Relentless Father

Our theme of “Relentless Father” for our 2018-19 year has been absolutely wrecking my prayer life. I am finding myself reevaluating the whole way I view “fatherhood”. So often, we see fathers as how the media portrays them (often bumbling idiots) or how our own experience with our fathers can be less than perfect. This can make us mistakenly cram God the Father into a box that is far too small and limited for how amazing He is.

Jesus instructed us to call God “Father”. Not “Creator”, not “Mighty One”, not “Lord” or “Salvation”. All of those are true…but they’re not the name that His Son gave us to use. It’s like refusing to call your in-laws “Mom & Dad” after you get married and they request it. Sure, using Mr. and Mrs. So-and-so is proper and right…but it’s impersonal and the relationship that God wants with you is anything but! Formal, impersonal relationships never get deep or dirty…and God DESIRES a relationship with you where you can trust Him with your mess.

How do we know that Jesus wants our relationship with God to be so open and vulnerable? Because when He said “Father”, he used the word “Abba”. The connotation in “Abba” is more like in English the way young children use “Daddy”. It’s personal and loving and vulnerable. There are so many ways that we can call out to our dads…and so many meanings of that call to “Daddy”…the video below is taken from a commercial, but I think it is a good reminder of how we can call out to our Father. I challenge you to do so in your prayer life today. We have a Relentless Father…and you’ll never believe how much He is loving and pursuing YOU…right now.