God is my Father

When I think about God, it's easy to be thinking things like: powerful, awesome, mighty. It's a little harder to think things like: personal, near, gentle. But God is both. Actually, He's three: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Grasping this reality is a challenge, but I like living in reality so I'm going for it. Here's how Wayne Grudem, a Christian theologian, defines the Trinity: God eternally exists as three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and each person is fully God, and there is one God. Say what? 3=1. Yes, 3=1. There are three persons, one God

God is my Father. Jesus taught to pray this way; He started the famous prayer with Our Father who is in heaven. As a child, Jesus was on a trip with his parents, and when they left he stayed back hanging out and teaching in the temple. His parents noticed he was missing [that can really happen to parents in crowds, especially if they have several kids. I don't have several kids so it hasn't happened, yet]. They turned to go back and found him in the temple. Jesus' reply "Did you not know that I had to be in My Father's house?" Literally, house means affairs - so it would be something like in the things of My Father. Jesus was about doing His Father's will.

Psalms 68:4-6 makes an interesting statement regarding God the Father. I'll quote it in entirety.
Sing to God, sing praises to his name; Lift up a song for Him who rides through the deserts, Whose name is the Lord and exult before Him. A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows, Is God in His holy habitation. God makes a home for the lonely; He leads out the prisoners into prosperity, Only the rebellious dwell in a parched land.

God is worthy of praise and great and can do things we can't. Sorry, I can't ride through the desert. But I can worship, and who is the Father I worship? The One who is just, a father for the orphan and advocate for the widow. He's that way in His home. Not just for show, but in His holy habitation. The Father cares for His people. Just as Jesus is the Good Shepherd, so the Father is good for His people. In Psalm 68:35 we see that "The God of Israel Himself gives strength and power to the people." Any good father empowers His children. A good father also instructs and disciplines His children in love. God does all of this. Those who rebel face discipline, not as a sign of hatred, but of enmity. The rebellious choose to go against their father, and face the consequences. God loves such that the lonely are befriended. God loves such that He gives strength and power to His people. This power comes through the Holy Spirit, but we'll get to Him later. [while we're at it, Psalm 68:19 completes the trinity with "Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burden, the God who is our salvation." - Jesus is our salvation].

The Father does not abandon His children, He is sovereign over everything, and Jesus prayed to Him. But He is not remote; God is love and personal: making homes for the lonely and caring for the orphan and providing for the widow. God loves. "See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God." [I John 3:1-2a]. All children have a father, and God that father has made Himself known. For those who rebel or reject, there is only a parched land. Sin is leaving the water fountain and drinking dirt when you're thirsty. The Father turns on the fountain for His children. Those who reject decide they like dirt. "Only the rebellious dwell in a parched land." Ps. 68:6. "But as man as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name." John 1:12.