As we draw to the conclusion of this devotional, I am thankful for the support and connections God has given me through being obedient to have started Be The Dads and writing daily blog posts. I am thankful for the great network of believers who are out there and available to help people draw closer to God and to help others live out their lives to their maximum potential for their good and for God’s glory!
My search for dad devotionals brought this one to the surface for our next study and I am looking forward to hearing and learning from God through this devotional. The introduction caught my attention too as it points to our hearts when things are challenging and what lies the devil to speak that we are vulnerable to accept as truth. We need to be the dads who trust God and persevere! We need to be the dads who know that God is for us and not against us! We need to be the dads who know that God’s plans for us are for good and not for evil, to give us hope and a future! We need to be the dads who know that God’s plans for us should give us life and life more abundantly whereas the devil’s plans are to rob, kill, and destroy us! So let’s grab hold of the author of our devotional’s prayer for each of us, that we will have a revelation of the Father’s heart for each of us!
Today’s devotional gets us started with the following verses:
‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ‘
John 3:16-17
‘You have searched me, Lord , and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord , know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you. If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty! They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord , and abhor those who are in rebellion against you? I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.’
Psalms 139:1-24
As we close out this devotional series, let’s not just gloss over the reality that each day we looked at and read from John 3:16-17 to hear the heart of the Father. Let’s choose instead to grab hold of its truth! God loves us! He loves us so much that He took things into His own hands to make a way when there didn’t seem to be a way for us to be reconciled back unto Himself. He loves us so much that He gave His one and only Son as a sacrifice to pay the ultimate price required to cover the sins of this world. He loves us so much that all we need to do to be reconciled unto God is to choose to receive the gift of grace and believe in Jesus and invite Him into our hearts as our Lord and Savior! He loves us so much that He realized we couldn’t do enough good deeds or pay enough money to get into heaven! We are saved by grace through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, not by works so that nobody can boast! Now when we are saved the overflow of the Spirit tends to be the fruits of the Spirit and so we go about doing the good works that God has prepared in advance for us to accomplish, but we aren’t doing it as payment into heaven! God loves us too much for that! God loves us so much that He didn’t send Jesus into the world to condemn the world but to give up Himself so that the world could be saved through Him! So today, let’s be the dads who are ready and willing to be who God created and purposed us to be as husbands, as dads, and as people living on the planet earth! Let’s be the dads who love our wives so much! Let’s be the dads who love our kids so much! Let’s be the dads who love one another so much!
God’s Word never returns void and it is always so amazing to get to learn and hear about the heart of our Heavenly Father through David’s psalms. In today’s psalm, we learn how we need to be the dads who ask God to search and know us, better than we know ourselves! We learn how God’s Spirit is with us wherever we go and so we need to be the dads who are sensitive to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and looking for ways to please God through our obedience to Him! We learn about how God created us on purpose, with purpose, and for a purpose, knitting us together in our mother’s womb and so let’s choose to be the dads who accept God’s purpose and choose live in accordance with His purpose for having created us! Let’s be the dads who seek God’s thoughts and wisdom for our lives! Let’s be the dads who seek God’s discernment and direction to help us move forward for His glory! Let’s be the dads who are interested in living our lives in accordance with God’s will, God’s plan, God’s purpose, and God’s instruction! Let’s be the dads who never stop seeking God and wanting Him to search our hearts, purify our hearts, and remove anything offensive from us! Let’s be the dads who follow God from here into eternity!
Today’s devotional has been provided by Inspirations by Lisa(more details can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/author/lisasingh)
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)
Pastor Lisa Singh is the Senior Pastor at Heavenly Grace Ministries in Queens, New York.
For more information, please visit About The Publisher (amazon.com).
Takeaways from Today’s Devotional: “His heart knows your heart“
- Let’s be the dads who want people to know us!
- Let’s be the dads who want our wives to know us!
- Let’s be the dads who want our kids to know us!
- Let’s be the dads who want the world around us to know us!
- Let’s be the dads who want people to know more than just the surface layer of us!
- Let’s be the dads who want people to know about your strengths and even the weaknesses you aren’t brave enough to speak about!
- Let’s be the dads who live out our lives as our authentic selves instead of trying to be someone else out of fear of rejection or not fitting in!
- Let’s be the dads who live out our lives with authenticity instead of in fear of saying or doing the wrong thing!
- Let’s be the dads who live out our lives authentically so that we don’t have to worry about what others think or consider us!
- How would you feel if people knew what you were thinking and feeling?
- How do you think they would respond if they knew what you were thinking and feeling?
- What if they found out about something you did in your past?
- What if they found out about that secret? that cover-up? those ugly things?
- Let’s be the dads who come to God with any of that because He already knows it all!
- God knows every detail of your life, including the ones you have forgotten!
- God knows the things that are hidden and the things that are seen!
- God knows the beautiful things and the ugly things!
- God knows victories and the defeats we’ve had in our lives!
- God knows it all and still loves us unconditionally and purely!
- Today’s verse from Psalm 139 speaks to this and today’s devotional share the following insights:
- God loves us and in the midst of this crazy life, we need to lean on Him rather than our own understanding!
- God loves us and in the midst of this crazy life, we need to trust Him and acknowledge Him!
- God loves us and in the midst of this crazy life, we need to persevere!
- Today’s devotional speaks to it this way:
- Let’s be the dads who are bold and courageous because we know that God didn’t bring us this far to leave us!
- Let’s be the dads who are hopeful and persevering because we know that God will deliver us from the traps and snares the devil is setting up for us to get caught in!
- Let’s be the dads who are confident and sure that God is for us and not against us, He is the God of the second chances and so just because He has delivered us once doesn’t mean He won’t do it again!
- Let’s be the dads who live our lives to mirror and can demonstrate the love of our Heavenly Father to the world around us!
- Today’s devotional closes with the following:
