Fatherly Compassion

"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."

Psalm 103:10-14

A good father is sensitive to the relationship he shares with his child.  It is his desire to train and discipline, but always with the intention of preserving the bond.  Too hard and the connection will be broken under the strain.  Too soft and the respect weakens.  God shows such fatherly compassion to me as His child.

Sin.  I could be a big disappointment to God.  After all, He made me for relationship with Him yet I fail to live life the way He created me to live (Romans 3:23).  I often go my own way, stubbornly refusing His advances and willfully attempt life on my own, under my terms with the goal of pleasing myself.  

Still, His love preserved the bond between He and I by designing a plan for redemption (Titus 2:14).  Out of His love for me and a desire to protect the Father/child relationship, He offered His own Son as a sacrifice to atone for my sins (Romans 5:8).  Now, through faith in Jesus Christ, my sins have been forgiven, removed from me as if I were Jesus, the One without sin (John 3:16-17, Isaiah 1:18).

Therefore, when my Father looks upon me, the wrath is gone, the disappointment doesn't exist, there is no disgust in my choices.  Instead, all that remains is love, and it is the greatest of all powers (1 Corinthians 13:13)!

God shows His fatherly compassion by loving me enough to give His own Son in order to preserve our relationship.

Comfort.  The news was difficult.  To hear he would never drive again, that his freedom had been snatched away, a piece of his identity destroyed was the worst news of his hard life.  How could he bear the thought of never getting out on his motorcycle to enjoy the scenery along the open road?  There was nothing the daughter could say to her dad to give him comfort.  Instead, she relied upon the Father of compassion to do the consoling (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).

No one can comfort like our Father can.  He knows exactly what each of us needs to hear, and He has His ways of giving just what each of His children need in order to encourage, uplift, and give a hopeful outlook.  

When all seems lost, His supernatural compassion soothes my aching heart, binding up my wounds and setting the hurts to healing.  When the pain is so great, He mysteriously brings relief and shows me a glimpse of His heart for me.  When I feel I cannot carry on, He strengthens my resolve and gives me a fresh outlook on life.  

God shows His fatherly compassion by comforting me in ways only possible for Him as my Father.

Sanctification.  He loves me too much to leave me as I am.  It is God's desire as my Father to grow me in grace, to purify me for His purposes, to lead me through a life-long process that chisels away more and more of me to make way for more and more of Him.  It is His desire that I resemble His Son when the process is complete (1 Thessalonians 5:23, Colossians 3:4, 1 John 3:2).

Therefore, as a daughter of a compassionate Father such as this, I can expect to be molded through difficult experiences, shaped into Christ-likeness through the hard things I endure in faith, formed into the Jesus model by every life-moment (Romans 8:29).  Nothing is wasted in God's kingdom, for He uses it all to transform me into the woman I'm meant to be.

God shows His fatherly compassion by walking me through the life-long sanctification process that ends at the glory of His Son.

Many of us do not know what good fathering looks like, but as we grow in our relationship with our heavenly Father, we learn what it means to have a good Father.  He preserves my relationship through His plan of redemption, comforting me as only He can, and takes me through a life-long process of sanctification.  In these ways, I experience fatherly compassion at its best!

As I begin this day it is my prayer that I can trust God enough as my Father to let Him comfort me when things are hard.

When do I attempt to live my own life instead of cooperating with the sanctification process my Father loves me enough to walk me through?

How do I live as if my sin defines me instead of living as the one who has been set free?