When I was young, I felt as though all the talk referring to God as “Daddy” were irreverent at best and blasphemous at worst.
How could people talk about the Creator of the Universe in such a common term?
How could they devalue Him like that?
It’s only been within the past few years that I’ve come to understand the truth. No, I didn’t figure it out with my mind (though I tried!), God revealed Himself to me as my Daddy through His rhema—His personal communication to me.
None of us had perfect daddies. Most had fair-to-middling dads and some had downright awful biological or step-fathers.
It’s hard to conceive of a God who is the perfect Daddy.
Think about it. What would a perfect daddy be like?
- He would be strong enough to handle our tears and tantrums and rebellion. He would use his strength to guide us into truth and away from error. That strength would be applied with love, not anger.
- He would be humble enough to know he doesn’t have the answers within himself and he would submit himself to God for those answers.
- He would love us for ourselves, accepting us as we are and helping us to become the people we were meant to be.
- He would be tender enough that we would feel comfortable resting in his lap, asking for what we want, expressing our emotions, asking questions when we don’t understand.
- And he would be there for us—always, without reservation, without pulling away or making excuses.
That’s a snapshot of our Daddy God.
Okay, great theory.
Now to make it personal:
Our Daddy God has feelings, too. He understands our pain and fear and anger. And when we can’t seem to reach Him or to feel He is with us and loves us, we wonder why. Usually it’s because we are angry with Him.
Just like a child pulls away or refuses to look at her daddy when she is angry, we pull away when we are angry at Him. We don’t often realize the depth of our anger or we call it something else. We don’t understand that our anger hardens our hearts.
And we forget that He honors our feelings even if no one else ever has. He won’t force himself on us. He wants our permission.
Only then can our relationship be honest. Only then can we learn to trust Him.
Then we can let Him be our Daddy.
this is part 5 of a series on having a good relationship with God.
Part 1|How’s Your Relationship with God?
Part 2| Religion or Relationship?
Part 3| How Can I Improve my Relationship with God?
Part 4| Is Your Soul Like a Weaned Child?
Part 5| Is God Your Daddy?
Part 6| Where Does Your Value Lie?
all illustrations courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net