Disowned by Your Dad, Owned by Your Father

I don’t know the relationship you have with your father, but if you are like many across this great big world, it may have its rocky points.  Maybe you were even traumatically abused, or disowned by your dad.  There’s little that can do more damage to a young boy or girl than to have a broken, immature dad in the household… but possibly worse is not having one in the house at all…

63:16 Surely you are still our Father!

Even if Abraham and Jacob would disown us,

Lord, you would still be our Father.

You are our Redeemer from ages past.

Much of what you see in God, for better or worse, you originally got from your dad.  Even Jesus Christ, the very image of God, called the LORD his “Father” – Abba his word for “Papa.”  This kind of intimacy was scandalous in Jesus’ day – but as one who’s earthly dad was suspiciously absent, Jesus understood that God was to be his father now.

Were was Jesus’ dad, Joseph?  After such a display of faith at Jesus’ conception and birth, he is never mentioned as Jesus enters adulthood.  Was he killed in a masonry accident?  Could he have abandoned the family?  Whatever the case, he was not there when Jesus was at his most crucial moments (his baptism, his temptations in the desert, his crucifixion…the list goes on and on.)

A young man wants a mentor, a father to show him the way – to point out the path he should go in this life.  But truth be told, we have a lot of men in this world, and in the church who’d rather wallow in isolation, immaturity or passivity; and refuse the gift of fatherhood they’ve been given by God.

Jesus only did what he saw his Father doing, and even with the absence of his earthly dad, he moved beyond the earthly example of fatherhood and pursued intimacy, and mentoring from his heavenly Father.

Papa God wants this for each of his children – for you and me.  In an age where fatherhood has lost the vitality and the adventure and the abiding love it must have to create healthy, maturing people – God is ready to offer you that kind of relationship.

Being disowned by your earthly father is not the end. Let it be what propels you into the arms of Papa God who is ready to train you as his son or daughter.

What does being ‘fathered by God’ look like?

You will be given his characteristics!

First off, you may have to learn God’s capability to forgive - starting with your earthly father. He is still fighting through things himself, and will need your forgiveness.  But after that, only God knows where he’ll take you.  One thing is for sure – you will be given increasing maturity and capacity that only God has to handle the inevitable wounds of life, and the attacks of the Evil One.  You will charge out with God on mission – you will be given a new name, a new identity – sons and daughters of the King!

All this – through God’s grace.  Thank you, Father.

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