The Wording of Prayer • Devotion 5: A Father That Cares
Pastor John Carter
“Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” Matthew 6:8
Yesterday, we walked through the fact that God knows everything. We considered how that might change the way we approach God. Today, we are going to focus on God being our Father.
I am going to be real with you. Just the mentioning of a father might send you off into “bad memory land.” You may have never had a father that reflected the kindness of the Father God. It is really hard to correlate God as a Father when your earthly father was, well, not great. Maybe your earthly father was absent, not loving, or maybe even straight-up abusive. This is why it is so important to dive into the many passages that talk about God as an amazing and loving Father. When we confess Jesus as our Lord and Savior, it is automatic. God is our Father.
Paul links a lot of Old Testament ideas into this simple, yet profound, verse found in 2 Corinthians 6:18, “And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”
John says it this way in 1 John 3:1-3, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.”
Our hope in Christ means that there is an element in our life that has to change and be conformed to mirror the likeness of Christ. John puts it in terms of purifying ourselves like Jesus.
In Matthew 7:9-11, it is described this way, “Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” Ultimately, there are so many other verses I could have you read about the goodness and love of our Heavenly Father.
Maybe you have never prayed to God with this as a consideration. God is someone we can approach like a loving, kind, and caring father. I think 1 Peter 5:6-7 fits in so well here, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”
It literally says here in the Bible that God cares for you!
Today, take that with you everywhere you go. It is powerful to realize that an all-knowing, all-powerful God is your Father and He genuinely and authentically cares for you. When you talk to Him today, give Him a big, huge hug. Let Him know how much you love Him, too.