A New Way of Looking At God
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"Our Father, who art in Heaven". Without a doubt, the 
central word is "Father". A quick glance at a concordance 
reveals that the name "Father" is applied to God very 
infrequently in the Old Testament and never by a person 
referring to God as "my Father." It always refers to God 
as the Father of the nation of Israel. When we come to 
the New Testament, we discover that Jesus called God 
"Father" more than 60 times. Why this enormous difference? 
Because the revelation of God as our personal Father is 
based on the coming of Jesus Christ into the world.  It's 
not that he wasn't a Father to his people in the Old 
Testament, but that's not the primary way He revealed 
Himself. Only in the New Testament do we discover that God 
is now the Father of those who come to the Lord Jesus 
Christ by faith.

The word "father" in the Bible means three basic things.  
First, it refers to source or paternity or origin. God is 
the source of all that you have. When we sing the Doxology, 
we begin with the words "Praise God from whom all blessings 
flow".  Or as the Scripture says, "In him we live and move 
and have our being" (Acts 17:25).  When you call God "Father", 
you declare that your ultimate origin rests with him.

Second, the word Father speaks of parental authority. He is 
God and you are not.  He is running the show and you are not.  
He is a father; you are his child.  We must not use the fact 
of God's love as an excuse to reject his right to rule over 
us. Because he is our Father in heaven, he has the right to 
do as he pleases even if his ways do not always sense to us. 
"He may send us pain and circumstances that frustrate us. 
We must not act like spoiled children when this occurs" (Tom 
Wells).  We should affirm our confidence in his goodness 
toward us at all times.

Third, when you call God "Father," you confess that he is 
a God of tender loving care.  There's a Hebrew word in the 
Old Testament-hesed-which is translated a number of different 
ways.  In the King James, hesed is usually translated as 
lovingkindness.  As in "thy lovingkindness is better than life". 
The newer translations take that concept and add the concept 
of faithfulness to it. This word speaks of God's loyal love 
to all His children. It is the love that keeping on loving 
no matter what we do or how badly we blow it or how many 
dumb mistakes we make. He is a God who never lets his children 
go. He loves his children with an everlasting love that is 
faithful and loyal no matter what happens.

When we were far away, he loved us.  When we turned our back 
on him, he loved us.  When we broke his law, he loved us.  
When we went our own way, he loved us.  When we said, "Leave 
us alone, we don't want you around anymore", he said, "I'm 
going to stay around anyway." And when we ran, he followed.  
When we hid, he found us.  When we cursed him to his face, 
he just smiled and said, "I love you anyway." That's what 
loyal love is all about. That's the Father's love for his 
children. He is always near us whether we see Him or feel 
Him or even whether we believe He is there or not.

- extracted from a sermon by Pastor Ray Prichard, 
Keep Believing Ministries