Did your earthly father let you down? Was he absent, abusive or indifferent? Did he make you feel unimportant or even forsaken? If so, this book by Louie Giglio (founder of Passion Conferences for young adults) is for you. In fact, it’s for all of us because no human father is perfect, and we all desire a father’s blessing.
According to Louie, the most important thing in our lives is the way we think about God. Maybe to you God is a scorekeeper, balancing our good acts with our bad ones. Maybe He’s angry, or distant. Perhaps you think God should be like a concierge, catering to your wants and demands, or maybe He’s a buddy. Maybe God is a lot like you, because really, you want to be your own God! The most frequent image for God used by Jesus, however, is a father. He refers to God as father 189 times in the New Testament, and this term is used to describe God more frequently than any other term or adjective.
“… the fatherhood of God is the main characteristic that holds all of His attributes together.”
Not Forsaken sets out to help us understand and appreciate God as our heavenly Father.
Louie acknowledges that this may be difficult to those who have a strained or nonexistent relationship with their own father. However, he reminds us that God is not a reflection of our father, but the perfection of fatherhood. With our spiritual rebirth, we have a new and perfect father, and we have inherited His DNA. Yes, we will still look and at times act like our human Father, but we have the ability to mature and resemble our brother, Jesus. We are God’s beloved children and this is His message to us:
“I want to continually shape your life in such a way that you look like Me, sound like Me, talk like Me, act like Me, and think like Me, more and more.”
Not Forsaken is an easy read, and I found the section on growing in spiritual maturity challenging. Although it’s meant for youth, sometimes we adults become complacent with where we’re at in our Christian walk. Maturity means growth, and we all need to be about growing up to be more like our true Father.
VERDICT: 4 stars
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