When Christ taught His disciples to pray, He told them to call God “Our Father” when communicating with Him. Jesus often addressed God as “My Father,” but now they, too, shared in that privileged family relationship. All of us who’ve been born again are part of the household of God and have this same right.
Consider some of the ways our heavenly Father cares for His children. He …
Loves. God’s love is unconditional, since it’s based on His nature rather than our performance
(1 John 4:16).
Listens. When we pray, He gives us His full attention (Psalm 55:16-17).
Provides. The Father assumes responsibility for meeting all our needs (Philippians 4:19).
Guides. He is the one who directs our path when we trust in Him (Proverbs. 3:5-6).
Protects. The Lord shields us spiritually, emotionally, and physically, sifting every experience through His sovereign fingers (Psalm 121).
Stays. He’s not an absentee parent, since He will never leave or forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:8).
Disciplines. The Lord disciplines us for our good, so that we may share in His holiness
(Hebrews 12:5-11).
Though experiences with our earthly dads may have distorted our perspective of the heavenly Father, we can learn to see Him as He truly is. By viewing Him through the truth of Scripture instead of our preconceptions, we will see evidence of His loving care and discover a security we’ve never known before.
“The name of the Lord is a strong fortress; the godly run to him and are safe.” Proverbs 18:10
Even though his wife had scrounged up a fan to offset the worst heat wave in 40 years, it wasn’t the heat that bothered him the most. It was the torment in his mind after his ten-hour surgery. Hideous pictures and sounds crowded each other. His wife found some Christian music and he put in his earbuds. It soothed him a little, but he could not rest from the horror that captured his thoughts until he whispered, “Jesus.”
The Name above all names. “Jesus, Jesus.” The chaos ceased. He lay quietly. Although the heat was still oppressive, the turmoil had been arrested by the powerful name of Jesus.
When I was a child, my father led us in reading the Bible. The verse I remember most clearly from that time is Proverbs 18:10. I recalled it as I tried to sleep in a room with large windows on two sides as ruthless bandits roamed the area of the country I resided in, far from home. I recalled it during the difficult birth of our first child in another foreign country. Recently while facing multiple surgeries, it has been my “go to” place, my mustering point for a quiet heart.
The name of the Lord does not promise the absence of trouble because Jesus said that in this world we would have trouble (John 16:33). Rather, the name of the Lord is an ever-present refuge, an invisible armor, and a powerful weapon.
Jesus, you have the name that is above every other name. We know that one day every knee will bow and acknowledge that you are Lord, to the glory of God the Father. So now we call out your name again and again in awe and in thankfulness for the power through your name to deal with all that you allow in our lives. Amen.
