Being a father is a special thing. It is one of the ways others can see the love of God, for God is our Heavenly Father and the Father of all. He wants us to know that being a father is special. It is a big deal.
So, He chose to make Himself known not only as our God which can seem difficult to behold. He also made Himself known as our Father because each of us has or has had an earthly father. Being a Father makes Him more personal than just being our God.
So, to the fathers and men out there, you hold a special place in the lives of others and in the heart of God because on earth you are called to be towards your wives and your children the very way God wants to be toward us all. Being a father is a personal thing. It is not a title at all. It is a state of being.
It is interesting that when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, Jesus used the word Father in His prayer. In Matthew 6:8-9, Jesus gives us a lesson on prayer. “Therefore, do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.”
Jesus was saying to the disciples and to us that God is not an object to which we pray. He is a person who lives and who loves us. He is our first Father and so we can talk to Him like He is a person more than we believe He is just the thing we call God.
For you fathers out there, you are not just a thing in the lives of your children. You are not just a thing in the life of your spouse. Next to God, you are the most important person in their lives. So then, fathers ought to be that way so that our children and our spouses can act that way.
But what way do I speak of? Well, Jesus speaks of this in Matthew 6 when He tells the disciples not to be like the earthly people around them who want things for themselves. Earthly people spend their lives providing things for themselves. They are people who want to be seen and glorified by others. Fathers are to be different than those. They are to be providers, first of love and then of all other things, just as God the Father is a provider for us.
Men, husbands and fathers, we ought to be examples of what we have learned from God the Father. Ephesians 6:4 says, “And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.”
God is not speaking to others about fathers. He speaks directly to fathers about fathers. He is speaking directly to us men and fathers. When He says do not provoke your children to wrath, He is saying be patient and loving toward them. They are learning just as you have learned. Don’t push so hard to make them do right that you make them hate what you do to them.
If you are a father or husband, you should never say to yourself that God has never talked to or spoken directly to you because He has. He is saying to fathers, “Raise your children the same way God the Father has raised you.” As a father you must use the training and the encouragement you have received from God the father to raise your children. This means as fathers we must live our lives under the watchful loving training and encouragement of the Lord.
We cannot train our children the way God wants us to train them when we have not gone through that same training ourselves.
Fathers, we have a special calling in life. We are to be trained by the Lord so that we can train our children in the ways of the Lord. Men, I know none of us are perfect in any way, but let’s not use that that as an excuse to be lazy fathers.
Let’s commit this Father’s Day to be men who receive the Love and Admonition of the Lord in our own development so that we can share that same Love and admonition with our spouses and with our children. The more special we are in how we allow the Lord to develop our lives, the more special we will be as fathers in the lives of our children.
Have a great Father’s Day.
Live a Delivered Life. Love you.
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