What does the Trinity mean?
September 2, 2025
How Do We Know God Is Good?
September 2, 2025
When the Bible calls God “Father,” it is telling us something important about who God is and the relationship He wants to have with His people.
For some people, the word “father” brings thoughts of love, protection, guidance and security. For others, it may bring very different feelings because their experience with their earthly father was painful or absent. This can make it difficult to understand what the Bible means when it describes God as our Father.
God is not simply using the word Father as a title. Scripture uses it to help us understand His relationship with His people. He is the One who created us, loves us, provides for us, corrects us, protects us and calls us into a relationship with Him.
Jesus especially taught His followers to know God as Father. He repeatedly spoke about “my Father” and taught His disciples to pray to “our Father which art in heaven.”
Understanding this does not mean we should simply compare God with our earthly fathers. Instead, the Bible gives us a picture of what a perfect Father is like, and our understanding of fatherhood should ultimately be shaped by who God is.
God Is Called Father Because He Is Our Creator
One of the reasons Scripture uses the language of fatherhood for God is because He is the source of our existence.
God created humanity. We did not create ourselves, and our lives ultimately come from Him.
Isaiah 64:8 — God Is Our Father and Creator
“But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.”
Isaiah describes God as both Father and Creator.
The picture of a potter shaping clay helps us understand that our lives are not meaningless or accidental from God’s perspective. He created us intentionally, and He knows us completely.
This also means that our identity does not have to come from what other people think about us. Before we achieved anything, before we proved ourselves to anyone and before we understood our own purpose, God already knew us and created us.
God Is a Father Who Loves His Children
The Bible does not describe God as a distant Creator who made the world and then walked away from it.
He cares about His people.
1 John 3:1 — The Love of the Father
“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.”
John draws attention to the incredible love of God in allowing us to be called His children.
Being God’s child is not something we should take lightly.
The Christian life is not simply about believing that God exists. Through Christ, we are invited into a relationship with God in which we can know Him as our Father.
Jesus Taught Us to Call God Father
Jesus frequently spoke about God as His Father, and He also taught His followers to approach God as their Father.
Matthew 6:9 — Our Father in Heaven
“After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.”
When Jesus taught His disciples how to pray, He did not tell them to approach God as though He were completely distant and unreachable.
He began with the words, “Our Father.”
That does not mean we should treat God casually or forget that He is holy. Jesus immediately follows these words by saying, “Hallowed be thy name.”
God is both our Father and the holy God who deserves our reverence.
There is closeness in the word Father, but there is also honour and respect.
God Is a Father Who Knows What We Need
Jesus also taught that we can trust God to know what we need.
Matthew 6:31–32 — Your Heavenly Father Knows Your Needs
“Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.”
God knows what we need before we even ask Him.
This does not mean that God promises to give us everything we want. A loving father does not give a child everything they ask for simply because they ask for it.
Instead, Jesus teaches us to trust that our heavenly Father knows what is truly needed.
There may be times when we do not understand why God has allowed us to go without something we desperately wanted, but we can still bring those needs to Him and trust His wisdom.
God Is a Father Who Cares for His Children
Jesus used the natural world to teach His followers about God’s care.
Matthew 6:26 — Your Heavenly Father Feeds the Birds
“Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?”
Jesus was not saying that God’s people will never experience hardship.
Instead, He was reminding His followers that they are valuable to God.
If God cares for His creation, how much more does He care for the people He created in His own image?
That is a comforting truth when we are going through seasons where we feel forgotten.
God does not forget His children.
God Is a Father Who Gives Good Gifts
Jesus also used the relationship between earthly parents and their children to help explain God’s goodness.
Matthew 7:9–11 — Your Father Gives Good Things
“Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?”
Jesus makes an important comparison here.
Even imperfect human parents can recognise that their children need good things. God, who is perfectly good, can be trusted even more.
This does not mean God will give us everything we ask for. Sometimes what we think is good for us is not actually good for us, and sometimes God’s answer to prayer is different from what we hoped for.
A good Father knows the difference between giving His child what they want and giving them what they truly need.
God Is Not Like an Imperfect Earthly Father
This is especially important for anyone who has experienced an absent, abusive, neglectful or emotionally distant father.
When the Bible calls God Father, it is not saying that God is exactly like every earthly father.
Quite the opposite.
God shows us what fatherhood is supposed to look like.
Psalm 103:13 — God Has Compassion on His Children
“Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.”
God’s compassion is greater than the compassion of any human being.
Earthly fathers can fail.
They can make selfish decisions, lose their patience, misunderstand their children or even cause deep wounds.
God does not have those weaknesses.
When Scripture calls God Father, we should not take the worst parts of our earthly experiences and place them onto God.
Instead, we can allow Scripture to show us what a perfect Father is actually like.
God Is a Father Who Corrects His Children
Being God’s child does not mean that He simply allows us to do whatever we want.
A loving father corrects his children because he wants them to grow.
Hebrews 12:6 — The Lord Chastens Those He Loves
“For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.”
God’s correction can sometimes be uncomfortable, but it comes from His love.
There are things in our lives that God wants to change because they are hurting us, hurting others or drawing us away from Him.
His correction is not rejection.
When God convicts us of sin, His desire is not to destroy us. He wants us to turn back toward Him and grow in righteousness.
God Wants Us to Come to Him
One of the beautiful things about calling God Father is that it shows us that He invites us into relationship with Him.
We do not have to hide from Him.
Hebrews 4:16 — Come Boldly to the Throne of Grace
“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
Because of Jesus, believers can approach God with confidence.
