God is a Father
By Marcel Rebiai
“A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.”
Luke 15:11-13
‘Father’ – what do we associate with this word, this title, this position? Safety, protection, a longing for security, acceptance and belonging . . . maybe pain, disappointment, anger and bitterness too.
Fatherhood is a secret that is constantly being rediscovered, as it plays such a crucial part in our lives. It is so vital that Jesus emphasises God’s role as our Father as a starting point for all our prayers and encounters with Him:
“In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven” (Matthew 6:9).
If we do not understand or experience God as our heavenly Father, we will never truly discover our real identity or find inner peace. This is why we must relentlessly ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to us what it truly means that God is our Father.
Most of us are all too familiar with the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15. It is one of the classic parables that we have all enjoyed listening to in Sunday School and have heard countless sermons about it. It is a very core story! Normally, we hear it from the perspective of the younger son: his impressive rebellion, his fall, the pitiful circumstances he ends up in, and then his final remorse. However, in this story Jesus wants to tell us just as much about God’s nature as he does about the prodigal son’s. Jesus came to reveal God, to declare to us: “See what kind of a Father God is!”
This devotional is taken from the book To See God by Marcel Rebiai. If you would like to order your own copy, please email us here, [email protected].
Marcel Rebiai is a board member of Revive Israel, and is inspiration for our community. Marcel was born in Algiers in 1953. He came to Switzerland as a war orphan and received faith in Jesus in his youth, which changed his life and made him a messenger of God’s love in Jesus. Since then, he has been faithfully working for the building of the community of Messiah. Marcel is the founder of the “Community of Reconciliation”, an organization that works for reconciliation between Jews and Arabs based on God’s forgiveness and love in Christ. Marcel teaches in various settings around the world about the love that God revealed to us in Jesus, a love that enables reconciliation. Marcel has been living in Jerusalem for the last 30 years, is married to Regula, and has four children and eleven grandchildren.
