father_fatherless

Father of the Fatherless, by Randall D. Kittle

“God in His holy dwelling is a father of the fatherless” — Psalm 68:5

In the United States, it is rare to find an abandoned basket at an orphanage door in our day. In most cities, we seldom see orphaned children scouring the streets for food or searching for warm clothing. Instead, we find generation after generation of well-fed and well-dressed children who are taken care of on the outside, yet feel abandoned on the inside. Generations with absentee fathers — providers of provision … while breakers of promises. They are “raising” children who, though they have fathers, yet have orphaned hearts.

In every neighborhood, every school, every church across our country, there are those whose hearts have been hurt and hardened by the plague of absentee fathers. It is Satan’s plan to not only degrade family-life across America, but to destroy the father-child relationship for the entire upcoming generation. His reason is clear — a generation with nothing but hurts and wounds toward their earthly fathers will have more difficulty receiving the love and acceptance of their heavenly Father.

Revealing the Father
This fatherless generation needs Father God revealed to their orphaned hearts, and the good news is Jesus clearly revealed the Father to those who would have eyes to see. Nearly every reference Jesus made to God refers to Him as “Father.” When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, He began “Our Father …” At the very end of His earthly ministry, as Jesus left, He pointed to heaven and said, “I am ascending to My Father, and your Father” (John 20:17).

Perhaps Jesus’ most well-known parable is the parable of the lost son, which we commonly call the story of the prodigal son. This parable, found in the fifteenth chapter of Luke, was told to clearly reveal God’s desire to restore back to Himself those who have gone astray. The message is simple: those who in no way deserve the forgiveness and acceptance of Father God are still forgiven and welcomed back. Even when they are fatherless by their own choices, God would still choose to take them back as His children, and He is watching and waiting for their return! God never changes … He is still the Father of the fatherless.

Even though Jesus revealed the idea of Father God clearly as He walked this earth, it seems we have difficulty truly grasping it. But God being our Father is far from a New Testament idea. Throughout the Bible, God refers to Himself as our Father. The Scriptures reveal Him not only as a father, but “a father to the fatherless” (Psalm 68:5). The saints of old often seemed to understand this better than we do today.

Coming into Sonship
While the desperate need for Father God has been placed in all our hearts, even true believers do not generally gain the full sense of God’s Fatherhood all at once. It is not that the position of being a child of the Most High King is not gained at once. As soon as we come to God through Christ, we are no longer an enemy of God, nor a stranger to God, but a child of God. However, it is only as we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit that we are able to recognize the Father’s voice and see the moving of His hand and fully come into sonship. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God” (Romans 8:14). Remember, it is the Holy Spirit who teaches us to know God as our “Daddy,” when He causes us to cry, “Abba, Father.”

Have you discovered the Father who can fill the deep desires of your “orphaned heart”? It doesn’t matter if your earthly father was never there for you or always there for you, your heavenly Father wants to come fill your heart with forgiveness, love, and acceptance. Even those who have been raised with a great and caring father will find a hollowness in their hearts that only their heavenly Father can fill. God the Father has heard the desperate cries of our hearts and is calling out to this generation, “You are not alone, you are not unloved, I desire to be your Father for all time and eternity.”