A Prayer to Know God As Father
By Lynette Kittle
“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me’”-- John 14:6
Many people who ask Jesus to be their Lord and Savior stop there. Grateful and relieved to have their sins forgiven with the hope and promise of Heaven, they never go beyond their Salvation experience to understand how Jesus is the Way to have a close and personal relationship with our Heavenly Father.
But as wonderful as being freed from sin’s grip, God doesn’t want us to stop there because Jesus is the door, the gate to knowing Him as Father.
John 10:9, “I am the gate; whoever enters through Me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.”
Likewise, John 6:44 explains how God the Father is the reason, the drawing force to why we are able to invite Jesus into our lives and receive eternal life, as “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
Fatherless Believers
Many men and women in the world have had hurtful, wounding experiences with imperfect earthly fathers. As well as there are countless individuals who have never known, met, or even know who is their biological father, much less experienced a loving father figure in their lives. Because of growing up disappointed, hurt, or fatherless, many reject seeing God as their father, not knowing how or wanting to relate to Him. Yet God calls us to be His sons and daughters. As a result of many earthly fathers failing or abandoning their children or just not knowing how to be a father to their kids, many individuals struggle with relating to Him as their Heavenly Father.
Jesus Is the Way to Our Father
But God the Father’s heart all along, ever since man and woman’s Fall in the garden, has been to restore us as His sons and daughters, and Jesus is the way He provided to bring us back to Him. Ephesians 2:13 explains, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” Through Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection, Jesus accomplished God’s will on earth to redeem and restore us to His Father. As 2 Corinthians 6:18 explains, “And, “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”
Jesus fulfilled His mission on earth, to come and restore us as sons and daughters to the Father. “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus”(Ephesians 2:6). Because of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3).
Let’s pray:
Dear Father,
Thank you for loving me and sending Jesus to the world to free me from my sins and give me eternal life through Him (John 3:16). My heart is forever grateful to You for providing a way to be reconciled to You (2 Corinthians 5:18). Through Jesus, You provided the way for me to be Your child and to know You as my Father.
Mend my heart, Father, from earthly fathering wounds. Remove all walls and barriers that built up over the years to resist receiving Your love and presence in my life. Prepare me to be willing to welcome you into my life as my Father. Show me how to be in a father-child relationship with You. Open up my heart to relate, receive, and reach out to You as my Father. Teach me to see myself as Your child.
Thank you for calling me one of Your children. As 1 Peter 1:3 explains, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy, He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
In Jesus’ name,
Amen
Photo credit: ©GettyImages/rainierridao
Lynette Kittle is married with four daughters. She enjoys writing about faith, marriage, parenting, relationships, and life. Her writing has been published by Focus on the Family, Decision, Today’s Christian Woman, kirkcameron.com, Ungrind.org, StartMarriageRight.com, and more. She has a M.A. in Communication from Regent University and serves as associate producer for Soul Check TV.
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