10 Challenges Every Dad Must Conquer – Day 5

The Bible.com (or Bible App from YouVersion) has so many great plans to go through and read. As I continue through the list of dad devotionals using their search capabilities, I have come across today’s devotional which is a 12-day devotional titled 10 Challenges Every Dad Must Conquer. Checking out the publisher’s information and signing up for their newsletters as well as getting to download their survival gear, I am excited to get better connected with them as I believe they have many resources that will be helpful and useful for men who answer the call to step up and step into being the dads God has called and created them to be. Looking into this devotional and trying to better understand the purpose of Manhood Journey, I discovered they are “a ministry who helps dads become disciple-makers. We do this through various tools. Things like blogs, eBooks, Field Guides, Bible studies, digital courses, and live events“. I am so excited to get to go through this devotional with all of you and see where God will take us. I am excited to have gotten to communicate with Kent and to have found their resources as I believe it will be of great help to dads.

The Bible.com site describes this plan as follows:

“Feel overwhelmed—or worse—like a failure? We took your most-pressing challenges and matched them up with battle-proven, busy leaders who also happen to be dads—to give you theologically deep and super-practical help. You CAN be the dad God calls you to be. This plan will help.”

10 Challenges Every Dad Must Conquer

Today’s devotional points us to Romans 7:18 and Matthew 6:9.

‘For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ‘

Romans 7:18

‘ “This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, ‘

Matthew 6:9

Today’s Word from scripture is an interesting one to consider and contemplate as we step into today and seek to be the dads God created us to be. It brings the reality that there is a battle within us between the flesh and the spirit. There is a battle between the sinful nature we have and the spirit that desires us to do what is good. Let’s expand on what we see from Romans 7:18 to grasp more of what Paul is saying and God wants us to receive and take away in order to be the dads He created us to be.

‘We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.’

Romans 7:14-25

To be the dads, we need to lean into Jesus more. To be the dads, we need to invite Jesus into our hearts to help us overcome the sinful nature and be able to overcome it and move in the spirit. Let’s be spirit-filled! Let’s be let’s not just do what we think but let’s bring it to God and allow Him to help us make the right decisions as dads. Let’s choose to live our lives in a way that will bring God the praise, honor, and glory. So we need to bring our choices to God and allow Him to help us decide. To do this we need to pray. Jesus shares how to pray with us in today’s Word from scripture. So let’s get started by expanding on today’s Word and lift up the Lord’s Prayer:

‘ “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father, who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors [letting go of both the wrong and the resentment]. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.]’ ‘

Matthew 6:9-13

Let’s get started with praising God! Let’s invite God’s kingdom into our very situation and God’s will for our every decision. Let’s seek God for provision in all areas of our lives. Let’s reflect on those who have hurt, troubled, abandoned, sinned against us, and let’s forgive them by letting go of the wrongs and the resentment that was coming with it. Let’s confess our mistakes, our behavior, our sins to God and ask Him to forgive us. Let’s ask God to help us resist the devil and his temptations, we know that the devil is watching us and is seeing our weaknesses and so is trying to get us tripped up and so we need God’s help to help us avoid and resist the temptations and be delivered from the devil’s hands. Let’s thank God and give Him the praise, the honor, and the glory in Jesus’s name for His is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever, Amen.

Today’s devotional has been provided by Manhood Journey (more details can be found https://www.manhoodjourney.org/fieldguides/)

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)

For more information, please visit Manhood Journey: https://www.manhoodjourney.org/fieldguides/.

Day 5 You’re living with failure and regret.

• Today’s devotional gives us 7 points to consider on this topic:
  1. Great Expectations
  2. Let me assure you: your story is not complete.
  3. So where does the doubt about yourself come from?
  4. Your standard should be God Himself.
  5. God the Father loves unconditionally.
  6. God the Father is always there.
  7. What benchmark are you trying to live up to as a dad?
• Do you ever realize the challenge of past failures?
• Do you ever realize the challenge of past regrets?
• Why? What is causing you to get stuck there or challenged by the past?
• We aren’t perfect and we can’t allow the devil to beat us over the head with our screw ups, our failures.
• God’s Word today speaks to how we have a sinful nature within us and that is the natural man’s nature and desire but that we have receive the Spirit from Jesus and so we can resist it.
• We don’t have to get stuck in our mistakes!
• Let’s be the dads who don’t let our mistakes pile up before we turn to the person and apologize and ask for forgiveness!
• Let’s be the dads who don’t let the failures pile up before we stop and turn back to apologize and ask for forgiveness!
  • Let’s be the dads who apologize when “we broke promises“.
  • Let’s be the dads who apologize when “we got angry“.
• Let’s be the dads who turn back to God and ask for help, casting our cares on Him because He cares for us rather than allowing “the growing list of parenting mistakes only raises a cloud of doubt“.
• Let’s be the dads who turn to God for help and forgiveness so that we won’t get stuck beating ourselves up with the destructive words of the devil like “I haven’t been a good father. I may never be a good father.“.
• Let’s be the dads who do not get stuck in the mistakes of the past but instead be the dads who are striving to do better and move forward in the power and the strength of God.
• Let’s be the dads who invite God into our very situation rather than dwelling in the failures and the pain.
• Let’s be the dads who see ourselves through God’s eyes rather than our own or this worlds that undervalues the importance of dads and our role in being the dads God created us to be.
• Let’s be the dads who focus on the right benchmarks in life!
• Let’s be the dads who use the right standards and expectations for ourselves.
• Let’s be the dads who use our Heavenly Father as our example of how to be the dads He created us to be rather than the faulty examples:
  • Our own father
  • The exact opposite of our own father
  • An idealized fictional father
• Let’s set our standard to be God Himself! Let’s grab hold of turning to God the Father in prayer!
• Let’s set our standard for love to be God’s love which is unconditional! Remember how God is love and that in 1 Corinthians 13 we get the real definition of what love is?
  • ‘Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ‘
    1 Corinthians 13:4-8
• Let’s be the dads who love our wives and our kids no matter what!
• Let’s be the dads who love not because of something but rather be the dads who love no matter what!
• Let’s be the dads who are present!
• Let’s be the dads who are always there!
• Let’s be the dads who when we can’t be there will pray and give our kids and wives into the hands of God who is always there!
• Let’s realize we are human and so we aren’t perfect and we will slip up and make mistakes and so we just need to be turning to God and ask for His help.
• Let’s realize we are human and so we aren’t perfect and we will slip up and make mistakes and so we just need to be turning to our kids and ask them for forgiveness when we do.
• Let’s realize we are human and so we aren’t perfect and we will slip up and make mistakes and so we just need to be turning to our wives and ask them for forgiveness when we do.
• Let’s choose to be the best dads that we can be.