Surrendering to the Love of a Good Heavenly Father

“Normally, my day is filled with bad news,” the judge said.  “But today is different.  It’s a day of celebration; this is a moment that reminds you there is goodness and beauty in the world.” 

I’ve heard a judge communicate this intent twice in my life.  Both times were at an adoption hearing.  Both for the same dear friends who have adopted five kids. 

So far.  😉

When you know the stories of the kids and watch miraculous redemption play out in front of your eyes, adoption is beyond moving. 

To see little human beings, who were previously starving, fighting to survive, be welcomed as a part of a family where they will have their every need attended to and be loved like crazy – it leaves you speechless.

It’s no wonder that God uses the metaphor of adoption to invite us to understand His relentless love.  We cannot know God apart from knowing love.  Since God is infinite, we will never be able to take in all of His love. 

But every ounce of His love that we take in will be transformational.   

God’s love is so thorough, comprehensive, intricate, infinite, and intimate that He joyfully satisfies every part of our being, every relational need we have. 

Being fiercely loved by parents is a deep, visceral need of every human heart.  God wants us to know His love in multifaceted ways.  Surrendering to His love as Father is essential to our relationship with God.    

Everyone Needs the Love of a Father

No one gets into this world without a father.  Just the mention of “father” triggers something in our souls.  For some, it is mostly good.  For others, it’s mostly bad, if not devastating.  And for others, the concept of a father is complex and confusing. 

God’s heart breaks for those who can’t fathom what it means to feel the safety and security of a father’s love.  He is gutted by this.  God the Father cannot help Himself from rushing into the mess – whatever the cost – to bring His children home.    

America leads the industrialized world in the domain of fatherless families.  You read that right.  This tragic song is set to the tune of some 18.5 million fatherless children in the U.S.  This equals one out of every four children in the U.S. living without a biological, step, or adoptive father in their home. 

The results are devastating. 

Please don’t mistake me for saying that mothers are unimportant.  Quite the opposite.  Mothers are essential.  If strong, faithful women weren’t holding together the lives of these precious children, all hell might break loose. 

Given this reality, the concept of surrendering to the love of the Father may feel impossible or insensitive at best, or unsafe or abusive at worst. 

And yet – something must be done. 

Ignoring the pain won’t provide relief.  Minimizing God’s design for fathers to display His love as a Father won’t create solutions.  We’ll continue to fill the void with substitutes that will not and cannot care for our souls in the ways God longs to. 

The love of God is not an abstract concept to study, a fairy tale to dream of, or a false hope that teases us. 

No. 

God is a good, good Father.  A real Person.  He speaks, He pursues, He rescues, He heals, He redeems.  He raises the dead.  He creates a home, a family for the orphan.   

God calls Himself a Father to the fatherless.  Think about that.  That cuts against the grain of everything we assume about what it means to be blessed. 

Who would say an orphan is blessed?  God says that the parentless child is His.  And He is a ferocious defender.  He will provide.  He has said that pure religion is about looking after the widow and the orphan. 

We don’t have to look any further than Jesus to see how ravenously committed God is to bringing orphans into His family. 

Following Jesus into Surrendering to the Father’s Love

Jesus is the Big Brother we all need.  The Father sent Jesus to rescue the children who have been abducted and abandoned, as well as those who have wandered away. 

Jesus showed us what it looks like to live as a cherished child of God.  When Jesus invites us to follow Him, it’s like He’s walking through an orphanage, asking us if we want to come home to a family that loves us like crazy.   

God yearns to heal your every wound.  When He could no longer bear it, He sent Jesus to find, rescue, and adopt us.  It’s like He just said – enough! 

IT

ENDS

NOW 

In Jesus, we see a God who threw Himself in the middle of the most painful messes.  There’s good evidence to suggest that even Jesus knows what it’s like to be fatherless from a human perspective. 

Mary’s husband, Joseph, isn’t mentioned in the Bible after Jesus’ teenage years.  Historians tentatively conclude this to mean that Joseph died sometime before Jesus became an adult. 

Still, Jesus offers to share His relationship with the Father.  When He taught us to pray, He said we should start by praying to “our Father who is in heaven.” 

He soothed our anxiety by saying that if our Father in heaven takes care of birds, we can bet our souls that He’ll take care of us, too. 

Jesus said we don’t have to live like orphans anymore.  Not in the love of God.  It cost Jesus too much for Him to let us settle for suffering under a spirit of abandonment or abuse. 

Jesus went to the cross and let the forces of evil throw their worst at Him.  Even what it feels like to be abandoned by a father.  Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 

Because Jesus was rejected, we can be welcomed in.  Through Jesus’ saving work on the cross, you are not only…

               …declared innocent in God’s courtroom, but also…

                              …invited into God’s throne room, and even more….

                                             …welcomed in God’s living room.

After Jesus was raised from the dead and ascended into heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit to dwell among us and within us. 

Sometimes, people are afraid of God speaking to them.  They fear, probably in part because of these fatherless issues, that if God speaks, He will be angry and condemning.  Or maybe that He won’t show up and they’ll be even more devastated than had they not gotten their hopes up at all. 

But God is not angry.  He is love.  God is not condemning – Jesus already was condemned so that we could be eternally welcomed.  God sees us in pain, fear, anxiety, rebellion, sin, struggle – and can’t help but rush in to rescue us. 

