:11).
Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins and was raised from the dead three days later. Whether you had a good or a bad father in your childhood, when you put your faith in Jesus and receive Him as your Lord and Savior, you will not only receive the gift of eternal life, you will not only be given the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit, you will gain a Father, and all the security that comes with Him. And you can stop worrying. You will be well taken care of.
