A Heavenly Daddy

​Father’s Day was two days ago.  Did you shower blessing and honor upon your father?  Did you express how much you love and appreciate your daddy?
 
Just as our earthly father likes to be called daddy, so also our heavenly Father longs to hear the word spring from our mouths.  Just as the toddler runs full speed towards his daddy, so also God wants us to always run straight towards Him.  Just as a child turns to her father for every need, want, and desire, so also God wants us to turn toward Him.  He wants us to view Him with the same trust, feelings of safety, and love that we associate with our earthly daddy.  So He gave Himself a new name.

The Israelites called Him YWHW, a name that invoked fear, extreme reverence, and utter deference to the mighty God who brought them out of the land of Egypt.  In fact, they so highly revered God’s name that they wouldn’t even speak it in its original form.  They added vowels to this all-consonant name and uttered the word Jehovah instead.
 
However, when the New Testament came along and after Christ paved the way to the Father with His blood, God wanted to be called by a new name.  No longer did He want His beloved children to fearfully call Him Jehovah or YWHW—a name associated with fear and punishment—rather, He wanted close, personal, and intimate relationship.   Therefore, He gave us a new name to call Him by. 
 
A name that holds the promise of safety, protection, and love.  A title that is used when the love of a father has been repeatedly tested and found steadfast and immovable.  He wants us to call Him, “Daddy.”  As Romans 8:15 says: 

“For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

So after we’ve spent a day celebrating, honoring, and showing love and blessing upon our earthly fathers, let’s take some time to do the same for our heavenly One.  Unlike our earthly fathers, our Abba Father will never fail us, will never sin, and will never fall short of our expectations.  Therefore, let us thank our heavenly Daddy for all that He’s done for us, and let us continue to seek after that close “daddy daughter/son” relationship He wants to have with each one of us!