Who is God?
Our Creator, Master, Lord, Savior, King the list of His power and goodness is unending.
I think it is easy for us to see God as those things. We know them to be true. How close do you feel to Him with those powerful titles?
For me I feel distant. Those names don’t make Him personable or intimate to me. They make Him seem almighty and far from me. So far that I couldn’t believe that He heard me or cared about my prayers, desires, joy and pain. It wasn’t till my earthly father died that I began my search for a more intimate God. I desired more, as I am sure many of us desire more. I found Him in a Father. God is not just all those powerful names, He is also a Father to all of us adopted into His family. He desires us to seek Him in this way.
As a Father He pursues us and loves us gently. Not one of His children being left behind or forgotten.
We are much like sheep. We are prone to wander without guidance. We need help sometimes. We need a leader to follow. We need a protector. We need a Shepherd or Father.
I lost my earthly father two and a half years ago, when he died I found myself feeling like a lost sheep. I felt lost without the comfort of his voice. The love and protection he showed me was gone in an instant. All I had were my memories of him. I could no longer go and talk to him for advice or encouragement. Or get a loving hug. Or share about my day with him. I was wandering, walking through pastures unaware of where I was to go. I carried so much pain, but people told me I had to be strong. I felt broken and didn’t know who could ever understand or accept the real me. I didn’t know what voice or gate was the right one back to home. My safe place, my home, my dad, was no more. I was a lost sheep.
Do you ever feel lost and abandoned? Wondering if anyone cares or listens to the desires, fears, joys, pain and needs of your heart. I think at times we all feel unheard and unseen.
That’s when a new shepherd found me. This shepherd was all that I was missing. He loved me, protected me, provided for me, listened to me, loved me and wanted me to be one of His sheep.
This shepherd is God. Our Heavenly Father. People around me shared with me of His love for me and helped me to realize I could trust Him with my secrets, pain, desires and joys. That He’d always love me and never abandon me.
In John10 Jesus tells a group about how He is the Good Shepherd, he says:
1 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. 2 ‘But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. 3 ‘To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 ‘When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 ‘A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 This figure of speech Jesus spoke to them, but they did not understand what those things were which He had been saying to them.
7 So Jesus said to them again, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 ‘All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. 9 ‘I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 ‘The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
11 “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. 12 ‘He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 ‘He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep. 14 ‘I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, 15 even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. 16 ‘I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd. 17 ‘For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. 18 ‘No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”
I began to seek Him, knowing His promises and desire to know me. Praying on my knees for Him to show me what it looked like to trust Him and live as a daughter of a King.
This shepherd isn’t just for me to have either. This is the best part. God as our Father and Shepherd desires for all of us to know the still soft whisper of His voice. To cry out to Him with all that is on our minds and hearts. He loves each of us. Pursuing every one of His children till they know His voice.
He loves us all far more than we can comprehend, but not all the same because of who He is. He created each of us in His image, and knows us all intimately. He knitted us together in our mother’s wombs and knows our very makings. He knows how I love to be loved and He knows that that is different for you. He knows us each uniquely and therefore loves us each in our own ways. Pursuing us and giving us the desires of our hearts.
He is yours. Your Father. Waiting for you to cry out to Him as His. Praying that you would seek Him in all His tenderness and patience. I am praying that you all would seek Him in His role as your Father as well. Even if you still have your earthly father, you have both. Seek God as your Father and experience a new intimacy with Him. If you choose to trust Him: He will seek you, provide for you, protect you, love you, fill you with an eternal living water, call you out by name. He is your Father. Will you let Him be? You are His chosen child.
I”ll close by reading Psalm23:
1 The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside quiet waters.
3 He restores my soul;
He guides me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil, for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You have anointed my head with oil;
My cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life,
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
This last Sunday and today I was given the opportunity to give this message on God as our Father. As I have been on the WR God has showed Himself to me most as a father. I am so excited to be able to share this with you!
