Yesterday was a travel day, getting up at 2am, catching a flight at 5:30am, catching a connection at 1:30pm, arriving at destination after 3pm and so I am playing catch up and this devotional is going to take me an extra day to complete.
I found this devotional: Being Fathered By God. The devotional seems very powerful and purposeful as it calls out how “Every man has had authority figures in his life, and much of what a man perceives about God was shaped by those authority figures. His earthly father is at the top of every man’s authority list.” So I took on the offer to join the journey into this devotional. Will you join me on this 14-day journey?
Scripture for today’s Devotional is the love chapter
1 Corinthians 13 (from God’s love letter to us, the Bible):
“If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love [for others growing out of God’s love for me], then I have become only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal [just an annoying distraction]. And if I have the gift of prophecy [and speak a new message from God to the people], and understand all mysteries, and [possess] all knowledge; and if I have all [sufficient] faith so that I can remove mountains, but do not have love [reaching out to others], I am nothing. If I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it does me no good at all. Love endures with patience and serenity, love is kind and thoughtful, and is not jealous or envious; love does not brag and is not proud or arrogant. It is not rude; it is not self-seeking, it is not provoked [nor overly sensitive and easily angered]; it does not take into account a wrong endured. It does not rejoice at injustice, but rejoices with the truth [when right and truth prevail]. Love bears all things [regardless of what comes], believes all things [looking for the best in each one], hopes all things [remaining steadfast during difficult times], endures all things [without weakening]. Love never fails [it never fades nor ends]. But as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for the gift of special knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part [for our knowledge is fragmentary and incomplete]. But when that which is complete and perfect comes, that which is incomplete and partial will pass away. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now [in this time of imperfection] we see in a mirror dimly [a blurred reflection, a riddle, an enigma], but then [when the time of perfection comes we will see reality] face to face. Now I know in part [just in fragments], but then I will know fully, just as I have been fully known [by God]. And now there remain: faith [abiding trust in God and His promises], hope [confident expectation of eternal salvation], love [unselfish love for others growing out of God’s love for me], these three [the choicest graces]; but the greatest of these is love.”
1 Corinthians 13:1-13 AMP
Let’s be the dads who like our Heavenly Father who left a love letter from Himself in the Bible and by the example of the life of Jesus, show God’s love through our lives to our wives, kids, and world. Let’s be the dads who live lives of love to those God brings across our paths. Let’s be the dads to take time and make time to write to our wives and kids love letters so that they know and can remember how much their dads love and loved them.
Today’s devotional was provided by Michael Thompson where on zoweh.org they share the following: “Every man has had authority figures in his life, and much of what a man perceives about God and projects onto God was shaped by those authority figures. At the top of every man’s authority list is his earthly father. How your dad handled your heart has shaped you and contributed significantly to how you perceive God. Join us for this journey towards experiencing the heart of the Father and getting everything out of the way that is in the way of being a Beloved Son.“
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)
Through zoweh.org, you are able to download today’s devotional and many others.
For more information, please visit https://www.zoweh.org/youversion.
Takeaways from Today’s Devotional:
”Made for Love”
- Let’s be the dads who share and show God’s love to our wives, kids, and world!
- Let’s be the dads who love our kids so they know the love and embrace of their dads!
- Let’s be the dads who show our wives and kids what true love is like and point them to the real definition of love that is God!
- Let’s be the dads who don’t shy away from sharing what love is and how critical it is to our lives!
- Let’ be the dads who demonstrate what true love is and how a man should behave so that our kids have an example that our daughters can look for and our son’s can model!
- Let’s be the dads who demonstrate how love makes us warriorsfor God!
- Let’s be the dads who help our daughters to find find warriort of God!
- Let’s be the dads who help our sons become warriors of God!
- Let’s be the dads who acknowledge and teach our kids how core love is to our lives!
- Let’s be the dads who make sure our kids know God’s love and don’t get lured by the devil’s temptations away from our Heavenly Father’s love!
- Let’s be the dads that make sure our wives, kids, and world realize that we are in a spiritual battle!
- Let’s be the dads who ensure our wives, kids, and world realize that because we live in a falledn world war is a reality!
- Let’s be the dads who know and can train others how in war, people get wounded!
- Today’s devotional speaks to this and even summarizes it when it says:
- “The enemy’s ruthless and constant assault on our hearts is accomplished solely because of what we were created for, what our hearts are meant for, what little girls and boys never stop hoping and longing for as they become grown women and men.”
- ““I want someone to see me, want me, and love me.” Our hearts were meant to experience and enjoy love.”
- Let’s be the dads who get that love is the greatest and longest lasting ad most important thing as we learn in 1 Corinthians 13!
- “Love never fails [it never fades nor ends]”
- “And now there remain: faith [abiding trust in God and His promises], hope [confident expectation of eternal salvation], love [unselfish love for others growing out of God’s love for me], these three [the choicest graces]; but the greatest of these is love.”
- Let’s be the dads who live the reality that “”We are most alive when we are receiving or offering love!
- Let’s be the dads who love our wives and kids because we know that if or when we don’t, they may “often try to make love and life happen on our own rather than let our Creator fill and sustain” them!
- Today’s devotional speaks to how our own efforts won’t be able to fill our lve tank and expresses it through a quote from C.S. Lewis in Mere Christiananity:
- “God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion (faith). God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there.”
- Let’s be the dads who stick close to God because we want to be filled to overflowing by Him as “God is love”!
- Today’s devotional speaks to how love is the fuel to our hearts!
- “So I propose that love is the fuel our hearts are meant to run on, because love is what we so desperately long for and need. But there is no love without God and without God there is no love. Anywhere, anytime, anyway in which love is expressed or experienced, God is there. Whether or not the Father is acknowledged or credited or honored in that moment, if it is loving, he is there in the middle of it.”
- “It doesn’t have to be between Christians by the way; God is much bigger than that. His fondness for us from afar often makes God the great Secret Admirer. Oh, I believe He would rather be seen, acknowledged, and known; yet patiently he waits.”
- “God fondly looks on, waiting and wanting to be noticed, looking forward to the day when introductions are made and a romance for the ages begins. He watches over many of us as we take our hearts to sources other than himself, including other image-bearers, in a vain attempt to fuel ourselves and meet our deepest need.”
- “Much relational bankruptcy boils down to the manner in which we make withdrawals from one another rather than deposits into one another. The Father’s love is continually, lavishly, and even fiercely in play. It waits, and will continue to wait, for us to grasp its reality and experience its joy more and more fully. God waits, all the while loving us, wooing us, wanting us—all of us who bear his image.”
- Today’’s devotional challenges us with the following things to answer in our time with God:
- “Who has he put in your life to teach you how to love?”
- “How’s it going? (Look back at 1 Corinthians 13 for a full resume of what He is attempting to partner with you and others to produce in your life).”
- “Who or what are you turning to for Love (validation, acceptance and worth)? And if you are experiencing any love at all, what if that is God?”