Many parents know what this impulse feels like.  When my 13-year-old son needed to go into surgery to address an issue with his eyesight, I would have given anything to trade eyes with him, take on his infirmities, and suffer whatever consequences, so that he could be healthy and healed. 

This is just a fraction of what God feels for us – and even better – what He’s done for us.  He didn’t only look at our pain with compassion, He took it on Himself.  “By His stripes, we are healed.” 

God will not relent until our hearts are able to fully embrace all of the love He has for us.  One of the Holy Spirit’s greatest delights is to increasingly impress upon our hearts how deeply loved we are as children of the Father. 

Surrendering to the Spirit of Adoption

Romans 8:15 says that “we were not given a spirit of fear to fall back into slavery, but THE Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out Abba Father.” 

THE Spirit of adoption. 

Jesus literally, verbatim, promised that He would not leave us as orphans.  He PROMISED that He would send the Holy Spirit to be with us.  And if you can dare to believe this, Jesus said it would be even BETTER to have the Holy Spirit with us than Him! 

God is a good Father in every possible way.  He doesn’t have a bad day, make mistakes, get too busy, or forget promises.  He’s not indulgent or falsely flattering.  He’s strong and kind.  He’s just and merciful.  He will say “no” to anything that’s not good for you and will never withhold anything that is good. 

If you run away, He’ll find you.  When you come home, He’ll celebrate lavishly.  He is so, so proud of you.  Wants only the best for you.  He won’t relent or spare any expense in giving you the world. 

It may not be safe to surrender to the “love” of some fathers.  But surrendering to the love of our Father in heaven is the only place our hearts will ever be perfectly safe. 

God will meet you in perfect tenderness.  He can and will gently touch every bruise on our hearts and heal us with His unfailing love. 

You see, the Christian life isn’t about adopting certain practices and overcoming some behaviors.  It is about the love of God transforming your heart in real, powerful, intimate ways. 

Sometimes, God’s love meets us in places of pain that we need to be healed from.  At other times, His love touches places of rebellion that we need to turn from.  But He always meets us in love, without condemnation or shame.  His goal is always to deepen our connection with Him in love. 

Now, can you imagine how different your life will be when you live – every day –  like a cherished, delighted-in, safe, provided-for, strong, beautiful, smart, generous, compassionate, creative, merciful, attentive, child of God the Father? 

Sounds heavenly, doesn’t it?  The Holy Spirit can’t wait to have more of this grace, goodness, and beauty breakthrough in your life. 

Living an Adopted, Abundant, Surrendered Life

The metaphor of adoption is potent.  However, 21st-century adoption in Western cultures differs from that in the ancient Roman Empire. 

In the modern West, people typically adopt young children from disadvantaged situations.  It’s so amazing. 

In ancient Rome, people didn’t adopt babies.  Typically, a couple who were unable to conceive would adopt an adult servant or slave that they thought would be worthy of carrying on their family legacy. 

This is how Caesar Augustus inherited the throne from his uncle, Julius Caesar. 

So when the Bible declares that we have been adopted into God’s family, we’re invited to let the force of all of these realities soften and heal our hearts. 

He saw us in our desperate, vulnerable state and intervened so that the entire trajectory of our lives would be marked by grace, dignity, honor, beauty, love, and acceptance.

The Father saw YOU and deemed YOU worthy of inheriting the entire earth in His Name, cultivating creation with Him to display the beauty of His splendor for all to enjoy. 

This adoption is more costly than we can conceive.  It cost Jesus His life.  And God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit say – YOU are worth it.

Life as Beloved Sons and Daughters of a Perfect Father

Some people get tripped up by the Bible communicating that we’ve been adopted as sons.  Isn’t that minimizing of daughters? 

Astoundingly – no.  It’s the opposite. 

In the ancient world, only adopted sons had the full legal rights of the family.  So when the Bible says we’ve been adopted as sons, God wants the ladies to know, to feel, to experience, and to live like they are full-fledged, equally delighted in, and empowered members of the family of God.

God is the perfect Parent.  It’s incredible.  He lavishes us with abundance – without being indulgent.  He sets up boundaries and disciplines us for our ultimate good, always with perfect kindness. 

God is so unbelievably good.  He doesn’t even ask us to serve Him.  Instead, He asks us to serve others WITH Him.  Jesus even tells us not to worry because it’s the Father’s GOOD PLEASURE to give us the Kingdom.  What?  You gotta be kidding me. 

Jesus says we can be so confident in God’s care for us that we could sell everything we have and give it to those who have nothing – because God will continue to provide for us in miraculous ways. 

In Isaiah 61, God promises that those who were formerly devastated will know God’s love in potent, transforming ways.  So much so that these people will overflow with generous creativity that will rebuild the ancient ruins to become places of flourishing. 

No one wants to sit on the sidelines.  We want to take risks and contribute in meaningful ways to things that matter.  We want to be equipped and empowered.  To be safe.  To know that at the end of pouring out our best energy, we will be welcomed home. 

Jesus promises us this.  He tells parables that show us that God the Father is so eager to say to YOU – well done, good and faithful one.  Enter my rest. 

The Church in Portland Can Love the City Like a Healthy Family

Wherever this article finds you, know this.  God is madly in love with you.  He is a Father who will stop at nothing to give you everything. 

He will go to Hell and back to bring you back to His family.  He will defend you from every enemy, supply your every need, heal every wound, fulfill your deepest longings – and absolutely love every minute of it. 

God the Father loves that YOU are His child.