Our Father God is Kind and Compassionate
“Make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
This was the response I received from my parents after being confronted with my sin. I was a teenager and struggling with a sin-confess-sin-confess cycle. In conversations with my parents, my youth pastor and others, the predominant response I received was the same: I should stop my bad behaviors and try harder to do better.
But that was the problem. I wanted to stop my sinful behaviors and live a life that honored God. I just didn’t know how.
The majority of time I asked for help, it felt like people were simply insensitive and uncaring. I was quick to become angry at myself when I failed; I hated myself for not being better.
What I realize now is that they didn’t know how to help me. They also were not dealing fully with their own issues. In fact, about a year after I sought help from my youth pastor, he had to leave the church due to a moral failure.
In the moment, the insidious temptation was to think that God was insensitive and uncaring. I figured He knew how to help me and had the power to do so. I desperately wanted Him to take away my sin and temptations. Why wouldn’t He respond to my prayers and remove them?
My conclusion as a teenager was that God must be just as angry and disgusted with me as I felt toward myself.
It wasn’t until I was exposed to the teaching of Freedom in Christ that I learned the Biblical truths about my Father God. These truths were driven home through The Steps to Freedom in Christ as I confessed and prayed with a good brother in Christ. Even after I had confessed everything I had ever done, my friend not only continued to love me as a brother, but he even liked me as a friend! He and I then walked through what it meant to sin-confess-repent-believe and act on the truth by the power of the Holy Spirit. We studied what God had already accomplished for us (His responsibility) compared to what we were responsible for (our responsibility); for example, to “work out our salvation” (Philippians 2:12) and “offer the members of our body as instruments of righteousness, not unrighteousness (Romans 6:12-23).
Twenty-five years later, the outcome of my life is far different because of a good friend’s sensitivity and care in the midst of my struggles. His attitude and treatment of me reflected our loving heavenly Father’s heart.
Our heavenly Father knows every single thing about us. “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12-13, CSB).
Even though He knows everything about us (especially those things we wish He didn’t know!), “The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and full of faithful love. He will not always accuse us, or be angry forever. He has not dealt with us as our sins deserve or repaid us according to our offenses. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His faithful love toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him. For He knows what we are made of, remembering that we are dust.” (Psalm 103:8-14, NASB)
Consider that these verses were written to the entire nation of Israel regarding their history as a people. If the LORD is able to be compassionate, gracious, patient, and full of faithful love to millions of people over hundreds of years, then our short lifetime and finite amount of sin cannot diminish God’s ability to be gracious, patient and loving toward each of us as individuals.
“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! …Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure.” (1 John 3:1&3, NIV)
Dear Saints, when we believe our Father is insensitive and uncaring and therefore unwilling to help us, our only option is self-effort and independent striving. From a spiritual perspective, self-reliance only leads to further defeat like I experienced as a teenager. But when we approach our Father as One who is sensitive and caring—trusting in His accomplished work through Jesus Christ on our behalf—we find help to walk in freedom from sin.
“I renounce the lie that You, Father God, are insensitive and don’t know me or care for me.”
“I choose to believe the truth that You, Father God, are kind and compassionate and know every single thing about me.” (Psalm 103:8-14, 1 John 3:1-3, Hebrews 4:12-13) – Neil T. Anderson, The Steps to Freedom in Christ, p. 13.