Not Forsaken

Fatherhood matters. It matters to God, and it matters to us. So many of us are growing up fatherless, whether it’s because of illness, absence, or attitude. We carry these wounds with us for the rest of our lives, and even if don’t mean to, we attach those same feelings to our relationship with our Heavenly Father. But God is not a reflection of our earthly Father, He is the perfection of him. In this kick-off message to our new series, Not Forsaken, Louie Giglio reminds us of who we are; loved sons and daughters of a perfect father. In Not Forsaken, Louie Giglio invites us to understand the character of God in a life-changing way: as a perfect Father who wants you to live under the waterfall of His blessing. You see, God is not the bigger version of your earthly dad. He’s the perfect version of your earthly dad. And He’s inviting you to walk in freedom as His loved son or daughter.

In one way or another, each of us has experienced brokenness in our Earthly Dads. Some have been Absent or Abusive; others saw love as a reward to give out based on our performance. There were passive dads and antagonistic dads. Each of these left us with flawed views of fatherhood in general and, therefore, flawed truths about what our Heavenly Father must be like. In part two of our series, Not Forsaken, Louie Giglio walks us through three truths that God wants us to know about Himself as a father and us as His children; 1. That we are loved.2. That we are no longer slaves.3. That we are sons and daughters of God. Why are these things so important? God is interested in his sons and daughters living their lives to their fullest and finding freedom as children of a perfect father.

Every one of us has a family tree. We may or may not love every branch; some may be more complicated than we care to admit, but as we walk through life, the limbs of our tree can determine a lot about us. That is until we realize that through Jesus, we have been adopted into a new family tree. One where our perfect Heavenly Father has brought us into His fold as a loved son or daughter. That’s the tree where we grow from, the source of our strength and life.

The power of genetics is happening right before your eyes. You can deny it or try and beat it all you want, but eventually, we all begin to look more and more like our parents. This is the expected outcome of growing older. Here’s what is also true: You have the potential to grow up and look like your Heavenly Father. In appearance and attitude, we become what we model ourselves on, and in the same way, we can become versions of our Earthly parents; by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can become more and more like Jesus.