Mighty, Tenderhearted Father
What does it mean in everyday life that God is our Father? Let me suggest five fatherly responsibilities that God has assumed toward his children.
God provides for us. "And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19, NIV).
God protects us. "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows" (Matthew 10:29-31, NIV).
God encourages us. "You hear, o lord, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry" (Psalm 10:17, NIV).
God comforts us. "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God" (2 Corinthians 1:3-4, NIV).
God disciplines us. "Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness" (Hebrews12:10, NIV).

For some the very word father brings up images of harshness, cruelty, abuse, unfaithfulness, or perhaps just plain indifference. I remember the words of one student: "If God is like my father, I want nothing to do with God." Happily, God is not like his father. God "is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love" (Psalm 145:8, NIV).

Whether we have a father whom we respect and cherish or one who is worthy to be despised, we should never form our view of God from any human pattern. Rather, we should go to the Bible to get a true picture of our heavenly Father.

Note the contrasting views of God in Psalm 147:3-4: "He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name" (NIV). The same God who by his mighty power creates and sustains the stars in their courses is at the same time the tenderhearted God who heals the broken and binds up their wounds. The Psalms are replete with such fatherly images of God.

As we think of this relationship to God as our heavenly Father, we must always bear one important truth in mind. We have this relationship only through Jesus Christ. It's only because of our union with Christ that we are God's children and he is our Father. That's why Paul wrote, "In him [that is, through our union with Christ] and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence" (Ephesians 3:12, NIV; see also Ephesians 2:18; Hebrews 10:19-22).

Our status as children of God is one more glorious aspect of our inexhaustible treasure in "the unsearchable riches of Christ" (Ephesians 3:8).