Do You Love Your Father?

John 1:12 "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:"

If you've believed on His name, or put your trust in Jesus to get you to Heaven, then you are now His child. He is your Father. Is God a good Father? Well duh! That obvious. Of course He's a good Father, I mean, He IS God! So what makes Him a good Father?

1. He Cares for Me.
I Peter 5:7 "Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you." I have some friends that had their dad walk out on their family. I have some friends that don't even know their dad. I have a friend that had his dad steal his car! Not God! God cares so much about me, He knows how many hairs are on my head. I don't even know that. He knows more about me than I know about me. He wants to hear my prayers. He wants a relationship with me.

He wants to give us good gifts - Matthew 7:11
He has given the gift of Heaven to us - Ephesians 2:8-9
He will never leave us - Hebrews 13:5
He loved us first - I John 4:19
God proved His love for us by dying for us - Romans 5:8

2. He Chastens Me.
I let my 15 month old daughter do whatever she wants which means I'm the perfect dad. NOT!!! I don't let my daughter put her finger in a light socket. I don't let my daughter eat ice cream and donuts all day, every day (although, she did polish off 5 of those small powdered donuts by herself this morning. She left me proud and starving). I don't let my daughter walk out toward the street. If I let her do those things, I would get WORST DAD OF THE YEAR award. I chasten or correct my daughter to teach her and protect her.

When we stop focusing on God, and we start getting involved in sin, God will bring some things into His child's life to chasten or correct us. James 1:15b says "... sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." God has used a police officer giving me a ticket as a form of correction. Another time, it was minor car accident. "But Bro. Matt, that's mean." No, that's love. Hebrews 12:6a "For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth,..." I am who I am today because of events like those. That ticket cost me about $200, but it saved me a lot of regret. That car accident really scared me! But it got my attention, and I got serious about God! I stopped hanging around some bad friends that were helping me get into tons of trouble.

3. He Challenges Me
In John 14:15, Jesus says "If ye love me, keep my commandments." Most people will say "yeah, I love God!" but their actions say that they don't love God. If you love God, you will keep His commandments. What are some of His commandments?

I John 3:23 "And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.

If we love God, we will put our trust in Him to get us to Heaven. If we love God, we will love one another. This means we will build others up, not tear them down. We will help, forgive, and honor others and we won't hurt, curse, or lie to others.

So do you love God?