A full sense of being a child of the Father
From an email by Workplace Prayer
Bilquis Sheik, raised a Pakistani Muslim, tells of how she met God, including several dramatic encounters with Jesus. But in her lovely book, "I Dared to Call Him Father", one of the most powerful moments comes when she didn’t yet know God and a local doctor suggested, “Talk to God. Talk to Him as if He were your father.”
And because Bilquis had a good father, even though it felt wrong to her to speak to God as her Father, she gathered her courage and spoke to him as if he were her father.
That changed her life.
When Jesus taught us to pray, he taught us to pray starting with, “Our Father.”
What do we know about good fathers?
We know that the father’s role is to protect and provide for his children, and to establish his children’s identity. Good fathers also know their children and help guide them along the way. They comfort, correct, and care for their children. But is there more?
In a talk by Steve and Wendy Backlund, authors and international speakers, they also looked at sonship:
Muslims carry a heavy burden. Not only do they have no concept of God as Father, but they understand God as the unknowable great one, and no matter how many good works they do, they have no assurance of salvation. They certainly have no sense of sonship.
But perhaps many in the church have not entered into a full sense of our sonship - although we have some understanding of this.
How can we grow up and become childlike in a good way?
Under a religious mindset, it’s impossible to be joyful. Because if you are joyful, it means you’re not getting it; God’s just about had enough of you. He's just waiting until you fail again. That’s how the religious mindset thinks, because it’s all performance-based. And we can never do enough. If you prayed one hour: you should have prayed two. You fasted for three days but you had a marshmallow on day two and now God is angry with you and you need to feel bad for a couple weeks so you won’t do it again. And that’s completely joyless.
We’ve come to the conclusion that religious churches, the reason they don’t have a lot of joy, is because religion only celebrates perfection. And since there aren’t too many perfect people, there’s not a lot of celebrating going on.
But think - families celebrate progress. Like when your children are learning to walk, you don’t focus on them falling down. You’re focused on the fact that they’re trying to learn to walk. And you celebrate every step. You text people about the progress. That’s what we are celebrating. What if we did that in our churches and everyday life? Began to celebrate?
What would it be like to enter in, fully, to being a child of a good Father? What would it be like to have your stumbling attempts actually celebrated? What if we came to God as a child to a father?
Corrie ten Boom once described her father’s attitude while praying, “Father prayed because he had a good Friend to talk over the problems of the day; he prayed because he had a direct connection with his Maker when he had a concern; he prayed because there was so much for which he wanted to thank God. When Father talked with the Lord it was serious but unpretentious. He talked to Someone he knew”
When we pray, let’s pray like that.
See also God's Lavish Grace by Terry Virgo.
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From an email by Workplace Prayer, 28/07/2026