To kick off the year I am starting with a 5-day devotional titled “Dad Tired and Loving It” through the Bible.com site and today will close out this devotional.
Pointing Your Family to the Real Hero
Today’s devotional is connected to the following verses: Romans 3:16 and 1 John 1:5-10.
‘ruin and misery mark their ways, ‘
Romans 3:16
‘This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.’
1 John 1:5-10
As we look into today’s verses we find how there is no one who on their own can meet God’s standard for righteousness. In Romans, it speaks to how this means that without Jesus the final destination will be destruction and misery. 1 John speaks to us about the reality of God that was revealed through Jesus. As we read from 1 John 1, we learn how God is light: holy, the message is truthful, perfect in righteousness. We learn how there is no darkness in God: no sin, no wickedness, no imperfection. To be in a relationship with God, we need to step out of the darkness of sin and into the light of conforming with God’s precepts. Since nobody can meet God’s standard on their own God made a way by sending Jesus. So the key is to start and keep an intimate relationship with Jesus. Without this, we walk in the darkness of sin, lie, and don’t practice the truth. With this, we need to walk in the light of conforming to God’s precepts, in relationship and fellowship with Jesus and with one another so that we are living under the cover of the blood of Jesus that cleanses us from all sin by erasing the stain of sin and keeping us clean from sin all its forms and manifestations. So let’s choose to live in the truth, admitting and confessing that we are sinners in need of a savior. By confessing our sins God will be faithful and just because of His own nature and promises to forgive our sins and clean us continually from all unrighteousness including every wrongdoing, and any in conformity to His will and purpose. So let’s choose to walk in alignment with God rather than trying to make a liar out of Him by saying that we have not sinned or acts of sin.
So to be the dads we need to be, we need to be walking out in a relationship with our Heavenly Father. So let’s decide to invite Jesus into our hearts so as to instantaneously receive salvation and then choose to live our lives and to be continuously renewed, daily. Let’s allow Jesus to renew our strength! Let’s allow Jesus to renew our minds! Let’s allow Jesus to renew our hearts! Let’s allow Jesus to renew our souls! We need to be pointing our kids and others towards Jesus as our Lord, Savior, and hero!
Today’s devotional has been provided by Harvest House Publishers (more details).
Reading through today’s devotional, here are some takeaways for me: (check out the devotional on your own too to see if you pick up other nuggets, and please share your findings in the comments)
- We all know we aren’t perfect.
- We all know that we don’t know it all.
- We all know that we can’t do it all.
- In the midst of that have you noticed how your kids can think you do and give you a “hero” card?
- Do you realize the problem with this?
- If you never look broken and never look like you need a savior, it may be a stumbling block to teaching the reality of being broken and needing a savior to your kids.
- We need to be gospel centered dads!
- To do this we need to get in the habit of repenting often to our children.
- To do this we need to get in the habit of going beyond just saying sorry and apologizing out of a sense of obligation to do the right thing and doing it because we want them to have a clearer picture of the gospel.
- We want them to be able to better understand the good news of Jesus.
- We need to make sure everyone knows we aren’t the hero of the family but that Jesus is!
- As much as we may want to play being their hero we need to point their eyes to Jesus our Lord and Savior.
- By apologizing to our kids on a regular and as needed basis, we are going from letting them here about the gospel in their minds but to have a visual picture of what it looks like in their home.
- We need to help them understand when we apologize that it is because our heart is broken and still needs Jesus’ help and redemption.
- We need to help them see clearly that we are all broken and in desperate need of the saving grace of Jesus!
- We need to be pointing them to the real hearo who is Jesus!
- Today’s devotional gives us an action item or task:
- Take Action: Pick a day this week that you can meet with one or two guys. Once you’ve found a date, block it in your calendar. Text a few guys to see if they’d be willing to meet you for a meal or activity and take the lead at initiating deeper conversations.
