THE NEED FOR GOD [FATHER HUNGER]
All over the world, the greatest need of humanity is the need for God. He is the Heavenly Father, God of creation – Creator of mankind and the Lord of the universe. God Almighty is His name [Isaiah 54:5-6]. God created mankind in His image and after His likeness. When the early man sinned, all mankind got deformed and became alienated from the image of God. “There is a God-made vacuum inside each person and only God can fill it. We may return to God to fill it or may fill the vacuum with idols of our making or the evil spirit of our ancestors.” There suppose to be no vacuum left empty. How then we decide to fill this vacuum depends on our understanding of who we’re, where we are coming from and where we are destined to go. Apostle Paul describing this God to the Athenians said, “For in Him we live and move and have our being…..for we are also His offspring” [Acts 17:28]. Saint Augustine once said, “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.”
In An Anchor for the soul, Ray Pritchard said, “Despite all our failures, we still want to know God, and we still want to find meaning in life, but just don’t know where to look.” In each human soul, there is a consciousness of the Divine presence or void of Him. How and where we search for this Divine presence depends on our belief and faith. Some people have been known to look for Him in wrong places. However, God knew even before creation that we cannot help ourselves; we can do nothing without Him. For this reason God in His infinite mercy transformed mankind through the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. By this singled act, God bought [restored] mankind through the blood of Jesus back to Him. By so doing, God provided an answer in Christ Jesus to human moral issues/problems. Christ is the ultimate expression of God’s unconditional love and the scriptures teach that Christ is the only way to God.
Some people opine that every religion leads to the same God and believe that no matter which road you take you will get to the same destination. Put it rightly, all roads leads to a certain destination: heaven or hell, good or bad, enjoyment or sufferings. The destination you desire to get to will determine the road you take. Some believe the ultimate destination is here on earth and when they die, that is the end. Surprisingly, nothing in this world can satisfy our longings and the end because nothing on earth can lead us back to God. The answer is found from outside this world. Everything on earth is physical and temporary; all vanity and emptiness. Whatever shall satisfy mankind comes from heavenly places and resides only in the domain of God of creation.
Some people tried to seek satisfaction in money and wealth and get stocked with greediness and hardness of heart; end up in ridicule and idolatry. Others have tried drugs and alcohol, become temporary happy and crazy; end up societal disasters, as criminals and murderers. Even then others attempted to take solace in sex; have accreditation is swinging club where members exchange their spouses for sex. Dis-satisfied with the natural way, they seek satisfaction in unnatural ways – turned to same sex relationship; become sex maniac and societal pimps and live alternative lifestyles. Nothing can satisfy the human vacuum except God, himself. We can never know God unless He reveals Himself to us. God has not left mankind in the dark about Him; has revealed Himself in creation, in human conscience, in His word- the Bible and most importantly in His Son, Jesus Christ.
This “Father hunger” is not peculiar only with our Heavenly Father. Human dads derived their fatherhood from the Heavenly Father, the God of all creation. So many children in our society today grow in homes dad’s absent or without a strong and compassionate father figure. Their dads may have died or incarcerated, separated or divorced; or just too busy chasing earthly treasures yet missing the mark. Children grow up in families that are father absent are in desperate need of dads or someone [something] to fill that void. This deep sense of father hunger won’t go away until satisfied. The effect of this absence is crying for attention and costing the society much more they ever imagined. Some of these children are raised by single or foster parents who may have to do more than one job to pay their bills and meet the needs of the family. Others are on government subsidies to help alleviate these problems; even the welfares are sometimes diverted to other uses. A great number of these children end up juveniles and graduate into penitentiaries. But nothing satisfies the need for fathers at home except the fathers. Our Heavenly Father is ever-present but we need His representatives [the dads] to lead, provide and protect as well as give spiritual oversight.
Reach: Evangelist Ogbonnaya, Godswill at: weefreeministries@yahoo.com or P. O. Box 720035, Houston, Texas, 77272.