Psalm 27:10
There are wounds people carry that are invisible to everyone around them. Some people walk into church smiling while carrying years of abandonment.
There are wounds people carry that are invisible to everyone around them.
Some people walk into church smiling while carrying years of abandonment.
Some worship while secretly feeling unwanted.
Some read verses about the love of God while struggling to believe those verses could ever truly apply to them personally.
Especially when it comes to understanding God as Father.
For many people, the word “father” brings comfort.
Safety.
Protection.
Love.
Acceptance.
Security.
But for others, the word carries pain.
Absence.
Rejection.
Neglect.
Fear.
Anger.
Manipulation.
Harshness.
Abuse.
Silence.
Some people grew up never hearing:
“I love you.”
“I’m proud of you.”
“I’m here for you.”
Others spent their entire childhood trying to earn affection that was never freely given.
Trying harder.
Performing better.
Achieving more.
Hoping that maybe this time they would finally receive approval.
Some were abandoned physically.
Others emotionally.
Others spiritually.
And because of these wounds, many Christians struggle deeply with understanding God the Father.
Not because they hate God.
Not because they reject Scripture.
Not because they do not believe in Christ.
But because wounded human experiences often distort how we view Him.
And if we are not careful, we can spend our entire Christian lives relating to God through the lens of human disappointment rather than divine revelation.
Yet the Bible teaches something incredibly important:
We are not supposed to understand God through broken earthly fathers.
We are supposed to understand what fatherhood should have been through God.
Earthly fathers do not define God.
God defines what a father was always meant to be.
The problem is not that God is like broken fathers.
The problem is that broken fathers are unlike God.
And until we understand that truth, we will continue struggling to trust the Father revealed in Scripture.
The Lord already knew there would be people carrying father wounds.
Nothing about your pain surprises God.
Nothing about your struggles catches Him off guard.
Before you were ever born, God already knew the brokenness that sin would bring into families.
That is why throughout Scripture God repeatedly reveals His heart toward the abandoned, rejected, forgotten, and wounded.
Listen to what David says in Psalm 27:10:
“For my father and my mother have forsaken me,
but the LORD will take me in.” (ESV)
What an incredible statement.
The two people who should have been the safest place in a child’s life may fail.
The two people who should have provided security may disappoint.
But David says even if that happens, the Lord will take me in.
Notice David does not say the Lord might take me in.
He says the Lord will take me in.
That is certainty.
That is security.
That is covenant love.
David understood rejection deeply.
In 1 Samuel 16, when Samuel arrived to anoint Israel’s next king, David’s own father did not initially bring him before the prophet.
Jesse presented every other son first.
David was forgotten in the fields.
Ignored by men.
But seen by God.
Church, people may overlook you.
God does not.
People may abandon you.
God does not.
People may reject you.
God does not.
Listen to Deuteronomy 31:6:
“It is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.” (ESV)
And then centuries later, Hebrews 13:5 repeats the exact same promise:
“I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (ESV)
Why repeat it?
Because God’s people continually struggle to believe it.
Human beings fail.
God does not.
Human promises are broken.
God’s promises stand forever.
Human love can disappear.
God’s love remains faithful.
Paul writes in 2 Timothy 2:13:
“if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.” (ESV)
What comfort this brings.
God’s faithfulness is not dependent upon our perfection.
His faithfulness flows from His character.
Some earthly fathers walk away when life becomes difficult.
God stays.
Some earthly fathers disappear when responsibility becomes costly.
God stays.
Some earthly fathers abandon their children.
God stays.
Because faithfulness is not merely something God does.
Faithfulness is who God is.
One of the greatest spiritual battles many people face is unknowingly projecting the failures of broken people onto God.
This happens more often than we realize.
If a father was harsh, people often assume God is harsh.
If a father was impossible to please, people assume God is impossible to please.
If a father was absent, people assume God is distant.
If a father was abusive, people assume God is angry and unsafe.
But Scripture repeatedly reveals something glorious:
God is unlike sinful humanity.
Numbers 23:19 says:
“God is not man, that he should lie,
or a son of man, that he should change his mind.” (ESV)
God does not possess the sinful inconsistencies that characterize fallen humanity.
Listen to Psalm 145:8-9:
“The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
The LORD is good to all,
and his mercy is over all that he has made.” (ESV)
Notice the language.
Gracious.
Merciful.
Slow to anger.
Abounding in steadfast love.
This is not the description of an abusive father.
This is not the description of a cruel authority figure.
This is the revelation of the living God.
Exodus 34:6 declares:
“The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” (ESV)
This verse becomes one of the most quoted descriptions of God throughout the Old Testament.
Why?
Because humanity constantly forgets His true character.
We remember our pain.
We remember our disappointments.
We remember our wounds.
But God keeps reminding us who He is.
