The Names Of God Series - Abba (Continued)

Abba - A final thought about God, “Our Father.”

Yesterday, I was struck by the fact that some people never had a father and didn’t know how to think of God as one. A few years ago I was doing a Bible Study with a group of men struggling with addictions and criminal pasts. It was early in the morning and I was leading them through the book of Proverbs. We came to this verse in a section titled “A Father’s Instruction”:

Proverbs 4:1

“Hear, O sons, the instruction of a father, and give attention that you may gain understanding.”

It goes on for a few verses about the importance of a father’s wisdom. One of the men became noticeably agitated when I started talking about God as our Father. He was so visibly upset that I stopped and asked him what was bothering him. His answer threw my world into a spin for a while. He said, “Why would I want to think of God as my father? My father tortured me and beat me. He’s the reason I turned to drugs.”

I honestly had no idea what to say. It never dawned on me that “father” would be such an awful word to someone.

God has designed this world to operate a certain way by placing His design into marriage and the family. But, man took what was good and added sin to the mix. We took marriage and the family and redesigned them to work the way WE want them to.

This is nothing new to our culture. In fact, we can see the effects of sin on mankind from the first couple of pages in the Bible. We live in a broken world and things that are meant to be great blessings can break our hearts and cause us a lifetime of pain.

God is saying that He knows and understands this brokenness and He can be that perfect Father for us. He can make a marriage work. He can give joy and peace to broken people who are in broken relationships. He can heal the pain of our pasts.

He asks us to call Him Father precisely because of the fact that our world is broken and He knows that we all need a great Father in our life. Don’t let this name sour you on God. Let this name bless you. He has provided for you even though there was not always a good father here on earth for you.