Many young people today grow up without a loving father’s guidance. But God truly desires to be our Heavenly Father. Luis Palau explains how our heavenly Father gives the experience of true, pure, and endless love. God longs to be near us and he will never leave or forsake us. Listen in as we call to the fatherless generation.
God reconciles his people in amazing ways. One time I met a girl who had heard a message I gave about forgiveness. She told me that her father had abandoned her family three years earlier under the premise of work in another country but never returned and never wrote. She said she couldn’t forgive him. I knew she had given her heart to Christ at the end of the message that night, so I challenged her to forgive just as God had forgiven her.
“Write a letter to your dad,” I told her. “Tell him you’re angry at him for hurting you, your mom, and your sisters. But tell him that you have Jesus in your heart now and you forgive him for what he has done.” Then I asked her to write and tell me what happened.
Four weeks after sending the letter, her dad returned and begged his family for forgiveness. He said the letter had touched his heart, and he wanted to receive Christ also. His daughter’s forgiveness had led him to God. Amazing!
Do you need reconciliation in your life? Is there someone who needs your forgiveness? Do you need to ask for forgiveness? Reach out and make it happen. God will work through your words to soften the hearts of others. And He’ll even work in your heart by the Holy Spirit that lives in you.
I’m sure you have heard of the phrase “victim’s guilt.” It refers to the idea that after being repeatedly abused, victims will often feel sorry for their abuser because of what brought them to this point in their life. I met a man once who felt this way for along time.
His name was Dan, and he shared his story with me. His father left when he was 2 years old, and the man his mother lived with began to abuse him when he was 7 years old. It continued for eight years. For Dan, this was the only way a father figure ever showed him affection – it was all Dan knew about a father’s love. Terrible, just terrible.
Dan met Jesus at one of our rallies when he was 17 years old. For the first time, he experienced the love of God - the true, pure, endless love of our mighty God. Dan told me he no longer felt guilty for all the wrongs that were done to him. He was free! Dan now has a Father. He has been adopted into the family of God! Yes!
I’d like to challenge you this week to pray for the abused. Pray that victims would find a way to escape and find God. Pray that they would meet their Real Father – God, our Creator and our Father once we receive Jesus Christ into our life.
I was doing a TV show in southern Texas. One night a 13-year-old boy called in to disagree with me. I had been discussing the issue of gangs in the United States and how they often lead to negative, destructive, sinful behaviors like stealing, violence, and drugs. “Not my gang,” the boy told me.
“You see,” he said. “I’m in a gang of boys who don’t have dads, so we need each other for protection.” He went on to tell me that they call it the “Fatherless Gang” and they had 400 members. They organized it to protect themselves from bullies in various schools in that city.
His story touched my heart. Think of it - 400 boys without a father to stand by them and teach them. 400 boys! I got to thinking about how incredible it would be if those boys turned to Jesus and asked God to become their Father. What an impact that would that have on their community, their safety, and their future on earth and for eternity. Pray this way, Jesus said: “Our Father, who art in heaven…”
In other words, God wants to be our Heavenly Father. He longs to be near us. He is my Father. Is God your Father? Pray with me today for the fatherless kids out there. Pray that they would find father figures here on earth and - most importantly – that they would find God Himself as their Heavenly Father who will watch out for them, protect them bless them, and tive them a glorious life.
All of life’s tough questions can be answered through the word of God. Listen in as Luis provides ways we can find guidance and direction through the Holy Scriptures. If we are daily in the word of God, it can give us key answers that are fundamental for faith and life. To steer us from worry, the Bible provides answers to our future, how to deal with our finances and how to be a disciple of Christ.
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