In listening to a sermon of John Piper this morning, I was struck by something that he said. His comment was that “”Father” is not a throwaway word.” His point, was that when we come to Jesus or anyone else in Scripture referring to God as “Father”, this is not just some glib condescension in language. It is loaded with meaning as we contemplate three things.
1. The benefits of earthly fathers (love, provision, protection, gifts, favor, inherited traits, etc.)
2. The fact that all earthly fathers are evil (Matt 7:11). Even the best of Christian fathers are still in the flesh and wrestle with the presence of indwelling sin; hence evil.
3. The fact that our heavenly Father is NOT evil. He is perfect, sinless, pure in all of His attributes. Imagine all the best attributes of your earthly father, multiplied by Infinity! Then couple that with the fact that your heavenly Father has none of the weakness of your earthly father. What an amazing relationship with unbelievable privileges if we will just seek to appropriate them from “Dad” by Asking, seeking and Knocking (Matt 7:7-10).
Here’s hoping you’ll spend some quiet time contemplating the weight, the warmth and the joy of relationship with your Father.
