Why I Love my Father – God

On Father's Day while we are thinking about fathers in general, I want to share with you some reasons why I love my father. Not my earthly father, who I love and still miss more than 50 years after he died, no, my heavenly Father, who is alive and with whom I have a daily relationship.

You see, I loved Tony, my human father because he was funny, generous, affectionate, and was always proud of me as his son. You could tell he loved me because he was always telling others about his only son, Michael.

Well, there are reasons why I love my heavenly Father, and on this day I want to honor Him by telling you why.

4 Reasons Why I love God

1. Because of who He is

For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;
And the government will rest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
- Isaiah 9:6

God is a lovable being, honorable, worthy of love and adoration. No matter what condition my life is in or how I feel, I realize that God is always worthy and deserving of my love. I love Him because every time I think about Him I think of more new and wonderful things that He is and He does.

2. Because of what He gives me

From the beginning of my life, God has been kind to me. My very life comes from Him (Psalms 139:13-16). The food, air, water, shelter, family, friends, He provides. Every capacity for pleasure whether it is physical, emotional, spiritual, He has created and provided for me. Every ability I have, every opportunity, He has freely given.

God has consciously and methodically done all of this so that I would recognize Him and His love for me and so that I would return that love. It is very simple. I love Him because of all the wonderful things He freely and joyfully gives me each and every day of my life. So to begin with I love Him for who He is and what He gives me.

3. He accepts me

As humans, we try so hard to hide our failures and sins so others will not reject us. Nothing more painful than rejection and we will do anything to avoid it. When I am alone with myself, I know who and what I am and cannot hide or camouflage my weaknesses, sins, failures to myself. I see it. I am afraid that if others knew me at this level, they would reject me. At this point I am ready to reject myself but I realize that even at this point God accepts me, even knowing what I know about myself, and I love Him for this.

In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
- I John 4:10

There is now no condemnation…
- Romans 8:1

This acceptance of me, sinful me, is what originally sparked my love for God. The fact that when my love for myself ended, His continued to be manifested. This is when I began to love Him and this love grew with the recognition of all He did for me every day and this appreciation developed into reverence and worship for who He is.

4. I love Him because He has provided me with a way to experience and express my love for Him

When one feels love for another, one needs to express it or else it becomes frustrating and demoralizing. You want the other person to know that you love them too!) By revealing Himself in Jesus Christ, God has allowed me to direct my love and gratitude to Him in a way that I can relate to as a human being and thus be satisfied.

In obeying, worshipping, serving Him in Christ, God has allowed me to cross the barrier that divides what is human from what is spiritual and see Him, touch Him. And I love God for condescending to such intimacy with a sinner like Michael Mazzalongo.

In the end, I love God because not only has He loved me more than I could love myself, He has permitted me to love Him back in a way that my love is actually felt and appreciated by Him. It is the privilege of this mutual love that ignites my faith, motivates my ministry, encourages me not to totally give in to sin when I am sorely tempted. This is why I love my Father-God.

Invitation

My question to you is, "do you love the Father?" Your love can be shown in simple ways:

• Believe in His Son Jesus Christ and express that forth in repentance and baptism. To do this is love in action, not to do this is love in words only but not in deeds.
• Honor His Son Jesus Christ through service and worship. Share the bread and wine to remember His death and resurrection and declare that you will serve Him until He returns.