Micah 7:18 says:
“He does not retain his anger forever,
because he delights in steadfast love.” (ESV)
Think about that.
God delights in steadfast love.
He delights in mercy.
He delights in forgiveness.
He delights in restoring sinners.
That is the Father’s heart.
Some people struggle to trust authority because authority wounded them.
Some grew up around rage.
Violence.
Manipulation.
Emotional cruelty.
Some fathers used strength to wound rather than protect.
Control rather than nurture.
Fear rather than love.
And because of those experiences, some people fear God instead of resting in Him.
But Jesus reveals something entirely different.
Listen carefully to Matthew 11:28-30:
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart…” (ESV)
Gentle.
Lowly.
Approachable.
Compassionate.
Safe.
Jesus does not say, “Come to Me and I will crush you.”
He says, “Come to Me and I will give you rest.”
Isaiah 42:3 says:
“a bruised reed he will not break,
and a faintly burning wick he will not quench…” (ESV)
The bruised reed is already damaged.
The wick is already weak.
Yet Christ handles both gently.
Psalm 147:3 says:
“He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.” (ESV)
Notice God does not ignore wounds.
He binds them.
He heals them.
He ministers to them.
Psalm 103:13-14 says:
“As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him.
For he knows our frame;
he remembers that we are dust.” (ESV)
God understands every scar.
Every fear.
Every insecurity.
Every memory.
Every tear cried when nobody else knew.
Nothing about your struggles surprises Him.
Many people know Jesus as Savior but still struggle to know the Father’s heart.
Yet Jesus came specifically to reveal the Father.
John 1:18 says:
“No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” (ESV)
Jesus makes the Father known.
Philip once said:
“Lord, show us the Father…” (John 14:8)
And Jesus answered:
“Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9)
If you want to know what the Father is like, look at Jesus.
Watch Him touch the leper.
Watch Him forgive sinners.
Watch Him welcome outcasts.
Watch Him restore failures.
Mark 1:41 says:
“Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him.” (ESV)
John 11:35 says:
“Jesus wept.” (ESV)
John 21 reveals Christ restoring Peter after Peter denied Him three times.
Why?
Because Jesus reveals the Father’s heart.
Colossians 1:15 says:
“He is the image of the invisible God…” (ESV)
Hebrews 1:3 says:
“He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature…” (ESV)
Everything Jesus does reveals the Father.
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!’” (ESV)
The Gospel is not merely forgiveness.
The Gospel is adoption.
Many believers are saved but still live emotionally as orphans.
Always afraid.
Always insecure.
Always wondering if God still loves them.
Always fearing rejection.
But Ephesians 1:5 says:
“he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ…” (ESV)
Adoption means chosen.
Wanted.
Pursued.
Loved.
1 John 3:1 says:
“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God…” (ESV)
Not tolerated.
Children.
Not merely accepted.
Children.
Not probationary family members.
Children.
Luke 15 may be the clearest picture of God’s heart in all of Scripture.
The son rebels.
Leaves.
Squanders everything.
Destroys his life.
And finally returns believing he no longer deserves sonship.
Yet Luke 15:20 says:
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.” (ESV)
The father was watching.
Waiting.
Longing.
The son expected rejection.
The father gave embrace.
The son expected punishment.
The father restored him.
Luke 15:22-24 says:
“Bring quickly the best robe…
put a ring on his hand…
and shoes on his feet…
For this my son was dead, and is alive again…” (ESV)
This is God’s heart toward repentant sinners.
Restoration.
Grace.
Welcome.
Love.
Some still ask:
“How do I know God truly loves me?”
Look at the cross.
John 3:16 says:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son…” (ESV)
Romans 5:8 says:
“but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (ESV)
Not after we fixed ourselves.
Not after we cleaned ourselves up.
While we were broken.
Romans 8:32 says:
“He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all…” (ESV)
The cross is the ultimate proof of the Father’s love.
It is the Father making a way to bring His children home.
2 Corinthians 5:18-19 says:
“through Christ reconciled us to himself…” (ESV)
The fatherless brought home.
The abandoned welcomed in.
The orphan adopted.
The broken restored.
Healing from father wounds often takes time.
For some, even praying the word “Father” is painful.
God knows this.
And He is patient.
The path of healing begins when we stop viewing God through the failures of broken humanity and start viewing humanity through the perfection of God revealed in Christ.
The Father revealed in Scripture:
Does not abandon.
Does not abuse.
Does not manipulate.
Does not stop loving His children.
Romans 8:38-39 declares:
“For I am sure that neither death nor life… nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (ESV)
Nothing can separate believers from His love.
Nothing.
And for every person who never truly had the father they needed…
In Christ, you are seen.
You are wanted.
You are pursued.
You are adopted.
You are not forgotten.
And through Jesus Christ, the Father still declares:
“I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5 ESV)
Amen.