What kind of relationship do or did you have with your earthly father? I hope it was a very good relationship, where he loved you unconditionally and showed you what real love looks like. But, in the real world our earthly fathers have their own problems and most of the time have passed on to us what they were taught by their father. I am going to talk in general terms here, but I think what I am about to discuss will hit home for most of us.  So let me ask you one more question. Does your concept of God and how you view God, come through the relationship you had with your earthly father?

If your earthly father was cold and distant and not there emotionally or physically, you will have this concept that God is far away and can only be reached, unless you do something great that pleases Him. If your father was a strict disciplinarian and abusive,  you might think God is this being sitting on his throne with this rod in his hand, just waiting for you to mess up so he can beat you down.  Some you may have had a father that was never around and had nothing to do with your upbringing at all. In this case you will might think you can never get God’s attention or that he just does not care about you at all.

What I have learned from Dan Schaffer, in his book Spiritual Fathers is “What most men are missing is a sense of their own identity and a sense of validation that passes from father to son.”  So you can see if the father is not in the home and not giving their children the sense of worth and validation, their understanding of God is greatly diminished.  Many men will cling to the macho image and put on a great front of being strong, tough and independent and needing no one to help him through life struggles.  THis is nt how men feel at all, in fact the opposite is the truth. They are looking for someone to give them a sense of value. Let me just say this, most of the ills of society, such as, young men in prison, selling drugs, gangs, pornography, and sex crimes and be traced back to fathers not being in the home.  This is what I mean by the father vacuum. In fact, in 1996 Gallop did a poll on fathering, and came to this conclusion, ” The most significant family or social problem facing America is the physical absence of the father from the home”

So what does all this mean and what can be done about it? Well we need to follow our model of relationship, which is the one between Father God and his Son Jesus. The Bible gives us the answer. When Jesus was coming to the Jordan river to be baptised by John the Baptist, and he came up out of the water this is what everyone heard from His Father in Heaven. “This is my Son, whom I love,with Him I am well pleased”  (Matthew 3:17)  I want you to notice something here, when did God say this to Jesus?  He confirmed Him as his Son and was well pleased with Him before Jesus started his ministry, before he had done any miracles, Jesus was just his Son and God was pleased with Him.

Now, I want you to personalize this with me. Say, I am His Son/Daughter, whom He loves, with me He is well pleased. Do you believe this, if you do then you know that God loves you for who you are, just as you are and you don’t have to do anything for Him to love you.  If you don’t believe anything else I tell you, please understand this; There is a place in God’s heart that only you can fill. He loves you very much and he wants you to come to Him and let Him love you, in a way no one else can or ever will.  

So, do you see the importance of understanding the father vacuum, because we see God in the pattern of our earthly father. So, it is essential that  we heal the father-son wound in order to understand biblical faith, so we can know the depth of love that our Heavenly Father has for each and everyone of us.

Prayer: Father God, touch the hearts and lives of those who are hurting from the relationship with their earhtly father, help them, guide them into a deeper relationship with you, so they can know how much You love them right now, not for what they have done or not done, but because of  who they are, your child. Amen.

Please go to the link of the day and see what Dan Schaffer is doing to grow spiritual fathers in our culture. 

Link of the Day: http://www.buildingbrothers.org/wbb/