“‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Matthew 6:9-10
Our heavenly Father wants only the best for us. It’s because He loves us at all times, in all ways. It’s His will for us to prosper in Him and thrive.
I’ve talked before about how I had growing-up issues with my own father. Dad was a good man, a decent, honest, and loving man. But, when I was a little boy, he was disconnected from me, impatient with me as a rambunctious, skinny, opinionated little boy. “Can’t you keep this kid quiet,” he sometimes said about me. Or, over the years, when I (always) brought home A and B report cards, he’d tell me “you have some work to do here.” Or how he was only lukewarm in his praise for things I did. I didn’t understand he was going through his own struggles; maybe I was simply more than he could handle. He did the best he could, and I knew he loved me, but when I looked at the relationships he had with other people, I concluded that I didn’t matter very much to him.
The residual emotions I had for Dad have made it difficult for me to relate to the Father. I’ve let them get in the way, and that’s a sin against Him. So I’m grateful He gave us His Son, with whom He never had any issue. The Father and the Son restored my heart, and gave me a heart to forgive Dad for simply being human. We never talked much about my feelings, and I do remember Dad later asking me if our relationship was good. Over time, we developed a healthier relationship, and I’m thankful to have realized he was a loving, principled man before he died. I admired how he courageously fought, overcame, then succumbed to cancer without being defeated.
Yet I carry these feelings over to my heavenly Father. When I realize it, I see my feelings are little more than falling for Satan’s age-old deceit. After all, to sow doubt, the lying devil said to Eve, “did God really say.” He wasn’t helping to expand her intellect: he was working to divide her from God. Whenever I feel doubt about my earthly father’s love for me, I’m playing Eve, falling for a lie that was long-ago proved untrue. That’s not the Father’s will for me.
The whole truth is that God did really ‘say,’ that God the Father really is the loving, full father Jesus expressed Him to be. That we see the Father in seeing Jesus. That what the Father wills WILL happen, a certainty and a bedrock truth. The Father’s will is for us to be saved through faith in His Son, to live with Him forever in heaven’s love, light, and peace. That’s where my Dad lives now.
For more reading: Matthew 6:11
Father, I love, believe, and worship You.
Practical Proverbs 