40 Attributes of God the Father

Feb 12

40 Attributes of God the Father

What do you feel when you hear God the Father? Or what about this passage from 1 John.

“See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.” (1 John 3:1)

Notice what happens in your body when you imagine a God who wants to Father you. A God who longs to parent you. To love you. To support you. To offer you wise counsel. To protect you. To delight in you.

Do you wince or reach out? Do you clench and tighten up or soften and loosen? Does your stomach church, or does it ease in relaxation? Does your heart get heavy, or does it lighten with ease? Do you feel closed and resistant or open and receiving?

Our bodily reaction to God the Father matters because it points to something harming our relationship with God and speaks to our wounds and the story of our experiences with attachment and authority figures.

Many of us cognitively know that God is safe, and we desire to know God intimately and be received by Him tenderly, but our bodies may tell a different story. If we are honest with ourselves, we can identify parts of ourselves that can be mistrusting, ambivalent, avoidant, or even angry with God the Father.

We often struggle to be honest with ourselves about these hidden parts because it can bring us much shame. We have a long list of self-judgments and expectations that do not make room for what lies behind our disconnection with God the Father.

But until we allow ourselves to explore these parts of ourselves, we will continue to struggle with trusting, remaining open, surrendering, and even hoping in God the Father, and as a result, we will miss out on the totality of God’s lavish love for us.

We may need to begin making space for our life experiences to heal this rupture. We may need to ask ourselves, what was my relationship with my father like? What were my experiences with older men like? With authority figures? Did I experience anything that made me doubt the goodness of God the Father? Am I projecting my earthly experiences onto God?

In my own life, there was a period when God felt demanding, critical, and highly punitive. There was also something about Him that made me feel like I had to walk on eggshells. I often worried that the good in my life wouldn’t last because God the Father would want me to suffer, especially if I were having too much fun or receiving too many gifts.

As a result, I kept God the Father at a distance and focused more on Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Since God is still the Son and the Spirit, I could maintain a close enough relationship with God, but I noticed that I couldn’t fully restore my identity as His beloved child. I needed to heal my image of the Father to show me what it means to be a daughter and what it means to be cherished, chosen, and parented in a way that made me feel fully loved.

Fortunately, my healing came. It took a lot of prayer, journal writing, therapy, trauma treatment, music, spiritual direction, and book reading, but it came. I don’t always have an image of God the Father, but I feel His presence. I know I can trust in Him. He feels safe, and as a result, I can yearn and turn to Him with confidence.

And dear reader, I desire the same for you. No matter where you’re at and how distorted your image of God the Father may be, your healing will come. You can develop a closer and more intimate relationship and separate your earthly experiences from the truth of who God the Father is.

Consider spending 40 days contemplating and praying with the different attributes of God the Father listed below. You may want to print these phrases out and put them in something you can shuffle and pull out daily.

As you sit with the words, see if you can pay attention to your body, notice if any parts of you come up, make space for any imagery that may be associated with the words, and see if you can permit yourself to imagine a Father who loves every part of you.