{"id":655,"date":"2018-09-24T13:07:03","date_gmt":"2018-09-24T13:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/?p=655"},"modified":"2018-09-24T17:12:18","modified_gmt":"2018-09-24T17:12:18","slug":"6-ways-see-god-heavenly-father-10-steps-freedom-week-3-day-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2018\/09\/6-ways-see-god-heavenly-father-10-steps-freedom-week-3-day-4.html","title":{"rendered":"6 Ways to See God as Your Heavenly FATHER (10 Steps to Freedom Week 3 Day 4)"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_656\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-656\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-656\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/403\/2018\/09\/lauren-lulu-taylor-692833-unsplash-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"unsplash-logoLauren Lulu Taylor\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-656\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><a style=\"background-color: black;color: white;text-decoration: none;padding: 4px 6px;font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Ubuntu, Roboto, Noto, 'Segoe UI', Arial, sans-serif;font-size: 12px;font-weight: bold;line-height: 1.2\" title=\"Download free do whatever you want high-resolution photos from Lauren Lulu Taylor\" href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/@laurenlulutaylor?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=photographer-credit&amp;utm_content=creditBadge\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"padding: 2px 3px\">Lauren Lulu Taylor<\/span><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: left\"><em>The following is a devotion from my message series\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLc2RhsjwQZTwcnhNWFDA7Q9FgjZUjTj7P\">10 Steps to Freedom<\/a>. I hope these devotionals help you experience lasting freedom in Jesus!<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><span class=\"s1\">STEP THREE: day 4<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: center\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>Cultivate a relationship with your Heavenly <\/i><b><i>Father<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">What does it look like on a practical level to cultivate a relationship with your Heavenly Father? More than just spending more time with him, truly embracing this step to freedom is beginning to see God as your loving, Heavenly Father. Here is an easy way to remember God as FATHER:<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>F<\/b> &#8211; <b>For me<\/b>. Your Heavenly Father is for you, not against you (Romans 8:31). God doesn\u2019t love you because you\u2019re good. He loves you simply because you\u2019re His.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>A &#8211; Almighty<\/b>. Your God can do anything, just like a young child naturally assumes their father can do anything. No matter how big your problems are, your Father is bigger!<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>T &#8211; Tender<\/b>. Even the manliest man will melt like ice cream when holding his newborn infant for the first time. God is both almighty and tender, loving, and caring towards you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>H &#8211; Home<\/b>. There\u2019s no place like home. You don\u2019t have to pretend, you can relax and be yourself. It\u2019s the same with your Heavenly Father. You can be yourself with Him, because with your Father you are home (John 14:23).<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>E &#8211; Enough.<\/b> When you\u2019re a young child, more than any gift he can give you, you just want your father. We don\u2019t spend time with God just to get His blessings. We want Him.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>R &#8211; Rejoicing.<\/b> If there was a fridge in heaven your drawings would be on them. God wears the angels out bragging on you all the time. Your Heavenly Father rejoices over you!<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">1. Of the six words that spell out FATHER, which one seems the most foreign to you? Which one do you need to experience the most in your life right now?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">2. Your Heavenly Father rejoices over you. Write down one or two things He might be rejoicing with you over right now? <i>(Hint: maybe that you\u2019re walking through this book and beginning to experience true freedom!)<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><em>You can read other devotional entries\u00a0for 10 Steps to Freedom\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/10-steps-to-freedom\/\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The following is a devotion from my message series\u00a010 Steps to Freedom. I hope these devotionals help you experience lasting freedom in Jesus! STEP THREE: day 4 Cultivate a relationship with your Heavenly Father What does it look like on a practical level to cultivate a relationship with your Heavenly Father? More than just spending&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":607,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[316],"tags":[215,318,27,334],"class_list":["post-655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-10-steps-to-freedom","tag-father","tag-freedom","tag-god","tag-heavenly"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>6 Ways to See God as Your Heavenly FATHER (10 Steps to Freedom Week 3 Day 4) - Next Steps<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What does it look like on a practical level to cultivate a relationship with your Heavenly Father?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"6 Ways to See God as Your Heavenly FATHER (10 Steps to Freedom Week 3 Day 4) - 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Josh Daffern","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/#\/schema\/person\/8ac2e15479ad6a320d2082837203cb7c","name":"Josh Daffern","description":"Born and raised in California, Josh graduated college from California Baptist University and spent two years as a missionary in Africa before coming back to America and finding the love of his life (Robin). Josh graduated from New Orleans Seminary with a Masters of Divinity and a Doctor of Ministry. Josh has been involved in full-time ministry for over twenty years. He enjoys hiking, beach volleyball, reading, playing anything competitive, and rough-housing with his kids. Josh, his gorgeous wife Robin, his outrageously handsome boys Zeke, Shepherd and Lincoln and his princess Elle, live in northern Virginia. Josh also blogs on Patheos as New Wineskins: an Apologist for the Modern Church and you can find links to all his content on joshdaffern.com. 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