One of the first things a parent of a newly born baby discovers is that crying is the main way the baby communicates with the parent. When your baby is hungry, tired, uncomfortable, in distress, in pain or sick, the baby cries. Crying is how a baby expresses what the baby needs, what the baby is going through. Similarly, crying is our own way of communicating with God, our Heavenly Father. Psalm 89:26 says “He shall cry to Me, You are my Father, My God, and the rock of my Salvation”. When we have needs, fears and concerns, God wants us to cry out to Him and tell Him, You are my Father, My God, and the Rock of my Salvation; You are the only One that can help me out of this problem, meet this need, grant me peace and keep me strong and stable.
God is a responsive and responsible Father. A child of God can’t cry out to Him and He will turn a deaf ear or do nothing about what His child needs, what His child is going through. Note that in this scripture, David called the Lord by three names ‘My Father’, ‘My God’, and ‘the Rock of my Salvation’. But the first name he calls the Lord is Father. He refers to the Lord as Father before He calls Him his God and his Rock. This tells us that the first way we must see God and relate with God if we are going to go far with God is as a Father. God must first and foremost be a Father to us. To communicate effectively with God, we must first have a personal and endearing relationship with Him. When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He taught them that for a genuine connection to be established with God when you pray, for you to have a sincere conversation with God, you must be able to say ‘Our Father in heaven” (Matthew 6:9).
In 2 Corinthians 6:18, God says “I will be a Father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters says the Lord Almighty”. God wants to be a Father we cry to; a Father we can tell everything we need, everything we are going through. A Father we can always look up to for provision, protection and guidance. God longs to shower us with His Fatherly love which is compassionate, unfailing, unparalleled and unequalled. Psalm 103:13 says “As a Father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on you.”
It’s challenging for most parents to meet up with the daily demands of parenthood, even parents of small families. Yet look at how large God’s family is, and He is able to combine with ease both the duties of a father and mother. He doesn’t get stressed out, burnt out and worn out from juggling the roles and responsibilities of a mother and father. “As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem” (Isaiah 66:13). To set God’s love apart from that of any earthly parent, Isaiah 49:15 tells us that even if a mother who ordinarily is so full of affection for her child can forget her child, God will never forget us. God is no ordinary parent. He doesn’t forget things like earthly parents. Whatever you tell Him is forever etched in His memory. Our parents especially as they begin to grow old, may forget our birthdays, anniversaries or some other important event in our lives, but God will never forget. Our parents may forget something we discussed with them last year or last month, but God can never forget. At times, they may be caught up in a meeting or need to take a quick trip and can’t attend to us, but God is never too deep in thought, too busy or too tired to attend to us.
God doesn’t have financial problems and limitations unlike an earthly parent who may love you to the moon and back but doesn’t have the resources to meet and solve all your financial issues. God can provide things for us that no earthy parent can. You can’t go to God, Your Father with a problem however big and Your Father in heaven won’t have a solution to your problem. God has the solution to the toughest, longest and hardest problem. He told Abraham when the idea of a 99-year-old man and 89-year-old woman having a child sounded like something out of a fairy tale, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (Genesis 18:14).
The starting point to having a vibrant, intimate and meaningful relationship with God is having a Father-Child relationship with Him. The central message behind all Jesus’ teachings on prayer, Jesus’ lifestyle of prayer is that prayer must stem from a Father-Child relationship. This relationship is what gives you confidence to boldly approach God even in the face of seemingly hopeless and impossible situations. At the graveside of a man who had been dead for four days and had begun to stink; in the face of a humanly impossible situation, Jesus lifted up His eyes to His Father in heaven and declared “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me” (John 11:41-42). Jesus knew without a shadow of doubt certain deep truths about God, the Father. He knew God as a Father that knows everything we want, everything we have to say before we even say it. He knew God as a Father that is not dull of hearing; a Father who always hears us when we call to Him. The beauty of Knowing God as a Father and the capabilities and abilities of this Father, keeps us thankful and hopeful even when we in a hopeless impasse.
Is your prayer life; your communication with God very official and conventional? Or is there a personal touch to your relationship with God? The name of God that gives life to prayer, that opens heavens doors when we knock is ‘Abba Father’. Romans 8:15 says “For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirt of adoption, by whom we cry out, Abba Father’. Fear fades away as we grow in our knowledge of God as a Father.
When we pray and call God Abba Father, we are acknowledging that God knows us, loves us and cares for us in a way no one can. We are saying the reason why we can keep coming back to God again and again even when we miss it, fall and fail is because we have a Father who is ready to receive us with open arms. We are expressing our trust in our loving Father who out of His deep love for us, would always do what is best for us, what fits into His perfect will for our lives.
PHOTO CREDIT: Pixabay