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This month we are looking at different attributes of God, or answering the question, “God is _________.” Today we are going to consider what is probably the most widely believed attribute of God but also the most doubted. In other words, we all say this is true about God, but many of us don’t believe it's true, or that it’s not true for us. The attribute is love. God is love. The Bible even tells us directly that God is Love. 1 John 4:8 We all might say that God is love but there are times we all doubt that God loves us.
Maybe we doubt that God loves us because we are disappointed in ourselves and filled with guilt and shame about what we have done or not done. Too often we tell ourselves that God can’t love someone like me and we believe it. We’ve made too many mistakes and failed too many times for God to love us. Maybe we doubt that God loves us because we have never felt God’s love or seen it in our lives the way we see it in other people’s lives. No matter why we might feel that way, many of us doubt that God loves us even though we believe that God is love.
Today, however, let’s go a little deeper and not just talk about God’s love in some generic and universal way, but in a very personal way. God is not just love, God is a loving father. For many people, this might not be easy to say. If your father was absent or abusive, if your father was critical and demanding and always finding fault with your life, thinking about God in terms of a loving father may not make sense, but we don’t define God’s love as our heavenly father in earthly terms, we don’t compare God to a good earthly father, we define God’s love as a heavenly father by what we see of God in the Bible. Today we are going to look at a picture of what God as a loving father is all about. It’s a long story found in Luke 8 and it starts with the actions of a good and loving earthly father.
A man named Jairus, a synagogue leader, came and fell at Jesus’ feet, pleading with him to come to his house because his only daughter, a girl of about twelve, was dying. Luke 8:41-42
Jairus was a good father who loved his daughter. She was dying and he was desperate for help so he went to Jesus to ask Him to come and heal his daughter. Jarius took a risk in coming to Jesus because many synagogue rulers did not like Jesus. Jesus often went against the rules and traditions of the religious leaders so many of Jairus’ friends and peers may not have liked Jesus. Jairus was risking his standing and position, and maybe his job, by asking Jesus for help. That’s how much he loved his little girl. He was going to stop at nothing to get her help.
While this is a great example of an earthly father, what we see of our heavenly father is what we see from Jesus. He went with him. Without asking questions or demanding to see what kind of faith Jairus had, Jesus went with him. God is not judgmental as many say He is, He is compassionate. God doesn’t evaluate Jarius to see if he has been good and obedient before He offers to help him, He doesn’t review his life to see if he is worthy of His help, He didn’t ask Jairus what kind of synagogue leader he was and what he thought about Him, Jesus just went with him.
The first thing we see is that as a loving father, God walks with us. What a gift that must have been for Jairus. Without hesitation, Jesus went with him to help his daughter. Whatever your situation is, Jesus is here to walk with you. Whether we are walking through dark and difficult valleys or lush and green pastures - God walks with you. We hear and see this in scripture over and over again.
Last week we talked about God leading His people out of slavery and through the wilderness and God led them with a cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night. For 40 years, God walked with His people. When the people doubted and turned away, God walked with His people. And after 40 years, when they finally got ready to enter into the promised land, Moses encouraged the people to keep going because God would keep walking with them.
Be strong and courageous, for you must go with this people into the land that the Lord swore to their ancestors to give them, and you must divide it among them as their inheritance. The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” Deuteronomy 31:7-8
God walks ahead of us and paves the way and He walks with us to give us strength. God is always walking with us. Through the difficult times, God is walking with us. God said,
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. Isaiah 43:1-2
God walks with us through life, through all of life. Just because we can’t see or feel God with us doesn’t mean God has stopped walking with us. Jesus promised to never leave us nor forsake us. He will not abandon us. The Bible says our lives are engraved on God’s hand so where we go, He goes, and where He goes, we go. God walks with us.
Here is where God is NOT like an earthly father. An earthly father might abandon his children. An earthly father might forsake or forget or not care about his children. An earthly father might turn away when things get hard or when children become difficult, but God will not do that. God is the perfect love of a heavenly father who walks with us at all times. If you aren’t sensing God’s presence, let me tell you, God is still walking with you.
Though a pretty dark time in my life, I felt like I was walking without God. I had actually told God I didn’t want Him walking with me and I could do it on my own. While I felt like God had walked away from me, the reality was God was still walking with me. Looking back on that time it was clear that God was still there. I was running all over the place and making horrible decisions, but God was still walking with me. You might doubt God is walking with you today, but He is, and He has been all along.
Jesus walked with Jarius and started to go help his daughter but as they went a huge crowd pressed in around them.
As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.
“Who touched me?” Jesus asked.
When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.”
But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.”
Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.” Luke 8:42-48
The woman who reached out to touch Jesus had been bleeding for 12 years. Because of the flow of blood, she was considered unclean, which meant she could not touch anyone and no one could touch her. Imagine having no contact with another person for 12 years. She had been forced out of her family and community. She had spent all of her money on doctors who hadn’t been able to change her situation. She was broke and she was dying. Spiritually, emotionally, and physically she was dying and Jesus was her last hope and so in desperation she reached out to Him.
When Jesus felt her touch Him, He stopped, and that is what a heavenly father’s love does. It stops. God’s love stops for us. God sees us in our desperation and need and stops for us. While others might keep going or maybe even turn away from us, God stops and is for us.
