To kick off the year I am starting with a 5-day devotional titled “Dad Tired and Loving It” through the Bible.com site.
Day 3 – Creating Daily 30-Second Devotions
Today’s devotional is connected to Deuteronomy 6 from God’s Word:
‘These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you. Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. ‘
Deuteronomy 6:1-9
The theme of today’s reading is to know and love God! Are you living to know God more? Are you living to love God more? Are you as a dad looking to lead your kids into knowing God and loving God? Are you as a dad creating a legacy as today’s Word speaks to where not only your kids but your grandkids will also know God and love God? How are you helping your kids know God? How are you helping your kids know about God’s love? How are you helping your kids know who God is? How are you helping your kids to know that they need and should love God with everything that is in them and how their lives should be demonstrating this love? Is it evident from the outside that you love God with all of your heart? Is it evident from the outside that you love God will all of your soul? Is it evident from the outside that you love God with all of your strength? Are your words demonstrating it? Are your words demonstrations of this love? Are your actions throughout the day demonstrating it? Are your actions throughout the day demonstrations of this love? Are you spending time with your kids so they can witness you living life in a way that demonstrates your love for God and God’s love in and through you? Are you making signs or landmarks so that wherever you are or wherever you go it is evident that you know and love God? Are you living out your today in a way that will show people how much you know and love God because you are living in accordance with His will and His commands? Are you stepping things up too and living your life to the higher calling Jesus has given you? It’s a matter of the heart and so it requires a change, a transformation, and then an overflow of the Holy Spirit from our hearts into the world around us. As God’s Word tells us from the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. So what comes out of our mouth shows the state of our hearts and should be like lights on the dashboard of our car if something comes out of our mouth that shouldn’t and how we need to take it into the shop to get it taken care of and fixed up. For our hearts it will mean turning to God and asking the Holy Spirit to help us clean our heart house up and remove anything that isn’t going to glorify God from it.
Let’s make sure we know God and love God! Let’s make sure our heart is healthy! Let’s then help the future generations to be able to cling to this hope and truth.
Today’s devotional speaks to the desire and needs of dads to lead their families towards Jesus.
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)
- Why are you interested in letting your family know Jesus?
- We need more than a cool devotional to go through with them but a dad to demonstrate or live out the bible right in front of them.
- We need more than a great kids or family devotional to go through with them but a dad that will point them to Jesus every chance we get.
- They need more than just rituals and routines, they need a relationship with Jesus.
- I know that had been the missing piece of the puzzle in my life and why it took till I was 30 to start a real walk and relationship with Jesus.
- We need to be looking for the best ways to raise disciples of Jesus
- Let’s grab hold of some of Moses’ instructions on how to raise our children
- He didn’t say to carve out 15 minutes a day to do a devotional but rather He said to impress the truths of God throughout the day.
- Moses tells us to look for training or teaching opportunities throughout the day.
- Do it while we are walking around with them
- Do it while we are lying around with them
- Do it while we are sitting at home with them
- Do it while ever opportunity we get to pour the love of God and the importance of having a living relationship with Jesus with them
- Let’s reflect on and use the techniques Jesus used with His disciples
- Jesus didn’t just get them to meet with Him but instead they got to experience life walking it out with Him.
- Jesus didn’t just have a Bible study once a day, a week, a month or something but instead He used every opportunity to teach them about the kingdom of God in everyday life.
- Jesus explained the parables to them.
- Jesus showed the importance of getting into the world and even stepping into the lives of people who were hurting and in need.
- Jesus showed that we love God so much that what the people say is less important to what God says and so we meet them right where they are at and help them to be transformed.
- This is what we need to give to our kids
- They need us to love God with everything that we are.
- They need us to study, meditate, and memorize God’s Word because it is important to us and to God.
- They need us to talk about God, what He has done, what He is doing, and what He is going to do in and through our lives.
- They need more than 15 minutes a day about God they need us to be living all of our days for the glory of God!
- They need more than 15 minutes a day devotionals but instead as many 30 second messages or opportunties that we can find and step into.
- So today let’s find as many opportunities as possible to point our families back to Jesus!
- Today’s devotional gives us an action item or task:
- Take Action: Challenge yourself to find one or two ways to talk to your kids about Jesus today. Pray that God would give you courage to speak up and wisdom to know what and when to speak.
Today may be the first time you read something from the Bible. Today might be the first time you are hearing about our Heavenly Father. Today might be the first time you are hearing about Jesus how made a way for us. If you haven’t met Jesus before but would like to start then join me in praying the following prayer today and let’s start this journey together. Leave me a comment and I can reach out and pray with you and for you.
