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 1 Corinthians 6:13.
‘You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. ‘
1 Corinthians 6:13
Today’s verse is an interesting one and looking into it more deeply we learn the risk and threat of absorbing or thinking that common phrases are actually in scripture or biblical. Some common examples from today are phrases like “live and let live” or “God helps those who help themselves”. Neither of these can be found in scripture. Both of these can lead people into unspiritual directions. We learn how Paul was confronting one of the days common phrases that people were using to try and justify sexual immorality. Ever had a conversation with someone where they tried to compare two things that really aren’t comparable? Imagine trying to have a real discussion with someone who thinks that the hunger for food was the same thing as the hunger for sex. Imagine trying to have a logical discussion with someone who thinks that we should be satisfying our appetites no matter what they are for. Today’s verse calls us to live up to Christ’s calling rather than the ways of the world. We see how Paul helps them to see the reality of the temporary versus the eternal, what will fade away versus what will last and the importance of taking good care of the part that will last. Let’s take hold of what our bodies are – they are the temple for the Holy Spirit. God’s Word later in the chapter speaks to it this way:
‘Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.’
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Right before we get this and in alignment, with today’s verse, we see that the command we are given when we are faced with sexual immorality is to flee because of its larger impact and long-term effects!
‘Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. ‘
1 Corinthians 6:18
So today let’s grab hold of the importance of our bodies and how we treat them. Our bodies matter to God! Let’s take hold of the reality from today’s verse which tells us that our bodies are meant for the Lord and the Lord for the body. Let’s choose to treat our bodies like the temple of God!
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 9 You’ve failed in the past and you’re not sure what to do.
- Are you ready to share your story with the world?
- Are you ready to share God’s story with the world?
- Are you ready to share your story through God’s story with the world?
- As I ask these questions I realize and remember back in 2005 when God prompted me to start just such a journey. I was reading in the book of Revelation at the time and hence how my blog got the name From 2005 to Eternity. Tech changed from Windows Live Spaces back in 2005 to WordPress in 2010 but the call God put on my life hasn’t stopped, to share God’s Word and story through my life story.
- What about you?
- Are you ready to share your examples of the highs and lows of life in order for others to be able to learn from them?
- Are you ready to share the challenges and the successes of your life with others rather than trying to have them follow your advice?
- Let’s be the dads who lead by example so that our kids will be able to learn from our example, even when they won’t listen to our advice!
- Today’s devotional gives us a great quote to grab a hold of today:
- Today’s devotional gives us three tips to help us be the dads we need to be for God, for our wives, for our kids, and for this world!
- Their Story
- Let’s be the dads who are ready to make time to ask and listen to other people’s story.
- Let’s be the dads who are ready to hear their story without judging.
- Let’s be the dads who care enough to stop and ask.
- Let’s be the dads who care enough to stop and listen.
- Your Story
- Let’s be the dads who are ready to share our testimony with others, of where we were before we met Jesus, how we met and accepted Jesus, how He changed us, and how we are living out today.
- Let’s be the dads who are ready and willing to share the story of God’s grace in our lives.
- Let’s be the dads who are ready and willing to share the story of God’s truth forever changing our lives.
- Let’s be the dads who are ready to speak into the lives of others out of the overflow of what God has done in and through our lives.
- God’s Story
- Let’s be the dads who are ready to share the story of Jesus!
- Let’s be the dads who are ready to share how much God loves us all, so much that He gave His one and only Son.
- Let’s be the dads who are ready to share how much God loves us all, so that others can ponder it for themselves.
- Let’s be the dads who are ready to share how much God loves us all in an age appropriate way so that our kids are able to receive it and and respond.
- Let’s be the dads who do the work to make sure we understand why Christ has come.
- Let’s be the dads who do the work to make sure we understand the goal of pointing people to Jesus and His story!
- Let’s be the dads who are patient and willing to take things one step at a time!
- Let’s be the dads who share our story and are able to connect the dots between them and the Good News, the gospel of Jesus Christ!
- Let’s be the dads who aren’t ashamed of the gospel of Jesus!
- Let’s be the dads who choose to share God working in and through our lives with the people God puts around us (especially our kids)
- Today’s devotional gives us a tip on sharing our faith:
- Their Story
- Let’s choose to be the dads who live our story for our kids to see!
- Let’s be the dads who live out our authentic lives in front of our kids for them to be witness to God working in and through our lives!
- Let’s be the dads who live out our authentic lives in front of our kids and are able to admit when we miss the mark and are humble enough to admit our mistakes and ask for forgiveness!
- Today’s devotional closes with the question:
