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: Galatians 4:4-7, 1 Peter 2:9, and Colossians 2:6-15.
But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “ Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.
Galatians 4:4-7
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
1 Peter 2:9
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
Colossians 2:6-15
As our reading through the Finding Dad devotional comes to a close, God’s Word continues to deliver, never returning void. So let’s grab hold of the truth of God and how Jesus came to this world on purpose, with purpose, and for a purpose. Jesus came into this world humbly as a baby, living a sinless life, with the purpose to redeem us who choose to believe and receive the gift of grace, adoption into the family of God. By accepting and receiving Jesus into our lives as our Lord and Savior, God sends His Spirit into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out Abba Father to our Heavenly Father, breaking the chains of sin and slavery to sin and becoming children of the Most High God. We get the benefits of becoming an heir of the King because of our adoption into God’s family as His child. God’s Word is so incredible when we take the time to read and meditate on it. God’s Word speaks to us who receive this freely offered gift of God that we are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that we may declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light. So today as we start this day and get ready for what is yet to come, let’s grab hold of the truths of Colossians 2 as well. As we walk out today with Jesus, let’s continue to live our lives in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as we were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. Let’s live out today shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves, so that no one takes us captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. It’s not about that, it’s all about Jesus, for in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ, you have been brought to fullness. Let’s grab hold of Jesus and what God’s Word speaks: “He is the head over every power and authority. In him, you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” Let’s live out our today being the dads God created us to be. Let’s not allow the stereotypes or the lies about the lack of importance of being the dad really is. Let’s not allow the world to rob us of our relationship with our Heavenly Father. Let’s model our lives after Him so that this world will see that being the dad for our kids, our wives, and our world is important and a very high calling.
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)
- Do you realize who you are?
- Do you realize the power and the influence that comes from it?
- Do you realize the power and the influence you will get when you let them know who you are?
- You are a child of God.
- You are redeemed by Jesus.
- Are you ready to live out today with this identity?
- Are you ready for the access this identity will give you?
- Are you ready to access what you can really do because of who you are?
- Don’t get stuck in the performance trap! Don’t get stuck trying to do something before becoming someone!
- Let’s become secure in who we are!
- Let’s be who God created us to be rather than allowing something to try and define who we are.
- Did you catch that? “when we are secure in our identity, we can ‘do something’ without being defined by something.”
- Let’s allow the roots of who we are to go deep and strong into the soil that is God, the firm foundation that is Jesus so that we can stand up, stand strong, and not fall over.
- Let’s allow the roots of who we are to go deep and strong into the soil that is God, the firm foundation that is Jesus so that we don’t get blown around by the winds of the times.
- Let’s grab hold of who we are! Let’s find God’s peace in the reality that we are children of God!
- Let’s not a lose hope or lose sight of our Heavenly Father and then find ourselves lacking our identity!
- When we try to go it alone and don’t allow God to stay in the picture as our Heavenly Father, our Abba Father, our Dad, part of our identity goes along with it.
- Let’s not let go of God and find ourselves wandering through a journey of self-disocery that opens doors to wrong relationships, wrong situations, wrong behaviors, and worse.
- Let’s keep our eyes on Jesus so that we don’t get lost or lose focus or end up looking at or watching things we shouldn’t be, getting trapped in sin, living out life in rebellion, and getting into trouble.
- Remember that quote I started this post with? Jesus has redeemed the role of Father and reconciled us to Him and as such our identity is in Him.
- Let’s grab hold of what Paul told the Galatians in today’s verse: Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “ Abba, Father.”
- Let’s take hold of our identity by grabbing hold of how Paul speaks to the Galatians and us today: you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir. So our identity is that we are God’s own child.
- I am God’s own child. You are God’s own child. So are you ready to grab hold of and live out the reality of your identity?
- In that identity sin has no hold on us!
- In that identity performance doesn’t define us!
- We didn’t do anything to deserve it or get it, we just had to accept the gift of grace and become Abba Father’s child!
- So let’s decide today to live with the identify of being God’s child!
- Let’s live with the comfort that we are His children!
- Let’s stop allowing the world to define us!
- God has already identified us, so let’s live with the identity He has given us!
