He’s Closer Than You Think
Have you ever felt like God was far away?
Like prayer was shouting into a void — words going up, nothing coming back down? Like the idea of a loving, present Father was something other people got to have, but not you?
If that's where you are, this is for you.
On Sunday, May 25th, our pastor opened with a scene from 1969 — a young family, a Jackson 5 album cover, a father who never once said "I love you." It wasn't a lecture. It was a confession. And it set up everything that followed: the gap between the fathers we had and the Father we actually have.
Here's what we found in Scripture.
Jesus Called God "Father" 175 Times
That number alone should stop us. In a religious culture that treated God's name as too holy to speak aloud, Jesus walked around calling Him Father — constantly, casually, intimately.
Not "the Almighty." Not "the Most High." Father.
And it wasn't just a theological label. It was relational. It was personal. Watch how it shows up across His life:
At 12 years old, when His parents found Him in the temple — "Didn't you know I must be in my Father's house?" (Luke 2:49)
On the cross, in His final breaths — "Father, forgive them" (Luke 23:34). "Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit" (Luke 23:46).
After the resurrection — "Wait for the Promise of My Father" (Luke 24:49).
From beginning to end, the story of Jesus is the story of a Son who never lost sight of His Father.
The Problem: Most of Us Pray to the Wrong Person
Here's something that might surprise you. Many Christians — people who have been in church their whole lives — rarely address God as Father. They pray to Jesus. They pray vaguely "to God." But they never quite make it to Father.
Jesus anticipated this. In John 16:23, He told His disciples: "Whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you." Not ask Me. Ask the Father — in My name.
And then Paul explains how we get there. Ephesians 2:18 says it's through Christ that we have access, by the Holy Spirit, to the Father.
Think of it like this: Jesus is the door. The Holy Spirit is the one who walks you through it. And on the other side is a Father who has been waiting for you.
"Abba" — More Than a Word
In Galatians 4:6, Paul writes: "Because you are His child, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your heart, prompting you to call out, 'Abba, Father.'"
"Abba" is Aramaic — the everyday language Jesus spoke. It's not formal. It's not religious. It's what a small child calls their dad when they run in the door after school. It's intimate, affectionate, dependent.
And the Holy Spirit is in you right now, prompting you toward exactly that kind of closeness.
You are not a servant trying to earn an audience with a distant king. You are a child of the living God — and your Father knows your voice.
What Jesus Did in the Garden
But there's a harder side to this, and we didn't look away from it.
In Mark 14, on the night before His crucifixion, Jesus took Peter, James, and John into the Garden of Gethsemane. And something happened there that shook them. "He began to be troubled and deeply distressed. My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death."
This is the Son of God, face down on the ground, sweating drops of blood (a real medical condition called hematidrosis — the body's response to extreme psychological distress), crying out: "Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me."
C.S. Lewis wrote that the garden is a "clear instance" of something profound: Jesus never shrank from the Cross — He chose it deliberately, three separate times. What troubled Him in the garden was something else entirely. The prospect of separation. The weight of what was coming. And He brought all of it to His Father.
The Father didn't remove the cup. But He sent an angel to strengthen His Son (Luke 22:43). He was present. He was near. He heard.
Hebrews 5:7 tells us that Jesus "offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverent submission."
He was heard.
What This Means If Your Father Hurt You
Maybe none of this comes easily to you. Maybe the word "father" doesn't feel warm — it feels complicated. Absent. Broken. Painful. Maybe your earthly father was physically or verbally abusive. Maybe he just wasn't there. Maybe he never said "I love you."
That story is real. And it matters. And it doesn't disqualify you from what God is offering.
The Holy Spirit's job — right now, in your life — is to introduce you to your real Father. The one who made you. The one who knows you. The one who has never left.
He is not like the father who hurt you. He is not like the father who left. He is the Father who sent His Son into the darkest garden so that you would never have to be alone in yours.
He's Closer Than You Think
Wherever you are reading this — whatever your week has looked like, whatever you're carrying — we want you to know this:
You are not shouting into a void. You are a child of God, and your Father hears you. He is not far off, waiting for you to get it together. He is near. He is with you. He is, as Jesus taught us to say, Abba.
He's closer than you think.
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And if you're in the Costa Mesa area,
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on Sunday morning.
📍 Pacific Point Church — Costa Mesa, CA
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Love God. Love People.
Scripture references: Luke 2:48–49, Luke 23:34, Luke 23:46, Luke 24:49, John 16:23, Ephesians 2:18, Galatians 4:6, Mark 14:33–36, Luke 22:43–44, Hebrews 5:7