Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
1 Peter 1:17-19
When it comes to thinking about who God is, we tend to make a lot of assumptions. We just jump right in and think that we’ve got him figured out. Without thinking or training, we just start talking with him. We assume that he’s really interested in whatever we’re
This is where it starts. The first step is to call on God as your Father. To see him as your creator. The one who made you. But he didn’t make junk when he made you. He sees you as so special. So wonderfully made[1].
Let’s sit down and think about this for a minute. He made you with certain physical abilities. Some better than others, some not so better at all. There’s always going to be someone faster, stronger, and more skilled than you. But then you’ll be faster, stronger, better than someone else.
This also includes your mental skills and abilities. Some people can look at something and remember it perfectly. Some people can remember things they saw or heard years and years ago. But there is someone out there who’s got a better memory.
With both our physical and mental abilities, we can do things to improve them. Make them stronger. To become more skilled and capable. And then there are things that we can do to make them weaker. To take away some of the abilities. To make it tougher to do what we once were able to do.
But God is not just your Father, but our Father. He’s not just interested in you as an individual, but all of us. Yes, he hears you as an individual, but he hears me the same way. He hears us all individually at the same time. He cares for us as a Father treats and loves on one of their own.
It may sound obvious, but this is just way over our heads. We can only listen to our own thoughts banging around our head. And while our brains are just so astounding, this is our thinking speed limit. There’s no way to push the accelerator any faster.
We may be limited to only our thoughts, but not God. He hears us and cares for us as individual children. There’s never a moment when God’s so busy with someone else that he can’t give you his individual, undivided attention.
Just so you know, we can’t do this at all. If you were to call me, we’d have a great time together. We’d be full of energy and friendship. That is, until I start to do something with my computer. You could immediately tell that I was distracted. You might not be able to hear my clicking on the keyboard, but you could hear it in my voice. You’d instantly know that I was distracted. But never our Heavenly Father.
Yes, God is both our Father and my Father at the same time. He can handle it. Jesus experienced both sides of this mystery himself. When Jesus is praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, he calls out to God as his own and personal Father[2]. And when he teaches us how to pray, it’s to our Father[3].
We can’t understand it, but does that somehow not make it true? Every morning when I see Mary Ann for the first time, she smiles at me. Each and every day of our lives together she’s been smiling at me.
Do I deserve? Ain’t no way. Believe me when I tell you that there are days that I’m nowhere even close to being worthy of being smiled at. And yet, she still smiles at me. So, what am I supposed to do with her smile? Throw it on the ground and stomp all over it? Spit on it? Yell that I’m not worthy of her and her smile? No, I receive it humbly.
Our response to God as our Father needs to be like this. To humbly receive him and his being our Father. We know that we don’t deserve it, but we need to humbly receive him and all he gives. Our response should be one filled with wonder, love and praise[4].
Even when everything is falling apart in your life. It might be a relationship that’s gone sour. Or your health, or that of a loved one, has taken a turn for the worse. Maybe your job and income are not solid, causing worries that you just can’t stop repeating inside your head.
While I haven’t experienced exactly what you’re going through, I have gone down some of those dark roads. And I’m here to encourage you to know that God’s right there with you. There’s nothing you’re going through that he doesn’t know about. Nothing he hasn’t also experienced. And because he’s been there, we can approach his throne of grace without fear[5]. While understanding who God is isn’t simple, it is very simple to run to him as our heavenly, eternal, all powerful, and loving Father who want’s to be with him forever.
Noodling Questions
Why do some things seem so simple and others so hard?
List three things that distract you from being focused.
Describe a dark road that you’ve recently walked down.
[1] Psalm 139:13-16
[2] Mark 14:36
[3] Matthew 6:9
[4] Love Devine All Love Excelling, Charles Wesley, 1747
[5] Hebrews 4:14-16
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