Finding Dad – Day 2

As we continue this year the next plan I have selected to go through is “Finding Dad” which is a 7-day devotional from the Bible.com site by Luke Cunningham and published by The Ark Church. It caught my attention as I was looking for my next dad related devotional because it says in the introductory paragraph

:

Jesus didn’t come to replace the role of dad, He came to redeem it! In Finding Dad we discover how to forgive, heal, and reconcile the father wound while finding trust, protection, and identity in our heavenly Father.

Finding Dad on Bible.com

Today’s devotional relates to the following verses: Ephesians 1:3-6, 2 Peter 1:3-9, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, and Isaiah 53:4-6.

‘Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. ‘

Ephesians 1:3-6

‘His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. ‘

2 Peter 1:3-9

‘Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. ‘

2 Corinthians 1:3-4

‘Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. ‘

Isaiah 53:4-6

Today’s verses speak so much to the love of our Heavenly Father and how much He has done for us. Through Jesus, He has with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm. Our heavenly Father has chosen us, and all we need to do is receive and accept it. By receiving and accepting it, we get adopted into the family of God through Jesus. So will you accept God’s grace into your life for the glory of God through Jesus? We already read more about how our Heavenly Father has provided for us everything we need to be able to live a godly life through Jesus who has called us, stands at the door knocking, waiting to see if we would open it and invite Him in. Through Jesus, our Heavenly Father has given us incredible promises that allow us to be a part of His works and plans for this world, escaping from the corruption and evil desires of this world. We see how we can build upon each thing He has given us to help us become more and more like Jesus daily. It speaks to making every effort to add to our faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if we possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep us from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let’s keep our eyes on the ball, keeping our focus on Jesus so that we don’t miss it, we aren’t blind to it, and forget the truth of how Jesus came and broke the chains of sin and death in order to make a way for us to be able to spend eternity with Him in heaven. It doesn’t mean we won’t have troubles because Jesus was clear in John how in this world we will have troubles and equally as clear that we can take heart because He has overcome the world. In the midst of troubles, God will comfort us, when Jesus left He sent the Holy Spirit to be our comforter and our guide. In the midst of troubles, the comforter will comfort us so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. God opens a conduit to help us be comforters to those in trouble, just like He does for us. Jesus paid it all, He nailed the pain and the suffering to the cross, once and for all. Jesus took our sins and bore the punishment of being pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities in or to make a way when there didn’t seem to be a way for us to find true peace with God and so that we can find true healing by His stripes and wounds. Let’s turn back to God rather than being like sheep that have gone astray, trying to figure it all out on our own. Let’s accept and receive the gift of God that is salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Today’s devotional has been provided by The Ark Church (more details can be found https://arkhuntsville.com)

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)

• What comes to mind about the way you chose to live your life as a child?
• Have you been able to get beyond that and step up and step in to who God has created you to be?
• Have you been able to accept the calling He is putting on your life?
• Last year I leaned in on God’s purpose for my life as I was reading a book and Be The Dads is what has been kindled and I am starting to walk out for His glory.
• Did you ever act out when you were a kid because of the state of your heart?
• Did you ever act out when you were a kid because of your relationship with your dad or parents?
• Did you ever find yourself in the midst of living a self-destructive lifestyle?
• Did you ever get to a tipping point where you had a door open or an encounter?
• For me I know my family took me to church from time to time, be it my parents or my grandmother.
• For me I know I really didn’t get it.
• For me I know I even felt God tugging at my heart while I was in university and so went back to that church and went through the confirmation process. I had to leave before the final ceremony but when I got back for Christmas break they performed it then.
• For me it wasn’t till I was in my thirties that the big aha moment showed up that it wasn’t about rituals and routines but rather about a relationship with Jesus.
• The reality that Jesus cam to fulfill God’s plans.
• The reality that Jesus was fulfilling the Father’s plan of being the Father to the fatherless.
• I remember going to cleansing stream and having a lady praying for me and asking for forgiveness for my grandmother about something there is no way should could have known and crying as God broke that stronghold off my life.
• Do you realize you have a dad who can be a role model for how you choose to live out your life and His name is Jesus?
• Do you realize even if you don’t have your own dad and are fatherless that it doesn’t mean you are alone and can’t change the pattern for the next generation?
• Are you willing to allow God to heal those wounds through Jesus?
• Don’t let daddy issues of the past rob you of all God wants in and through your life.
• Let’s put our hope and trust in Jesus so that those issues can be broken off and taken away.
• God wants to adopt us all into His family. Through Jesus we become sons and daughters of the most high God.
• Through Jesus what was lost is now found.
• Through Jesus what was broken is now restored.
• Through Jesus what was rejeceted is now redeemed.
• Let’s choose to receive the gift of Jesus into our lives and allow Him to work in and through us to help us become more and more like Him.
• Grab hold of the reality that grace breaks the grudge.
  • worship supersedes wrath
  • the heart of hurt turns into a heart healed by hope
• We may or may not have the dad we long for but either way we do have a Heavenly Father that makes up for it.
• Today let’s embrace Him and start out our day and the the rest of our lives walking it out changed and transformed to become more like Jesus.
• Let’s not let the past prevent us from becoming the dads God created us to be.
• Let’s not let the past prevent us from reconciling and becoming the dads we are supposed to be.
• Let’s not let the past hold us back from making the next generation strong because they stand firm on the rock of Jesus Christ and are healed and whole because of it.