There was a woman in the Old Testament named Hagar who was treated poorly by Abraham and Sarah and so she ran away. When she was at the end of her resources and had nothing left she stopped and was ready to die. God called out to her and told her to return home and He would bless her. Hagar said to God,
“You are the God who sees me. I have now seen the One who sees me.” Genesis 16:13
Hagar is the only woman who gives God a name, El Roi, the God who sees me. God not only sees us but when He sees us He stops for us. He stops to help us. Over and over again Jesus stopped to help people who were in need. Prostitutes, lepers, children, women, fisherman, and tax collectors, Jesus saw them all and stopped for them all. And He will stop for us as well.
It’s hard to think about how the God of the universe is willing to stop what He is doing for us, but He does. He stops to listen to us> He stops to cry with us. He stops to support us and heal us and help us. He stops for us and He stops for us because He loves us.
Jesus stopped for this woman and His love started to transform her. She started out alone. She had been unclean for 12 years with no hope of being part of a community or family ever again. Then she became part of the crowd. Then she was singled out by Jesus. She had to step out and say that she was the one who touched Him. She couldn’t hide any longer and it’s then Jesus said, daughter, your faith has made you well. This woman went from being isolated and alone to being called a daughter. She went from being an outcast to a member of a family and it’s all because Jesus stoped for her and talked to her.
The love of a heavenly father talks to us. God’s love talks to us. God doesn’t just walk with us and stop for us, He talks to us and His words shape our lives. This is the only time Jesus called someone a daughter and it was a label that changed her life. She was no longer on the outside looking in. She was no longer isolated and alone but part of a loving family. She could be touched again. She could be hugged again. She could be part of a family again. What God said about her changed her life and what God says about us can change our lives.
Too often, we are defined by the words and labels others place on us and many times those labels aren’t good. We are told we aren’t smart enough or good enough and we believe it. We are told we won’t ever measure up and so we stop even trying to move forward. Too often the negative words and labels people give us define us - but the One who needs to define us is the one who ultimately created us - our Heavenly Father.
God is the only one whose words should define us and what God says about us is that we are His sons and daughters. We are heirs together with Christ. We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good words which God has prepared for us in advance. We are precious in God’s sight. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. We are knit together by God in the womb, we are a precious gift from God. We are so loved by God that God was willing to give up everything He had for us, even His one and only son Jesus.
No matter what the world might say about you, you are who God says you are. You are God’s daughter. You are God’s son. You are loved by God, cared for by God, created by God for a purpose, gifted by God for a mission and equipped by God for His work. God talks to us and his words aren’t filled with judgment and anger, but grace and mercy.
In this story of Jesus, we see that God is a loving father who walks with us, stops for us, and talks to us. But let’s be honest, we don’t always experience this. Too often we might feel like the first father who went to Jesus for help and is probably now feeling forgotten. His little girl was dying and he had risked everything to go to Jesus and Jesus started walking with him but then He stopped. Has Jesus forgotten him? Has He stopped caring about him? Has He stopped loving him and his daughter? I can hear Jairus “sure, Jesus will stop and help others, but not me, not my little girl.”
Does that sound familiar? Do you ever doubt God’s love for you? Do you know God’s love is real and that it’s there for others but not you? Jairus had to be feeling that way and his disappointment grows when he gets an update on his daughter's condition.
While Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” he said. “Don’t bother the teacher anymore.”
Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.”
When he arrived at the house of Jairus, he did not let anyone go in with him except Peter, John and James, and the child’s father and mother. Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning for her. “Stop wailing,” Jesus said. “She is not dead but asleep.”
They laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. But he took her by the hand and said, “My child, get up!” Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up. Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat. Luke 8:49-55
For Jairus, all hope is lost. His little girl is dead, but look what Jesus does. He kept walking with Jarius, He stopped at his house and then spoke to his little girl. My child, get up. The love of a heavenly father was there for Jarius and that love gave life to him and his daughter. Another girl is called a child of God. When all hope seemed lost, when Jairus thought God’s love had failed him God proved him wrong. It was there for him too.
God’s love is here for you too. God hasn’t forgotten you. He is walking with you and He stops for you and He speaks to you saying, I love you. I love you and my love can change you and heal you and restore you. God is love and God is the love of a heavenly father, and as our heavenly father, we are called God’s children.
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! 1 John 3:8
Next Steps
God Is a Loving Father
What comes to your mind when you think of God as a loving father? Is it a positive picture or a negative one?
Read Luke 8:40-56
In what way is Jairus a good father?
Jesus gives us a picture of our heavenly Father’s love;
God’s love walks with us.
● What Biblical examples can you think of where God walked with His people?
● When did Jesus walk with others?
● When have you experienced God walking with you?
● Where do you need God walking with you today?
God’s love stops for us.
● How did God’s love stopping for the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years begin to change her life?
● What other people did Jesus stop for during his life?
● When have you experienced Jesus stopping for you?
● Where do you need God to stop and be with you today?
God’s love speaks to us.
● How did God’s voice, through Jesus, change the bleeding woman’s life?
● How did it change the young girl's life?
● What voices have shaped your life in positive or negative ways?
● What do you need God to say to you today?
● What label or name would change your life?
How can you share this kind of love with others?
Who can you walk with? Who can you stop for? Who can you speak to? How can these actions share the transforming and live giving love of God?
