As Father’s day approaches and Dads all over the country begin to look forward to their full cooked English Breakfast and their brand new pairs of socks, it’s a good time to think of, and appreciate our incredible Father God.

“If we take all the goodness, wisdom and compassion of the best mothers and fathers who have ever lived, they would only be a faint shadow of the love and mercy in the heart of the redeeming God” Brennan Manning.

This Compassion Sunday at church we heard about some fantastic things that God is doing in our city and across the other side of the world. It struck me once again how vast our Father’s heart is for His people. Hearing about the hungry being fed, the babies of the destitute being clothed, those abandoned and lost being housed, those in pain being cared for and the broken and abused being loved. Whilst all of that was mind-blowing, it only revealed a tiny glimpse of the depth of the Father’s heart.

Our Father’s heart is SO vast.

It’s unending…..it goes on and on and on.

It’s all emcompassing….there’s room for EVERYONE, no matter who you are or what you’ve done.

His love is unconditional and abundant….it NEVER ends.

He sings over you, He lifts you up, He strengthens and heals you and He delights in you. He’s planned a future for you.

As Jesus showed us in the story of the prodigal son, He lovingly allows us to learn, and not only that, but He is patient with us and doesn’t condemn us.

I love that His heart for us is to be the unique person He created us to be, to be free and to learn. He loves to see us grow and celebrates every step we take. He brings discipline for us to learn and forgiveness to set us free. He is both the boat that keeps us afloat and the light that rises to give us hope.

Psalm 103 gives us an amazing definition of the Father’s heart.  He is our Father….

v3-12 who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,

who redeems your life from the pit

and crowns you with love and compassion,

who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. 

The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. 

He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel: The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

 

…..v17-18 But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children— with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey.

 

Of course the Father’s heart is revealed most through His Son. Jesus said in John 14:9 “He who has seen me has seen the Father.” What was accomplished for us on the cross is EVERYTHING. Wayne Jacobson says “We did not see what really happened there between the Father and his Son that opened the door to His love so vast and so certain that it cannot be challenged even by our darkest days. Through that door we can really know who God is and embrace a relationship with Him that our deepest hearts have hungered to experience.”

So this Father’s day “I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” Eph 3:17-19