Will we choose God? Will we choose God’s way? Will we choose God’s will? Will we choose God’s purpose? Will we choose God’s plan? God is precise and knows what He is doing! God is the God of details! Consider His plans for getting out of Egypt! Consider His plans for the tabernacle! Consider His plans for the temple! Consider His plans for the holy items in them both! Consider His placement within them both! God knows what He is doing and as I went looking for the next devotional and gain approval to use it, I discovered it will fit in this month. It’s going to speak to us about the importance of a father being present. So as we get ready to jump in let’s choose to be the dads that our wives, our kids, and this world needs for us to be! Let’s be the dads who are able to pour out unconditional love!
Today’s devotional gets us started with the following verses:
‘My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding— indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He holds success in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones. Then you will understand what is right and just and fair—every good path. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you. Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse, who have left the straight paths to walk in dark ways, who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil, whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.’
Proverbs 2:1-15
‘If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. ‘
James 1:5
Let’s be the dads who are humble enough to realize that we lack the wisdom we need and ask God! Let’s be the dads who cling to the reality that God gives wisdom generously to all without finding fault! Let’s be the dads who out of humility turn to God and ask for wisdom, the wisdom we lack with faith and expectation that it will be given to us! With this framing, let’s check out what the book of wisdom has to speak to us today through the verses of Proverbs 2:1-15.
Let’s be the dads who accept God’s Words! Let’s be the dads who store up God’s commands in our hearts! Let’s be the dads who turn our ears to God in order to receive wisdom! Let’s be the dads who hold onto God and apply our hearts to the wisdom in order to receive understanding! Let’s be the dads who will call out to God for the insight we need! Let’s be the dads who cry out to God for understanding! Let’s be the dads who seek wisdom and understanding like something that is valuable like silver or a hidden treasure! Let’s be the dads who seek wisdom and understanding so much that we know it comes from God and as such we understand the awe and wonder of God (the fear of the Lord) and can find the knowledge of God! Let’s be the dads who receive wisdom from God’s Word and God’s Spirit! Let’s be the dads who receive knowledge and understanding through God’s Word and God’s Spirit! Let’s be the dads who pursue God in order to become upright in His sight and receive His success! Let’s be the dads who pursue God in order to become blameless and walk under the protection of God’s shield! Let’s be the dads who walk so closely to God that He guards our course because He has helped us live justly! Let’s be the dads who walk so close to God that we are found faithful and receive God’s protection! Let’s be the dads who study God’s Word, spend so much time with God that we understand what is right and just and fair in order to know every good path! Let’s be the dads who have allowed God’s wisdom to penetrate and fill our hearts! Let’s be the dads who have allowed God’s knowledge to fill our hearts to overflowing in order to please our souls! Let’s be the dads who live with discretion! Let’s be the dads who walk with understanding! Let’s be the dads who walk in God’s protection and are guarded by Him through discretion and understanding! Let’s be the dads lean in so much on God’s wisdom that we are saved from the ways of wicked men! Let’s be the dads lean in so much on God’s wisdom that we are saved from men whose words are perverse! Let’s be the dads lean in so much on God’s wisdom that we are saved from men who have left the straight paths to walk in dark ways! Let’s be the dads lean in so much on God’s wisdom that we are saved from men who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil! Let’s be the dads lean in so much on God’s wisdom that we are saved from men whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways!
Today’s devotional has been provided by Eternity Matters With Norma (more details can be found here: Eternity Matters With Norma – Home | Facebook)
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 https://www.klove.com/books.
To learn more about My Father Can Be Your Father!, visit Eternity Matters With Norma – Home | Facebook.
Takeaways from Today’s Devotional: I NOTICED HIS AGE
- Ever met someone who knew out of experience rather than through book learning?
- Ever noticed the difference in how the experience and lesson gets told differently?
- Ever learned lessons that helped warn you about different things that would cause us problems in life?
- God’s Word tells us to be the dads who teach our kids out of our experiences so that they won’t have to go through the pain or suffering on their own!
- We have various way to learn something and for some people they seem to learn best when they go through it themselves. Others can learn it from a book and apply it. Others can learn from other people’s experiences!
- From today’s scripture we see:
- Imagine being the dad who by example is reading from God’s Word and allowing our kids to experience it.
- Today’s devotional shares this story:
- Let’s be the dads who lead by example!
- Let’s be the dads who are good neighbors and loving them as we love ourselves!
- Let’s be the dads who model our Heavenly Father to our kids so that when they see us they see how we are pursuing God’s will and trying to imitate and emulate Him!
- Today’s devotional shares a story about their experience, let’s pause and take it in:
Many a summer we could count on this man coming through town. I don’t know how my father met him, but I do know he welcomed him to our home. Year after year that man, with tattered clothing and not smelling the best, would show up on our front porch and daddy would provide him with a meal cooked up by mama and a hot cup of ‘Old Joe!’. Mama would bag up leftovers and put them in a brown bag for him to take along his undetermined journey.
Maybe some of the other kids’ parents fed him too, I will never know, but I know I saw the actions of the image of a Heavenly Father who is drawn to the less likely and showing love to the one who is down and out!
I NOTICED HIS AGE – My Father Can Be Your Father!
- Today’s devotional closes with a question: “CAN YOU RELATE?”
- Today’s devotional finishes with A TIME TO REFLECT:
- “1. Recall something from your childhood that causes you to be who you are today.
- 2. Do you find the older you become that you are doing some of the very things your parent or parents did?
- 3. Dig into your memory of a time when you saw another person reach out in a father’s love to help you or another person that needed help.“
- Let’s be the dads who can influence a way of life!
- We receive a tease in today’s devotional that tomorrow’s study will speak to this.
