Father’s day is fast approaching so I will be addressing the topic of fathers for the next few week.
I will be discussing six attributes of fathers, the first being parental authority. The example is given of a dog who trembles with fear when his master approaches knowing that he will be mistreated. Other animals know they have a loving master and they respond accordingly. So it is when God approaches man. Some of us are fearful and pull away. We have ignored His heart of love towards us, blamed Him for things that he was not responsible for, and hidden ourselves from His love. He is not like the flawed fathers we all had. He is the perfect Father even though we may have to immerse ourselves in the scriptures that tells of His love before we come to accept that love. It is well worth the effort it takes to embrace the love He has for each of us.
It is a well known fact that we tend to view Father God through the same lenses we saw our earthly father. Of course each of us had flawed fathers, some much more flawed than others. We have to retrain ourselves to trust our Father God and to receive the love He has for each of us. For those of us who were mistreated and abused by our fathers this can be difficult. Meditating on Psalm 139 can be a real help in this as we read of how He made us, knew us before we were born, and He has fashioned our days. He is intimately involved in our lives whether we realize it or not.
As we yield to and receive His love we can begin to overcome our reluctance to trust Him. It is well worth taking the plunge into the love He has for us.
As we remind ourselves that our earthly fathers were children who grew up to have children we can be more forgiving of their mistakes. We can learn to view them as wounded in some ways and make the decision to forgive them for their mistakes. This is not always easy but it is possible.
I will be writing about attributes of fathers.
© Peggy Park
