Change our mindset ..
... Our view of God is influenced by our past experiences. And if our experiences are with sinful , imperfect men, these will affect what we think God is like. Especially if our experiences were with authority figures, e.g. our parents . In particular, fathers .
For instance, one who had an abusive father is more likely to scorn the idea of God the Abba Father as being loving. He will think , God! What is this nonsense. You are loving?
Because in his mind, the idea of a Father is not . The very word itself conjures horrible feelings and bad memories for him.
He has never known a human father who is like that, so why should a heavenly Father be like that?
Or, someone who had a distant father who was not fully involved in his life. It is natural that he will struggle with the idea of a God who is actually interested in his life, who is tender and cares for him. A loving Maker who sheds tears for him, who had nail-pierced hands. An authority figure who is not distant at all, but is near & loves him. He may even get very angry reading this.
I know, because I was once like that. It took a journey to change this mindset. And , I forgave my father. Because he is only human.
God REALLY loves you!
And He loves your imperfect father too (whatever things he has or has not done) ...
The Bible tells us that the "height and depth and breadth of God's love" is above our contemplations and beyond what we can comprehend with our finite minds. The bible tells us that "now we know in part" but only later can we know fully.
If you had a good father, praise God, your father is a fraction of what God is really like.
If you didn't have a "good" father, please, understand that God is not like your father. Our human fathers are only human -- like you -- very imperfect, and very fallible. How do we expect a fellow human being to be like God?
Receive God's love. Man may lie but God is not man.
"Is God a man , that he should lie?" "God is not a man, that he should lie in His promises." (Numbers 23:19)
