By Christy K.
I have been part of a “discipleship group” consisting of me and two other women since 2017. We have read through the Bible twice and use supplemental studies to help us with difficult topics. We have read Lysa TerKeurst’s “It’s Not Supposed to Be This Way” and “Forgiving What You Can’t Forget” to help us through the pandemic and church hurt. We studied Lee Strobel’s “The Case for Heaven” as we worked through explaining faith to unbelieving family members. Anne Graham Lotz’ “Jesus In Me” strengthened our knowledge of the Holy Spirit and living out Jesus to strengthen our witness. Most recently, we studied scripture through the lens of Louie Giglio’s book “Not Forsaken” because one of my friends had difficulty seeing God as her Heavenly Father because of her distant relationship with her earthly dad. I thought this would really help her to see God differently. All of these books are excellent, but Louie Giglio’s book really struck home not just with my friend, but with me. And that was a surprise!
From the back cover: “In Not Forsaken, Pastor Louis Giglio invites us to understand the character of God in a life-changing way: as a perfect Father who wants you to live under the waterfall of His blessing. You see, God is not the bigger version of your earthly dad. And He’s inviting you to walk in freedom as His loved son or daughter.” And praise for this book comes in the first few pages from Lysa TerKeurst, Dave Ramsey, Rick Warren, Max Lucado, Crowder, Christine Caine, Matt Redman, and others.
Through his stories of his own childhood and adult relationship with his dad, Louie’s writing spoke to me about my own relationship with my dad. I chose this book to help my friend with her dad, and God, in His perfect way, He opened my eyes to the brokenness of my dad’s childhood, his relationships, and his own broken walk with Jesus. This book helped me to heal the part of my heart that I’d kept hidden away about my own dad, but even better, opened my eyes to the full character of my Heavenly Father!
Even though we may have strong Bible knowledge, we can still keep our heavenly Father at arm’s length because of hidden-in-our-hearts presuppositions about His character, based on our experiences with our own dads. I recommend you pick up this book and walk through it as you discover that even though men fall short as dads, Your Heavenly Father never falls short! He wants you to remember Whose you are – that “You are chosen, loved, prized, wanted and believed in by a perfect Father.”
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