Your Father in Heaven

The funny thing about fathering is that even though the influence is so great and the responsibility so intense, billions of us have done it. Some have fathered well and some have fathered poorly, but it isn’t exactly a role you go to school for. There is no small segment of professional fathers for the rest of us amateurs to look up to. No, we all have to figure it out and learn and grow as this role in life comes our way.

If there ever was a professional father, it would have to be God Himself. He is the ultimate Father. He defines. He protects. He teaches. He leads. He loves. He delights in His children. He gives an identity and a heritage to all who become His own. 

One of the strongest words I could give to you is the encouragement to experience God as your Heavenly Father. This comes first by placing your faith and trust in the work of Jesus on the cross in dying substitutionally for your sin and rising from the dead. Secondly, however, this comes through a practical and experiential relationship with the God of heaven, a relationship made possible exclusively by the blood of Jesus. Day by day, week by week, and year by year, as you experience the wonderful fathering ministry of God, you will become strengthened as a man to become a greater father than you ever would be in your own natural ability. Over time, his nature will change and transform you (see 2 Corinthians 3:18). You will always become more like the God you worship.

The Lord delights in you as His child. He longs to serve you and care for you personally. “The Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights” (Proverbs 3:12). Perhaps for you, up to this time, a relationship with God, called by some a walk with God, has been a foreign concept. Perhaps you are yet to discover the joy of receiving direction, correction, and identification from your Father in heaven. If there was ever a time to get on that bus, it’s when a man begins a family.

Your family needs you to begin interacting with your Father in heaven like crazy right now. They need you to press in. This can be an extremely difficult thing to do once a baby comes into your life. When my second daughter was born, it felt like she didn’t sleep for two years. My poor wife was extremely worn out. I was very fatigued. Time with God was extremely hard to come by during that season, but every time I fought for it I found it to be greatly rewarding (see Hebrews 11:6). A little time in His Word always went such a long way toward directing me and speaking into my heart. Often in His Word I would find the encouragement, correction, or perspective I needed for that particular day. Like the manna falling daily from heaven in the Old Testament era, my Father in heaven fed me spiritually on a daily basis.

No, this is not the time to shelve your walk with God. This is a time to pick up the pace. Your children need a godly man, a man focused on the priorities and thoughts of God. Your wife needs a spiritual man, a man who is doing everything he can to crush his sinful tendencies and become a servant to his bride. It is good and wonderful to learn of the practicalities of being a father here on earth, but it is of extreme importance to practice your relationship with your Father in heaven. Place your relationship with Him at the center of everything you are. Don’t allow your walk with Him to be just one part of who you are, but all of who you are. He must color and influence every other part of your life. Don’t be deceived into thinking this isn’t an important part of your role as a father. Without a strong relationship with your Heavenly Father you won’t have the strength to provide all that is needed for your family.

(Dear New Dad, Ch 1: Son, pg 10-12)