God Is Father

It’s amazing how many people have missed out in knowing the Father heart of God. He’s not just Father to a few chosen, but a Father to ALL who receive Him. Anyone can become a child of God. I believe everyone needs to understand that the story of the prodigal is everyone’s story; it’s not just for the unbeliever, but for the believer too. It’s about knowing that we have a Father who longs to call us His children. God is a Father to all He created.

Knowing God as Father is a journey of discovery. First the prodigal son realised that he was in the wrong place and needed to make a move. He’d become a slave and not a son. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating. He didn’t know who he was. He’d lost the identity of a son. Where are you at? Do you see yourself as a slave? Do you feel that your Father God is unreachable? Have you forgotten His compassion?

After a while he came to his senses. He still wasn’t thinking of himself as a son but a slave as he remembered his father’s servants. He compared their meal with his meal and longed to work there. In his mind he probably had no idea that his father was waiting for him to return. He had no idea of the character of his father, so he was going to ask for forgiveness and offer his services to his father as a servant rather than a son. It was a better option than eating with pigs. How about you? Have you settled for being a servant , slaving away in your father’s house? Have you forgotten what it’s like to be a son?

The other brother had forgotten what it was like to be a son. He tried to work for his rights. He worked for what was already his. When the other lost son came back and got a party, he wasn’t happy. The only way to enjoy being a son is to receive God and let Him father you. You can’t earn the right to be a child of God. Jesus earned the right for you. He purchased your sonship. ‘Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God’ (John 1:12).

‘The sun doesn’t shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the whole world’s joy. The lonely pine on the mountain-top waves its sombre boughs and cries, ‘Thou art my sun’. And the little meadow violet lifts its cup of blue, and whispers with its perfumed breath, ‘Thou art my sun’. And the grain in a thousand fields rustles in the wind, and makes answer, ‘Thou art my sun’. So God sits effulgent in heaven, not for a favoured few, but for the universe of life; and there is no creature so poor or so low that he may not look up with childish confidence and say, ‘My Father, Thou art mine.’’ (Henry Ward Beecher).

Prayer: Heavenly Father, I have received You. Help me to learn to live as a son and let You be my Father. Teach me Your heart. Help me to know Your love for me as a father loves his son. Amen.