The Growing Father

The pathway to effective “fathering” is to know the Father.  (v. “. . . forget not all his benefits . . .)

Moses knew God differently than the children of Israel.  Maturing relationships grow away from fear and formality to intimacy.  As children we obey our Fathers with respect and a degree of fear – somewhere along the way we seek to understand them as friends and our feelings change.  Have your feelings about God ever changed in the years that you have known of Him?  (v. 7 “He made known His ways to Moses and his deeds to the people of Israel.”

We understand the heavenly Father through our own experience as fathers. (v. 13 – “as a father has compassion, . . .  so the Lord . . . .”)  There is a relationship – a likeness between the heart nature of the heavenly Father and the earthly father.

We love our own like we love no others.  Although he loves all men there are certain graces reserved for those who know are in relationship with him. (v. 13 “As a father has compassion, . . . so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.”)

q    Because He knows how we are formed.

q    Because he knows what we are made of.