This does not mean approaching Him arrogantly or disrespectfully.
It means we do not have to be terrified that God will reject us when we come to Him sincerely.
We can bring our fears, failures, questions, needs and pain to Him.
Jesus Reveals What the Father Is Like
If we want to understand God the Father, one of the best places to look is at Jesus.
Jesus came to reveal God to humanity.
John 14:9 — Jesus Reveals the Father
“Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?”
Jesus was not saying that He and the Father are the same Person.
Rather, He was showing His disciples that His life and character revealed the Father.
When we see Jesus showing compassion, forgiving people, caring for the hurting and calling sinners to repentance, we see the heart of God.
Jesus gives us a clearer picture of the Father than our own experiences ever could.
Jesus Showed Us the Father’s Love
The greatest demonstration of God’s love was sending Jesus to save sinners.
John 3:16 — God Gave His Son
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
God did not send Jesus because He hated humanity.
He sent Him because He loved us.
The cross shows us that God’s fatherhood is not cold or distant. God was willing to give what was most precious so that people could be reconciled to Him.
Jesus Calls Believers God’s Children
Through faith in Christ, believers are brought into a new relationship with God.
John 1:12 — Children of God Through Faith
“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:”
This is an incredible promise.
Those who receive Christ are given the privilege of becoming children of God.
This is not based on being born into the right family, having a perfect past or being good enough to earn God’s acceptance.
It comes through faith in Jesus Christ.
We Become Children of God Through the Holy Spirit
The Bible also explains that the Holy Spirit confirms our relationship with God as His children.
Romans 8:14–16 — The Spirit Bears Witness That We Are God’s Children
“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:”
The word “Abba” expresses a close relationship with a father.
It does not mean that we should treat God as though He were simply our friend or equal. God remains holy and worthy of reverence.
It shows, however, that through Christ we are not meant to live as though we are permanently separated from God.
We can come to Him as His children.
God Is a Father Who Forgives
One of the most beautiful pictures of God’s fatherhood is found in Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son.
The son turned away from his father, wasted what had been given to him and eventually found himself in a terrible situation.
When he finally decided to return home, he expected to be treated as a servant.
Instead, his father welcomed him.
Luke 15:20–24 — The Father Welcomes His Son Home
“And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.
But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet:
And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry:
For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.”
This parable gives us a powerful picture of God’s heart toward people who have wandered away.
The father did not pretend the son’s choices were right. The son confessed that he had sinned.
But when he returned, the father welcomed him.
That is what God’s grace looks like.
God Wants Us to Know Him, Not Just Know About Him
Calling God Father points toward a relationship.
Christianity is not simply about knowing facts about God.
It is about knowing Him.
Jeremiah 9:23–24 — Know the Lord
“Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:
But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.”
God wants us to know His character.
He wants us to know His lovingkindness, righteousness and justice.
Knowing God as Father means learning to trust Him, listen to Him and walk with Him rather than simply believing that He exists.
God Is Still Our Father When Life Is Difficult
Knowing God as Father does not mean that life will always be easy.
Christians still experience grief, disappointment, sickness, financial difficulties, broken relationships and many other forms of suffering.
The difference is that we do not have to face those things alone.
Psalm 46:1 — God Is Our Refuge
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”
God’s fatherhood does not mean He promises to remove every difficult situation immediately.
It means that He is present with His children in the middle of those situations.
Sometimes God changes the circumstances or sometimes He gives us strength to endure them.
God can use a painful season to draw us closer to Him or lead us into something we could not have understood beforehand.
Whatever the situation, His character remains the same.
Why Does God Call Himself Father?
God calls Himself Father because He wants us to understand that He is not a distant God who has no interest in us.
He created us, knows us, loves us and invites us into a relationship with Him.
Through Jesus, we can be reconciled to God and become His children. The Holy Spirit works in believers and gives them the assurance that they belong to Him.
God’s fatherhood also shows us what perfect love, compassion, correction and care look like.
If your experience with an earthly father has been painful, it may take time to understand this. You do not have to pretend that those experiences did not hurt. Instead, let Scripture show you who God really is rather than allowing another person’s failures to define Him.
Psalm 68:5 — A Father to the Fatherless
“A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.”
God cares deeply for those who have been abandoned, neglected and left without the love and protection they needed.
He does not overlook the wounds people carry.
The Bible presents Him as a Father who sees, cares, protects and welcomes His children.
God Is the Father We Can Trust
Ultimately, the reason God calls Himself Father is because He wants us to understand the kind of relationship He offers through Christ.
He is not an imperfect earthly father whose mistakes we have to expect Him to repeat. He is the perfect Father who shows us what love and faithfulness truly look like.
When we do not understand what He is doing, we can still trust His character. If we fail, we can return to Him. When we are hurting, we can bring our pain to Him and when we feel lost, we can ask Him to lead us.
And when we wonder whether we are truly loved, we can look at Jesus and remember what God was willing to do to bring us back to Him.
1 John 3:1 — Called the Children of God
“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.”
That is why the name Father matters.
God does not simply want us to know that He exists.
He wants us to know Him.
Through Jesus Christ, He invites us into a relationship where we can call upon Him, trust Him, receive His forgiveness and know that we belong to Him.
Our earthly experiences may sometimes make it difficult to understand what a good father should be like, but God does not ask us to measure Him by human standards.
Instead, He shows us through Scripture what perfect fatherhood looks like.
God is our Father, and He calls His children to come to Him, trust Him and know that they are deeply loved.ness. He is not far off—He is near, attentive, and waiting for you to come to Him.
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