Fatherhood Quote by Bill Hybels

Hybels frames faith less as a courtroom verdict and more as a family system: God as Father, believers as children being steadily re-parented into confidence. The verb choice, "father", is doing the heavy lifting. It’s intimate, active, ongoing. Not merely that God is a father, but that God fathers - a continuous process of formation, correction, reassurance. In an age when institutional religion often reads as rules and reputational policing, Hybels pitches Christianity as relational security: approval you don’t have to hustle for, guidance you don’t have to improvise, heaven you don’t have to guess at.

The phrase "dead sure" is tellingly modern and colloquial, almost blunt. It acknowledges doubt as a normal condition, then promises a cure: certainty through sustained spiritual parenting. Subtext: you may feel unsteady, suspicious of your own worth, uncertain about the future; the gospel is not just forgiveness but emotional stabilization. That’s pastorally astute and strategically compelling.

Context matters. Hybels is a flagship figure in the late-20th-century seeker-sensitive movement, which translated evangelical claims into therapeutic and accessible language for the unchurched suburban professional. This line fits that ethos: God as the answer to anxiety, aimlessness, and the fear that you’re failing some invisible test.

There’s also a tension embedded in the comfort. "Approval" implies an evaluator, and "until" suggests a journey toward a finally settled status. The reassurance lands because it names the ache - the craving to be unquestionably wanted - and then offers a God who won’t stop working until that craving is quieted.