'I Will Be Your Father'

In this special UPLIFT for Father's Day, Dawn Wilson is joining with Claudia DeNure to remind us of God's special invitation to be our "Father."

I (Dawn) remember when my Daddy died. It was such a tough day, and to this day, I still have "unexpected tears" when something triggers a memory about him.

I know on Father's Day many have tough memories as well as sweet ones.

I don't know what your memories are, but I once heard a preacher say, "We often respond to the Lord in the same way we responded (or respond) to our earthly fathers."

I don't know if that's true for everyone, but it certainly was for me.

My Daddy loved me, but I never sensed we communicated that love heart to heart (though I was supposedly a "Daddy's girl.") I knew Daddy expected me to "do good" and "not get in trouble." But I also knew his correction when I did mess up was fair and swift. Yet sometimes he let me off the hook. I never deserved the "mercy" I received.

And that's exactly how I viewed God for so many years. That has both good and bad results. Good, because I've always seen God as fair and merciful; bad because there were times I thought God might be letting me off the hook for my sin, and also because I struggled with feeling truly connected in prayer. I knew God loved me, but I somehow wanted to hear it in a more tangible way.

As I matured in faith after finally trusting in what Christ did for me (and not my own efforts), I one day read 1 John 3:1, and it transformed my heart:

"See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are."

That verse was the "more tangible" I was looking for. I believed that scripture. And I built my worldview of God's Fatherhood on it.

I set on a course to discover God's love as a Father.

I started praying to Him in a different way. Instead of "God," I started addressing Him as "Father God." I felt that reflected my awe of Him as the sovereign God and Lord of the universe, and yet acknowledged the special, new relationship the Bible says we have together.

I understand Jesus was the first Jewish rabbi to call God "Father" directly; and it was also Jesus who first taught His disciples to pray, "Our Father in heaven" (Matthew 6:9). Jesus was inviting His followers of all time into a deep, personal relationship with the God He knew so intimately.

What a tremendous privilege the believer has to pray to the Father, in Christ! And what an introduction Jesus gave us to the most unfathomable love in existence (John 15:9-17).

The Father's love for His own is not like human love. It is lavish and unconditional.

Our love story began with the love of the Father for His "only begotten" Son, Jesus (John 3:16; Romans 5:8; 1 John 4:9-11).

And then this matchless Love of God enabled us to "be called children of God" (John 1:12-13). It is this love that quickens and changes us and empowers the conquering of sin (Ephesians 2:4-5; Galatians 2:20; Romans 8:37-39).

It is a mistake to believe all humans are automatically "children of God." Only those the Father "births" through the Gospel, adopts and transforms through the Holy Spirit can truly call Him "Abba." * (John 1:12-13; 3:6; 1 Peter 1:3, 23; Romans 8:14-17, 22-23; Galatians 4:4-6; Ephesians 1:4-6).

Yet "Father's Day" may truly trouble some. Their memories of their daddies are too grim, too hurtful. But there truly is no comparison between them and our "Abba" in heaven.

God the Father is not like some distant, dirty or deadbeat earthly dads.

Father God is not an absent father, an abusive father, or an always-failing-us father.

He is good—an absolutely "good, good Father," as Chris Tomlin's song reminds us so beautifully:

I've heard a thousand stories of what they think you're like,
But I've heard the tender whispers of love in the dead of night;
And you tell me that you're pleased
And that I'm never alone.

You're a good, good father—
It's who you are, it's who you are, it's who you are;
And I'm loved by you—
It's who I am, it's who I am, it's who I am....

As I was thinking about this recently, I was struck by the powerful testimony of my friend, Claudia DeNure, and I want her to share it with you.

"My mother married three times," Claudia says. "My dad had been a German prisoner of war in the Second World War, and when he returned home, he was a very different man. He divorced my mother. 

"After a second failed marriage to an alcoholic musician, she married the man with whom I went through my teen years calling my step-father. This, too, was a difficult marriage which included many heated and accusatory arguments, and frequently ended with, 'I'm going to divorce you' from both parties. 

"I had just returned from a church camp experience, as I recall, and hearing the screaming above—from the basement room I been given as a bedroom—I prayed, 'Lord, I don't want a life like that. Please help me.' 

"Then I heard quite clearly in my mind, 'If you will be my daughter, I will be your Father." That was the moment I turned my life over to Jesus Christ, and I've never looked back. 

"He became the Father I never had; the best Father a girl—and now a woman—could ever have asked for."

