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What comes to mind when you think about your father? Is it joy, pain, or indifference? Whatever it is, it can reveal deeper wounds that still affect you today. In this journey of healing, Zach Garza invites you to explore topics like generational sin, emotional scars, and the transformative power of forgiveness through the lens of his own story of growing up without a father in the home. By confronting the past, you'll discover how to break free, embrace your true identity, and experience the unconditional love of God.
Chapter 21, but God. The day I met Larry all those years ago, God set me on fire for him and completely changed my life. I look back at who I was and barely recognize that man. Now I am a husband, father, and a man who seeks first the kingdom of God. I run a ministry that supports single mothers and helps kids who grow up without a father figure present.
Speaker 1:I have a good relationship with my father, and I'm surrounded by people who love me and support me. When I find out someone has the same story as me, I see it as an opportunity to help set that person free. If God can give me freedom and restoration, he can do the same for you. Restoration means to heal or repair. Think of new skin that grows over a wound over time.
Speaker 1:That's restoration. Our God is a God of restoration, which I have experienced firsthand, and I'm not the only one who has experienced his restorative power. Moses killed a man, but God restored him and used him to lead his people out of Israel. David committed adultery, but God called him a man after God's own heart. Paul used to kill Christians, but God used him to advance the kingdom in some major ways.
Speaker 1:Peter denied Jesus three times when he was needed most, but God said he would be the rock upon which the church was built. You get the point. The Bible says that God will restore the years the locusts have eaten, and he will replace it with plenty, satisfying us in the process. Joel two twenty five through 27. He declares health will be restored and wounds will be healed.
Speaker 1:Jeremiah 3zero 17. The Psalms declare that God will restore our soul and lead us in paths of righteousness. Psalm 20 three:three. This is the heartbeat of God the Father. Notice the passage in Joel deals with God restoring things around us.
Speaker 1:Jeremiah speaks of God restoring things upon us, and the Psalms declare the restoration of things within us. As I really take a moment to ponder that truth, it is almost too much for me to handle. The Lord takes all of my junk, all of my sin, past and present, and removes it. Nothing I have done is too much for him. He makes all things new, my heart, my relationships, my mind.
Speaker 1:One could live on the promises forever, but it gets better. In Ephesians two, one through 10, a favorite area of scripture for me, Paul puts the icing on the cake, effectively saying that you and I were dead in our trespasses and sins. We followed the course of the world and said yes to the enemy's wishes. But God, being rich in mercy and unmatched in love, brought to us life with Christ right there in the midst of our sin and shame. We were saved not by efforts, works, performance, or by being good boys and girls.
Speaker 1:No. It was by grace alone. And how did we access this grace? Simple faith. In that exchange, we were raised up to be seated at the throne with Jesus, prepared to carry out our unique calling and purposes.
Speaker 1:We were dead, but then God showed up. We were a mess, but then God cleaned us up. It had nothing to do with us. And it had nothing to do with me. And it has nothing to do with you.
Speaker 1:Now that's grace. That's a good father. Redemption is different from restoration. Restoration is about healing, and redemption is about freedom. To redeem is to be delivered from something or to be set free.
Speaker 1:It means to loosen the chains of bondage and to buy back something that was lost, and that's exactly what Jesus Christ did on the cross. He paid the price of death to buy my freedom from sin. Growing up, I heard that Jesus died on the cross for my sins a thousand times. I thought a guy died for all of us to forgive our sins. I guess that's cool.
Speaker 1:But it never really hit home with me until I took the time to make the death of Jesus a personal event. Instead of thinking Jesus Christ died for mankind, I thought Jesus Christ died for me, Zach Garza. He died to set me free from the pains of my childhood and the sins I committed then and now. He died to loosen the chains of self hatred, anger and bitterness. He came to set me free from hurt and pain, and to replace it with never ending unconditional love.
Speaker 1:To make the crucifixion personal meant to imagine making eye contact with Jesus on the cross and hearing him say, I am doing this because I love you. It is my joy to set you free. For God so loved the world, he gave his one and only son. The Bible is clear about what God thinks of redemption. He says we have redemption through the blood of Jesus.
Speaker 1:He says we have redemption, which forgives all of our sins. Ephesians one seven says, in him, have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace. In Colossians one fourteen, he says in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Isaiah 4four 22 says, I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist. Return to me for I have redeemed you.
Speaker 1:How kind of God the Father to restore and redeem us. Not only does he love and take care of his children, but he sets them up for success as well, to overcome that which is holding them back from all he has and all he created them to be. Having children of my own really helped me understand God the father in a new way. It helped me solidify the fact that God is for me. He's on my side.
Speaker 1:He wants me to succeed. This hit me one day as I watched my four year old son play basketball. My son, along with most kids his age, isn't what I would call a coordinated or skilled basketball player. He just runs around the court looking lost. It's actually pretty cute.
Speaker 1:As a father, I found myself caring a ton about how my son was doing. I wanted deep down in my heart for him to have fun, score points, and make friends. This was a legitimate desire of mine. When he got the ball, I cheered for him. When he messed up, I encouraged him.
Speaker 1:After the game, win or lose, I hug him, and we celebrate together. That's exactly how God the father is with you and me at all times. He is for us. He wants us to succeed. He wants us to become all that he created us to be.
Speaker 1:I believe that God has a but God moment for you today, for the Lord loves to rewrite the narrative of your life. When it comes to rewriting the story of your life, God has a major part to play, but so do you. You're the main character in the story. God wants to work with you as opposed to you sitting on the sidelines and watching. God gives you every opportunity to be made new, and he is patient and waiting for you.
Speaker 1:One day when you are old and talking to your children and they ask to tell you the story of your life, I pray the Lord works in such a way that you will be able to say, I grew up without a father in my life, and that left me with some pretty tough circumstances. But God, your pain redeemed. The Lord has a beautiful way of using the pain of someone else to impact the world in a positive way. People's lives very rarely are without complication. Things such as food shortages, lack of education, or situations of abuse are just some examples.
Speaker 1:But when someone overcomes obstacles in their life, they often take the tools it took to overcome that obstacle and use them as a gift to give to others who are going through similar situations. For example, a person who is a recovering alcoholic is more likely to comfort a person struggling with alcoholism because he knows what he is going through. Single mothers know what it is like to raise a child on their own and can help the newly single moms be better supported and encouraged because they know the struggle firsthand. God can use your experience for good by providing an example to look up to for someone in need or going through something similar. Your presence alone is an encouragement saying, I've been where you are, and I've overcome.
Speaker 1:If I can, you can too. You give hope, and there's nothing more powerful to a person who is struggling than the simple force of hope. God uses your pain to create a fire in you to help others like you. More on that in chapters to follow. For me, God took a kid who grew up without a father figure to now help kids who are in the same situation as I was through a mentor relationship, a father figure type person for them to emulate.
Speaker 1:When I see a kid growing up without a father, I can feel what he or she is feeling. There's nothing else in the world that my heart burns so passionately for than helping those impacted by the father wound to overcome their pain. This passion did not come from a random idea. It came from deep pain. Spurred by my past, the Lord turned my pain into passion, my trauma into triumph.
Speaker 1:Tell me, do you have a but God moment? I was blank, but God blank. What particular area of pain or struggle has God brought you out of? How might you be specifically equipped to help others in this same trap? Has your pain turned into your passion in any area of your life?