The older I get, the more appreciation I have for my own father. Although I don’t have kids of my own, I’ve had a unique perspective of many different families in our student ministry at c|Life Kaufman as the student pastor. I’ve sat with students as they’ve shared the wounds they’ve received through harsh, uninterested, absent, and unloving fathers. I have thought this week how different my own life could have played out if my father wasn’t such an incredible man of God. He parented his children with presence, humility, faithfulness, and love. But my father is imperfect and only shows me glimpses of what our perfect heavenly Father is like. I have heard it said that one of the greatest benefits of the Christian faith is the ability to call God our Father. We have the benefit of being God’s sons and daughters. What a stunning reality for all of us who are in Christ, especially as that truth stands in stark contrast to the other religions of the world. In these religions, God is impersonal and seemingly uninterested in our lives. But our God, as Psalm 103 describes, is like a father to his people, full of compassion, mercy, love, and grace.
How can this be? We haven’t deserved any of these things. In fact, I look at the sin in my past and the struggles I have in my present and wonder how God can pour out any benefits over my life. And the most mind-blowing reality is that God would give us his Son while we were in the middle of our rebellion. What an indescribable gift. I hope that, as you see Jesus as the full revelation of God’s benefits in Psalm 103, it creates a thankful heart in you today and reminds you that God’s heart is to give so that we may sing from our hearts with the Psalmist, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name!”