Hello.

Later this month is Father’s Day, June 16^th and it is good to recognise the role of the Father in people’s lives.  I am the father of 3 young children and recognise that to be a father is to have one of the most challenging but also rewarding roles that anyone can have.

Of course, for some father’s day can be a time of sadness.  Perhaps for those unable to be a father, those for whom their relationship with either their children or father is difficult, for those grieving the loss of a father or a child.

And yet Christians want to remember that God is our heavenly Father. He is the most perfect father anyone can have.

We’ve been looking at Ephesians on Sunday mornings.  And in chapter 1 verse 5 we’re told that: “In love, he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will, to the praise of his glorious grace”

God is pleased to have us as his adopted children.  It is because he loves us.  It is because of his grace, nothing in ourselves, nothing that we have earned.  When Jesus died on the cross he did not simply bring us forgiveness for all that we’ve done wrong.  He makes it possible for us to be adopted into God’s family. 

The theologian Jim Packer wrote, “What is a Christian?  The question can be answered in many ways, but the richest answer I know is that a Christian is one who has God for his Father” (Knowing God).

The Bible is clear that not every person can say that. Being children of God is not a universal status for everyone when they are born. No, it is a supernatural gift which one receives through believing and trusting Jesus.  Galatians 3:26, “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus”.

In 1 John the apostle bubbles over with enthusiasm as he writes: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!  And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1)

What joy to have an intimate, secure and personal relationship with God as a father. 

In Matthew 6:9 Jesus tells us how to address God, “Our Father in heaven”.  As Jesus always prayed to God as Father, so can his followers do. The Father is always accessible to his children and is never too preoccupied to listen to what they have to say.

And knowing that God is our Father helps us to trust him for our everyday needs.  In Matthew 6:25-27 Jesus says: “do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?”

The contrast is clear.  If God cares for the birds, even though he is not their father, is it not clear that he will positively care for you, whose Father He is? In the problems and complexities of life, Christians can remember God that God is their Father and can trust him. That should be a great encouragement to us in the month ahead.