I know that is the case for so many today. Just as on Mother's Day, there are many who hurt on the special day we set aside to honor our dads.

Some, like me, simply hurt because their daddies have passed away and we're no longer to put our arms around their necks and whisper, "Daddy, I love you."

In those times, oh, how we need Father God.

Claudia understood the CONDITION as well as the COMFORT involved in this Fatherhood:

"IF you will be my daughter, I WILL be your Father."

God desires to (and He will) "Father" us, but we must be willing to be His sons and daughters. We must be willing to trust the Gospel, surrender to His control and obey Him.

Do you know the Father today? Do you understand His lavish love for you? If not, here is how to become a "child of God" with the Lord of the universe as your Father in heaven.

Dawn Wilson, founder and President of Heart Choices Today, is a speaker and author, and the creator of three blogs: Heart Choices Today, LOL with God (with Pam Farrel), and Upgrade with Dawn. She is a contracted researcher/reviewer for Revive Our Hearts and a writer at Crosswalk.com. She and her husband Bob live in Southern California and have two grown, married sons, three granddaughters and a rascally maltipoo, Roscoe.

*Note: "Abba" is closely related to the word for "Daddy" in Aramaic.

THANK YOU for your testimony and the use of your photos, Claudia DeNure.

Ask Your Children Big-Picture Questions

As a special Father’s Day post and to help us Upgrade our parenting and/or ministry to children, I asked my friend, Nancy Leigh DeMoss of Revive Our Hearts ministry to share with us. So much of her life was shaped by the life example of her parents—especially her father. She often talks and writes about him. In 2013, Nancy wrote about a question her dad asked that helped her shape her life and ministry. *

“The scene is indelibly etched in my memory,” Nancy wrote. “I was 19 years old. My family was on a mission trip in Haiti—my parents’ (and my) favorite type of family 'vacation.'”

Reader, does this give you some insight into the type of family Nancy grew up in? This vacation is only a slice of the big picture of life and ministry her parents embraced.

Nancy continues ...

We were worshiping in a small Haitian church, sitting on hard wood benches. In the middle of the service, my dad leaned over to me and whispered,

“Honey, what are your 50-year goals?”

Now, I’ll confess I hadn’t given a lot of thought to my 50-year goals, prior to that moment. But over the next weeks, I set out to respond to his question. Of course, I didn’t know things like whether I would be married or single or what my specific ministry path would look like. But I tried to record what I wanted to be true of my life in 50 years—by the time I was 69—if the Lord was pleased to give me that many years.

Periodically I’ve gone back and reviewed the document that resulted from that exercise more than 35 years ago. It has proved to be a valuable reminder to be intentional, stay the course, and focus on the things that matter most.

While I would no doubt craft these goals a bit differently today, these are the same basic categories that I still believe are important. Even this week, in re-reading this list, I’ve been challenged to recalibrate my thinking in one particular area.

As a teen sitting in that Haitian church, 50 years seemed like an eternity away. I could not have imagined how quickly those years would pass—or how easy it would be to fritter away days, months, years—a lifetime.

Today, with less than 15 years left till I turn 69, I wish I were a whole lot further along toward these goals. I haven’t even come close to attaining all of them. But I’m confident I have grown more in these areas than I might have if it hadn’t been for my dad’s question. So for challenging me to this exercise—and for so much more—thank you, Dad!

I believe there is value in doing this kind of thinking at various points in life. And not only for yourself . . .

Don’t underestimate the potential impact of encouraging your children, grandchildren, and young friends to think through these kinds of big-picture questions.

Less than two years after I wrote these goals, on the weekend of my 21st birthday, my dad died suddenly of a heart attack.

I’m so thankful for his efforts to encourage me to live a purposeful life to the glory of God. And that he didn’t think the teen years were too young to challenge me to seek and embrace God’s vision for my future.

What questions could you ask your child, grandchild or another child you want to influence, to help shape big-picture thinking and priorities?

Nancy Leigh DeMoss is a mentor and "spiritual mother" to hundreds of thousands of women who have read her best-selling books and who listen to her two daily radio programs, Revive Our Hearts and Seeking Him. She communicates a love for the Lord and the Word that is infectious! Nancy is the author of many books, including Lies Women Believe and the Truth That Sets Them Free. Learn more about her ministry and women’s revival conferences at Revive Our Hearts and True Woman.

* This post is part of an article at TrueWoman.com titled “My Dad’s Impromptu Challenge.” The article includes the goals that Nancy wrote when she was 19.