God The Father
As a father has compassion on his children,
Psalm 103:13 LSB
So Yahweh has compassion on those who fear Him.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
John 3:16 LSB
God is called “Father” 271 times in the Bible – 13 times in the Hebrew Scriptures and 258 times in the New Testament.
We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures, we are the sum of the Father’s love for us and our real capacity to become the image of His Son Jesus.
– Pope John Paul II
Our heavenly Father understands our disappointment, suffering, pain, fear, and doubt. He is always there to encourage our hearts and help us understand that He’s sufficient for all of our needs. When I accepted this as an absolute truth in my life, I found that my worrying stopped.
– Charles Stanley
God is called the Father of Jesus – Ephesians 1:3
God is called the Father of Israel – Jeremiah 31:9
God is called the Father of Believers – John 1:12
God is called the Father of Light – James 1:17
God is called the Father of Creation – Acts 17:28-29
1. Like a good father God gives us life
See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we would be called children of God; and we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
1 John 3:1 LSB
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
John 1:12-13 LSB
2. Like a good father God knows us intimately
“Before I formed you in the innermost parts I knew you,
Jeremiah 1:5 LSB
And before you came out from the womb I set you apart;
I have given you as a prophet to the nations.”
For You formed my inward parts;
Psalm 139:13 LSB
You wove me in my mother’s womb.
Even before there is a word on my tongue,
Psalm 139:4 LSB
Behold, O Yahweh, You know it all.
He knows my name
– Tommy Walker
I’m so glad I can say
He knows my every thought
He sees each tear that falls
And hears me when I call
3. Like a good father God nourishes and feeds us
But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
Matthew 4:4 LSB
And He humbled you and let you be hungry and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of Yahweh.
Deuteronomy 8:3 LSB
I have not departed from the command of His lips;
Job 23:12 LSB
I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my portion of food.
Somehow when we are with Him we become greater than we are.
– Leif Hetland
Our heavenly Father never takes anything from his children unless he means to give them something better.
– George Müller
4. Like a good father God provides for our needs
And my God will fulfill all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:19 LSB
Pray, then, in this way:
Matthew 6:9-13 LSB
‘Our Father who is in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’]
One Scripture prayer that is intended to be prayed every day is what is often referred to as “The Lord’s Prayer.” What is really the “Lord’s Prayer” is found in John 17, because it is His prayer to His Father on the way to Gethsemane. The way He taught His disciples to pray is found in Matthew 6:9-13 and I refer to it, therefore, as the “Disciples Prayer.” An early Christian writing called the Didache encourages believers to pray this prayer three times a day, so I also encourage you to pray it at least once daily!
– William Varner, Handbook for Praying Scripture
God provides the wind, Man must raise the sail.
– Saint Augustine
As a newborn baby breathes and cries, so the signs of life in a newborn Christian are faith and repentance, inhaling the love of God and exhaling an initial cry of distress. And at that point what God provides, exactly as for a newborn infant, is the comfort, protection, and nurturing promise of a mother. “If God is our father, the church is our mother.” The words are those of the Swiss Reformer John Calvin … it is as impossible, unnecessary, and undesirable to be a Christian all by yourself as it is to be a newborn baby all by yourself.
– N. T. Wright
Are not two sparrows sold for an assarion? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.
Matthew 10:29-31 LSB
5. Like a good father God protects us
Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.
Ephesians 6:11 LSB
God is our refuge and strength,
Psalm 46:1 LSB
A very present help in trouble.
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or be in dread of them, for Yahweh your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.
Deuteronomy 31:6 LSB
So that we confidently say,
Hebrews 13:6 LSB
“The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid.
What will man do to me?”
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who indeed did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction, or turmoil, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written,
Romans 8:31-39 LSB
“For Your sake we are being put to death all day long;
We were counted as sheep for the slaughter.” But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
6. Like a good father God is always patient and kind
As far as the east is from the west,
Psalm 103:12-17 LSB
So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion on his children,
So Yahweh has compassion on those who fear Him.
