As you may have noticed, daily posts have been missed as I wasn’t feeling good, and it’s taken till today for me to get back into the flow. I needed rest! In the midst of missing so many days, my plan is to continue to get better and feel better and then find a way to play catchup and backdate the missed days. I’ve found this is true not only with our health but with our lives when we face trials and troubles that we can’t stay where we don’t feel good but rather, we need to plan to get better.
Let’s lean into God and put our hope and trust in Him and ask for His wisdom to help us understand why we don’t feel good and to help us plan to get better. Let’s plan to get better in our marriages so that we can be a blessing to our wives. Today let’s plan to get better with our kids so that we can be the dads God created, purposed, and plans for us to be for His glory. Let’s plan to get better in the world too, not because of the world but to glorify God as we work as unto the Lord!
This year, I am utilizing the 365 Daily Devotions book I received for Christmas, applying its teachings specifically in the context of fatherhood. It’s called WALKING WITH GOD by DAVID JEREMIAH. It’s exciting to get to learn from a new resource this year as we have tried different options the past two years and will keep working through this one for 2024. For more information about the author and his ministry, visit: DavidJeremiah.org.
Topic: REST AND REFRESH
Verse: John 7:37 (NLT)
On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me!
Therefore, let’s be the dads who are humble enough to turn to God in our times of need. Additionally, let’s be the dads who model humility in our homes and point our wives, kids, and world to God. Moreover, let’s be the dads who thirst for more of Jesus in our lives so that we can be filled and thirst no more.
Retreats Have purpose – find rest in them
Today’s Devotional points us to the origin of taking a retreat as it points to the old habits of nuns, monks, hermits, and ascetics in the time of Anthony the Great where people who retreat “seeking spiritual purity, enlightenment, solitude, and perfection.”
Today’s Devotional speaks to unlike back then when people retreated to the desert and mountains to seek, it’s not required today. It also spoke of how some retreated temporarily whereas other permanently to find spiritual refreshment.
Jesus is our retreat and refreshing
Today’s Devotional points us to both John 4:10 and Matthew 11:28-30 where we read the following:
Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.” -- John 4:10 (NLT)
Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” -- Matthew 11:28-30
Today’s Devotional shares how through Jesus we can find living water and rest in abundance. Let’s be the dads who make the time and space for this to take place. Today, let’s be the dads who “create that place of rest in a place of prayer or Bible study or meditation or worship – anywhere we can retreat from the cares and business of life.”
Find Rest by casting your cares on God:
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. -- Philippians 4:6-7 NLT
Today, let’s lean into God, finding rest in and through Jesus who as we turn to Him and cast our cares on Him find peace in our hearts and minds.
Today’s Devotional closes out with the following challenge:
“If you can retreat to a serene spot in nature- wonderful! If that’s not possible, retreat with Jesus wherever you can. He will meet you there.”
“You made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless till they rest in you.”
AUGUSTINE
