Our relationship with our Father God is the most important relationship we have. So naturally in this world, the father & child relationship is going to be what the enemy goes after. This is because his main objective with us is to keep us from knowing and loving God. And what better way to do that than to make us not even want a father, because of how ours were? Because of what we think a father is. The enemy has done just this, and the consequences are evident today.  

 The beautiful point of this whole thing isn’t this problem though. It’s God’s answer to the problem, which is his love. And I don’t mean the superficial “oh yes, God is love, amen.” But actually feeling it, seeing it in action, finding it in his word, and allowing it to change you. That’s what makes you leave everything to follow God. Not “religion.” It’s amazing how just a little bit of God wipes out a whole lot of darkness, and so now that I’ve laid out this giant problem in part 1, I’m so excited to share some times where I’ve seen God redeem it in one little moment.

 In part 1, I was talking about the pain I felt sitting alone with God the Father.  Here’s the thing though. It wasn’t only my pain. It was the Fathers pain. Pain for what I’ve been though, and for how much it was still affecting me in this moment. I could feel his heart grieving for what my life had been, the same way I would grieve for someone who had died. That’s how deeply he cares about you and me, and the things that happen to us. That’s how a father cares. He was in pain because I had been in pain. Because of this, I couldn’t see him for who he really is. And if I could, I would be healed by the love in the Fathers heart. 

 I’ve now had multiple moments where I’ve seen a grown man be filled with this grief out of nowhere, and cry with me and apologize for the things my father figures have done. These men didn’t know anything about my life at all. They never heard anything, and I never told them anything. That’s God the Father sharing his heart with an earthly father, so I could see with my eyes what his heart truly looks like, and what a father should be. And he knew I needed to see that, with no room for doubt about whether it was him. It was crazy and emotional, but it was so beautiful. Those were such healing moments for me, where I really saw the heart of God the Father. 

Something I really love about my relationship with God is that he often shows me things, or has me experience things, before I read them in the word. So then, when I read something in the word that I’ve experienced, it’s just so cool, and so much confirmation. I just recently got a bible in the message version, and it’s so good. It’s so different, that even reading scriptures I know feels like I'm reading them for the first time. Yesterday, I was reading Genesis 37, about how Josephs brothers sold him into slavery, and then told his dad Jacob he’d been killed by a wild animal. I had related a lot to Joseph, and I remember telling my family that (before God brought healing and redemption to us) I felt a lot like Joseph, thrown out by them for no reason. As I was reading this verse that I’m about to share, it’s like God just brought everything full circle and confirmed everything he’d been speaking to me about his love as a father. God is so. cool. 

Genesis 37: 34-35 MSG “Jacob tore his clothes in grief, dressed in rough burlap, and mourned his son a long, long time. His sons and daughters tried to comfort him but he refused their comfort. “I’ll go to the grave mourning my son.” Oh, how his father wept for him.”

God showed me, as Jacob mourned, grieved, and wept for what had happened to his son Joseph, that is how God mourns, grieves, and weeps for the things that have happened to you and me. That is what I experienced during my one on one moment with the Father, and with the fathers who cried and prayed with me. It was so beautiful reading it in this version after having experienced it with God. 

It has been so beautiful learning about how gentle and kind the Father is, and seeing how much his heart truly breaks because of the things that happen to us. For me, that alone is so healing and life changing, because I know that the things people have said or done to me aren’t a reflection of who he is, or his heart for me. I’m so thankful that he has shown me this truth about him, and it has really begun to heal my idea of God as a father, and fathers in general. I pray that after reading this you walk away with more peace & understanding about who the father is, and how big and perfect his love is for you.