Father to the Fatherless

“Sing to God, sing praises to His name; extol Him who rides on the clouds, by His name YAH, and rejoice before Him. A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in His holy habitation.  God sets the solitary in families…” – Psalms 68:4-6

God’s design for us was the family unit with Father, Mother, and children. He made Adam and Eve, and told them “be fruitful and multiply”, designating that each child would have both a father and a mother.  But through our own sin, we have destroyed that perfect design, and many today do not have a father in their homes.  Today, being Father’s Day, brings a grief to their hearts that often goes unspoken. 

In that same way, many have father’s that they know by name, but don’t have a relationship with them built on love and respect.  In many ways, these too are fatherless and today they feel a sorrow equal to those that never knew their fathers. 

To those of you who are heavy hearted today, those that are fatherless, I want to offer you peace over your situation.  I want you to know that this was not God’s design for your life, and He has made plans and preparations for you to be His.

The relationship with an earthly father brings many comforts to life.  They offer protection, help, advice, and love without judgment.  But God has left nothing undone in His filling the role of Father.

He, our creator, loved us before we were born, before a man was used to conceive us.  He is the FIRST Father, in that He allowed us to be brought into life.  Jeremiah 1:5 says that before He formed us in the womb, He knew us.  Long before the man who conceived you came into the picture, there was God, loving you, planning for your birth.  There are no unplanned pregnancies in this life.  God has planned each and every one. 

Long before you came to this world, God saw you in His plans, and your need for Him as a Father.  He stepped up to the plate to meet those needs, and provided Jesus, His own flesh-and-blood son to be our ransom.  Revelation 13:8 says that Jesus is the “lamb slain before the foundation of the world” indicating that His death for our Salvation was planned even before the world was made.

John further explains Jesus being planned to allow our intimate relationship with God the Father.  In John 1:10-13 we read that the world was made through Him, and to us “He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”  You don’t become God’s child out of anything you do, but out of the will of God, who wants you, and wants to be your Father.

What kind of a Father is God to the fatherless? 

He is a helper, ever present, ever listening to your cries.  In Exodus 22:23, God speaks of the orphans and says “if he does cry out to Me, I will surely hear his cry”.  The Psalmist writes in Psalms 10:14 “You have been the helper of the orphan.” 

He is a provider.  Of the names given to God, Jehovah Jirah means “God our Provider”. In Matthew 7:11 Jesus speaks of Father God’s gifts to us, and compares Him to earthly fathers saying, “If you [earthly fathers] then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much MORE will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”  He gives gifts of far greater value to us than the greatest earthly Father could give.

He is a defender and protector.  In Malachi 3:5 He says that He will be “a swift witness against” those that oppress the fatherless.  He warns of His anger towards those that harm you in Isaiah 10:2.  The Psalmist writes in Psalms 10:17-18 that God has heard your desires, and will vindicate you.  To His children He says in Joel 2:27, “I am the Lord your God and there is no other. My people shall never be put to shame.”  In Romans 8:31, Paul writes “If God is for us, who can be against us?”  Indeed, the creator and ruler of the universe, our Father God, is on our side.

If you are still fatherless, it is not by God’s design.  He offers Himself as your father through the death of His own flesh and blood, Jesus Christ, on the cross.  A relationship with Him comes only through Jesus, who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”(John 14:6). If you believe in Jesus, accept His salvation as payment of your sin debt, and confess Him as your Savior (Romans 10:8-10).  You receive God as your Father, the Greatest Father of all.  He in turn, because He desires to be intimately connected to you, as close as in your heart, gives you His Holy Spirit.  Romans 5:5 says that we have comfort and hope, “because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”  You are never alone again because God is eternally within your heart.

But you gain more than just Father God in the relationship He gives.  You also receive family.  Psalms 68:5 says that He will be Father to the fatherless, and that He “sets the solitary in families”.  God knows you need Him in the flesh around you.  You need interaction with others who are in your Christian family.  So He plants your life within the lives of those of us who love you with a unique love that only a brother or sister in Christ can offer.  We love you because He first loved us.  We have a bond that is from the heart, a bond that will last eternally.

Choose God as your Father.  It is His will to love you unconditionally, to provide for you, to help you, to defend you, and be your all in all.  In God’s perfect design, there are no fatherless children.