For He Himself knows our form;
He remembers that we are but dust.
As for man, his days are like grass;
As a flower of the field, so he flowers.
When the wind has passed over it, it is no more,
And its place acknowledges it no longer.
But the lovingkindness of Yahweh is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him,
And His righteousness to children’s children,
God sees us as we are, loves us as we are, and accepts us as we are. But by His grace, He does not leave us as we are.
– Tim Keller
7. Like a good father God is always approachable
Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 4:16 LSB
This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him.
Ephesians 3:11-12 LSB
8. Like a good father God’s love can not be earned
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8 LSB
So that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 2:7 LSB
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him in love, by predestining us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He graciously bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our transgressions, according to the riches of His grace
Ephesians 1:3-7 LSB
9. Like a good father God is always forgiving
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9 LSB
It is a trustworthy saying and deserving full acceptance: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost.
1 Timothy 1:15 LSB
He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
Psalm 103:10-12 LSB
And He has not rewarded us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him.
As far as the east is from the west,
So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
No child of God sins to that degree as to make himself incapable of forgiveness.
– John Bunyan
Forgiveness is the divine miracle of grace; it cost God the Cross of Jesus Christ before He could forgive sin and remain a holy God… When once you realize all that it cost God to forgive you, you will be held as in a vice, constrained by the love of God.
– Oswald Chambers
Because we continue to sin, we need the continued forgiveness of cleansing; but we do not need the continued forgiveness of redemption.
– John MacArthur
10. Like a good father God always wants the best for us
He who indeed did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?
Romans 8:32 LSB
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 what is good to those who ask Him!
Matthew 7:11 LSB
As Christian people we must learn to appropriate by faith the fact that God is our Father. Christ taught us to pray “Our Father.” This eternal everlasting God has become our Father and the moment we realize that, everything tends to change. He is our Father and He is always caring for us, He loves us with an everlasting love, He so loved us that He sent His only begotten Son into the world and to the Cross to die for our sins. That is our relationship to God and the moment we realize it, it transforms everything.
– Martin Lloyd-Jones
11. Like a good father God will correct us
For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our benefit, so that we may share His holiness.
Hebrews 12:10 LSB
Train up a child in the way he should go – but be sure you go that way yourself.
– Charles Spurgeon
12. Like a good father God teaches us
I will give you insight and teach you in the way which you should go;
Psalm 32:8 LSB
I will counsel you with My eye upon you.
But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.
John 14:26 LSB
All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness,
2 Timothy 3:16 LSB
13. Like a good father God encourages and comforts
ת TAV
Psalm 10:17 LSB
O Yahweh, You have heard the desire of the humble;
You will strengthen their heart, You will cause Your ear to give heed
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 LSB
14. Like a good father God will permit us to make mistakes
The footsteps of a man are established by Yahweh,
Psalm 37:23-24 LSB
And He delights in his way.
When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong,
Because Yahweh is the One who sustains his hand.
For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the entire body as well.
James 3:2 LSB
For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again,
Proverbs 24:16 LSB
But the wicked will stumble in calamity.
We want, in fact, not so much a father in heaven as a grandfather in heaven: a senile benevolence who, as they say, “liked to see young people enjoying themselves” and whose plan for the universe was simply that it might be truly said at the end of each day, “a good time was had by all.”
– C. S. Lewis
15. Like a good father God loves us no matter what
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8 LSB
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
Romans 5:6 LSB
For we ourselves also once were foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, despicable, hating one another. But when the kindness and affection of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not by works which we did in righteousness, but according to His mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,
Titus 3:3-5 LSB
God attaches no strings to His love. None. His love for us does not depend on our loveliness. It goes one way. As far as our sin may extend, the grace of our Father extends further.
– Tullian Tchividjian
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