God doesn't forsake us. Thoughts on Not Forsaken

     Over the years, at any number of Men’s Ministry events, I’ve heard about how difficult it is to use the image of God as a loving father when talking to men.  I know that I’m not an exception just because I grew up in a not overly bizarre two-parent home, but I know a lot of men who didn’t have that luxury. Or worse they grew up in a two-parent home where the dad was abusive: verbally, physically, emotionally, or even sexually. Other friends grew up without a male role model/father figure, and others had a mom with bad luck with relationships. The male figures in their lives seemed to come and go as if through a revolving door. It’s hard to see someone as a loving Father when they disappear as quickly as they show up, or when they are around, they’re drunk or on drugs, and speak with their fists more than with their tongue.

     So I get it…it’s hard to ask someone to look at God as a loving father, when the examples of father that they know are so negative. Dads in many places are the guys who come around for a while and then abandon those who love them, trust them, and want their attention.  Some dads stay around. Others forsake the family.  That’s what many men think of when they hear the word father. But God the Father is different. He doesn’t forsake us. And that’s the message that so many people need to hear. Men, but also women.

     Louie Giglio’s book Not Forsaken: Finding Freedom as Sons and Daughters of a Perfect Father (B&H Publishing Group: Passion Publishing, 2019) goes a long way towards helping people understand the difference between even the best of the best earthly fathers, and God the Father.  

     Little boys want to grow up to be like daddy, and Giglio shows us how we would all be better off trying to be more like God than like any man (other than Jesus) who has ever walked the earth.

     We all have a story, and when we learn to follow God, then our stories take on a significant turn—for the better. Lives are changed and eternities are changed.

     I received a copy of this book from the publisher as a participant in their bloggers’ program. I was not required to write a positive review.

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