The God who is in his holy dwelling place is the father of the fatherless and the defender of widows. Psalm 68:5 (GW)
Going by statistics alone, North America is in a crisis of fatherhood. A 2021 report by the US Census Bureau stated that 18.4 million children live in fatherless households. That doesn’t even begin to describe those whose fathers are present in body but absent in spirit.
Speaking to men, chances are you want to be different than the generation before you, but you’ve probably been ripped off at some point. Maybe your father was absent, distant or even abusive. Or maybe you had a great dad, but there were still areas where he fell short.
The good news is that God is the Father of the fatherless. This doesn’t just cover orphans. It also means that in the aspects of your life where your dad failed to teach you, God will father those areas if you let Him.
For instance, perhaps your biological dad offered only conditional love, holding you to standards you could never meet. But God wants to introduce you to His grace. He wants to shower you with His unconditional love that never changes based on your performance.
If your earthly father drilled lies into you, God wants to renew your mind with the truth. If your dad’s example caused you to grow up with misbeliefs about finances, sex, relationships or anything else, Holy Spirit can help you to replace those broken belief systems with the Word.
That’s why building your relationship with God is so crucial. Only as you get to know Him and spend time in His Word can He download into your heart the things you didn’t receive from your natural father. He wants to fill in the gaps!