Didn't have a father, or had a bad one? Guess what, you have the best Father ever!

Hi everyone!  I know I often post about end times and God's judgement, which is my passion and calling from God. Lord knows, we have enough people preaching about the love and grace of God (Both great things!)  However, today I'm going to post something personal from my own life that I hope will bless and strengthen you.

You see, I never had an earthly father. He left my mother when I was very young, and for reasons I won't mention here, he stayed away most of my life. I was a very shy and insecure child, party genetic, I'm sure, and partly just environment. Not having a loving and encouraging father figure impacted me greatly, though I didn't know it at the time. Though a mother's role is vitally important, I believe a father's role is even more so in the lives of both boys and girls.

Due to my lack of a father and my intense insecurity, I spent many years searching for what I now know was the unconditional love and adoration of a father. In all the wrong places, as the song goes. I was repeated hurt, rejected, and used. I ended up bitter, angry, and defiant in allowing anyone to get close enough to hurt me again.

Then came Jesus, and my life changed dramatically. Not overnight, of course, but through the years as I walked with Him and grew to love Him. Yet, I still carried around that nagging insecurity and sense of worthlessness from my youth. I knew in my head that God loved me, but I couldn't accept in my heart that he really did. I mean, if my own father didn't, why would God?

I have walked with God now for 23 years. And I can honestly say, that only recently have I begun to understand and accept and believe that He is my Father and that He has always been my Father, and that He adores me as His very special princess, and that He has always adored me.  What changed? And why did it take so long? I have no idea, except that I have spent years reading His Word, years talking with Him, years asking Him to show me His love. And He has shown me His love in so many ways, but it never really sank in until recently. I mean, really sank in.

God began to show me scenes from my past when I was misbehaving badly and putting myself in danger...things I had forgotten. And He told He was there all along...through every scraped knee, every broken heart, every accomplishment, every sin, every stupid thing I did, every tear I shed. I didn't know it at the time, but He was there.

He loves me. He is my Father. And He has always been with me. He planted me in my mother's womb, watched over me while I grew, took care of me when I was a baby, smiled and laughed with me when I was a child, celebrated with me on my accomplishments, protected me when I did stupid things as a teenager, cried when I turned away from Him and rebelled, sought after me when I was lost, and pulled me out of the mud and washed me off when I sunk so low I wanted to die.

Like any good Father... no, I take that back. God is not like any good father. He is the best Father, the perfect Father, and like the perfect Father, He loves, hopes, encourages, instructs, disciplines, forgives, loves, and saves.  He is my Abba, my Daddy.

For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.  Romans 8:15-16

So, if you had a bad father or an absent father, turn to the living God. He wants to show you how He's been your Father all along. 

My earthly father is still alive somewhere, and he still wants nothing to do with me or his grandkids. Yet, I forgive him. I pray for him. He's just a lost soul to me now.  His rejection means nothing because he's not my father. I have a Father who adores me beyond measure, and who someday soon, I will see face to face!