God, Our Example of a Father

A commercial interrupts my YouTube marathon and I quickly skip over it at the five second mark. Ads are all over the websites I visit but I quickly skim over them. The signs are everywhere, yet they are so nonchalant I don’t really notice. If it were May no one could escape the impending holiday. But it’s June, which means Mother’s Day has passed and Father’s Day is here.

If you are reading this blog and reaching for your cell phone to check the date, don’t feel alone. Father’s Day sneaks up on you and before you know it you’re sitting at the dinner table with your dad awkwardly looking at you waiting for his present. Awkward…

It’s not hard to notice that Mother’s Day gets so much hype and Father’s Day just doesn’t. Most Mother’s Day church services praise mothers for sticking with their kids and encourage them to keep doing so. The service for Father’s Day, though, typically urges fathers to step up and stop ignoring their kids and stop slacking.

It seems logical that we should make a big deal out of Mother’s Day; after all we have a commandment to honor our parents. … But parents are plural. We have to honor both of them. So Father’s day should be just as big as Mother’s Day. God definitely believes fathers are important.

God calls Himself our Father:

Psalm 68:5(ESV) Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.

Isaiah 63:16(ESV) For you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us; you, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name

Romans 8:15(ESV) For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

The word “Abba” in Romans 8 most nearly equivocates to “daddy”. If God wants us to associate Him with our dads we know there must be something cool about the relationship of father and child.

Due to sin that relationship is broken like all other relationships. The only way anyone can experience a perfect father is from the one true Father who sent His Son down to earth to make us His children. On earth, however, we don’t always experience this sacrificial love from our fathers. But despite that, we are called to honor them, just like we do with our mothers. So let’s take a look at what the Biblical dad is. In the Bible a lot of times God explains His characters with the character of a father so we can learn something from those verses.

Fathers should:

Be Compassionate: Psalm 103:13(ESV) As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.

Help Us: Deuteronomy 1:29-31(ESV) Then I said to you, ‘Do not be in dread or afraid of them. The Lord your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.

Teach in a loving way: Ephesians 6:4(ESV) Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Even if our fathers do not do any of those things we are called to honor and love them. This Father’s Day we shouldn’t drag our dads in a guilt trip, we should uplift them. Yes, they will never beat GOD, but through God, our fathers can be compassionate, help us, and raise us up to love God!
Just like for Mother's day I am posting a video to watch about Father's Day!