A Father’s Love
We mistake the world’s disdain for boys, men, manhood and consequently fatherhood as just an attack on men and it is true that it is an attack on men. Still, it is so much more than that. Recognize that when the enemy attacks grandfathers, fathers, husbands, sons, brothers and uncles, he is attacking all of us. He is attacking the whole of humanity and God’s plan for the human race. It is an undercover assault on our families, who need fathers to love, protect, provide for and lead them. It is a heartless strike against wives who are charged with both the honor and the task of trusting God with the well-being of their very own flesh, their husbands. It is a coldhearted violence towards mothers who need and desire to see their children’s fathers thrive in life and effectively come along side of them to be active agents who are present in their children’s lives. It is a vicious attack on the very lives and survival of our children who need their father’s to be their protectors, mentors, teachers, supporters and allies. More specifically, it is a calculated attack on our sons who need their fathers to teach them how to be God-fearing men and a well-defined attack on our daughters who need their father’s to be examples of what a God-fearing man looks like.
We mistake the world’s disdain for boys, men, manhood and consequently fatherhood as just an attack on men and it is true that it is an attack on men. Still, it is so much more than that. Recognize that when the enemy attacks grandfathers, fathers, husbands, sons, brothers and uncles, he is attacking all of us. He is attacking the whole of humanity and God’s plan for the human race. It is an undercover assault on our precious families, who need fathers to love, protect, provide for and lead them. It is a heartless strike against wives who are charged with both the honor and the task of trusting God with the well-being of their very own flesh, their husbands. It is a coldhearted violence towards mothers who need and desire to see their children’s fathers thrive in life and effectively come along side of them to be active agents who are present in their children’s lives. It is a vicious attack on the very lives and survival of our children who need their father’s to be their protectors, mentors, teachers, supporters and allies. More specifically, it is a calculated attack on our sons who need their fathers to teach them how to be God-fearing men and a well-defined attack on our daughters who need their father’s to be examples of what a God-fearing man should look like.
Reverencing the Father
Make no mistake, to love God is to obey God. “The fear of the Lord” or Godly fear of our heavenly Father does not terrorize or drive you away from God, but produces in you a breathtaking respect for, awesome trust in and overwhelming desire to obey and please God (1 john 5:3, Ecclesiastics 12:13).
“For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him”. Genesis 18:19
In Genesis 18:19, God uses Abraham to demonstrate the role of the father of a family. It reveals that a father’s role is to direct and instruct his children and his household to keep the way of the Lord. So, God demonstrates here that a father is called to lead his children and household to follow the Lord God. The Most effective way for a father to lead his children to the Lord Jesus, is for a father to know the Lord for himself, spend time with Him and at least be willing to get to know God’s ways. The best way for a father to know God’s ways is to learn or at least be willing to learn how to be a student of the word of God, studying to show himself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15).
The Father’s Love
God, who is the ultimate Father, demonstrates his fatherhood first and foremost by His love for His children. Like as a father piteth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. For He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust (Psalm 103:13-14).
God has compassion on us as his children in the midst of both our weaknesses and strengths. Whether we are loved, accepted or celebrated by others or not, our Heavenly Father who values each and every one of us desires to have a real relationship with us. It breaks his heart when we run from Him, allowing the sin in our lives to distort who we truly are and allowing sin to drive us away from Him. We jeopardize the stability of our relationship with God when we attempt in vain to protect and hide our sin from God.
Still, God does not give up on us. He still loves us! In God’s compassion, He continues to see us as who He created us to be even as He takes the time to woo us out of the slavery of our misery and back to freedom in Him by the power of the Holy Spirit and the Living Word (Job 36:16). God longs for us to obey Him and come into agreement with who it is that He says that we are, so that He can bless us. Blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it (Luke 11:28).
Steadfast Love
God knows our frame, meaning he knows exactly how we were made. He made us. He knows that without Him we are vulnerable like the dust, fragile in the grand scheme of things. Yet, he does not hate or despise us because of our fragility or weakness, nor does He make excuses for it. No, God who is love, shows up even in the midst of our shortcomings and struggles. He meets us where we are and reminds us of who we are in Him. He reminds us that we are not alone and that we were not built to function alone and apart from our trust in Him. It is in God and God alone, that we are able to be more than we could have ever imagined being.
God desires that fathers possess this same steadfast love, compassion and faith for their children. God the Father’s love is a just and righteous love that forgives while hurting, loves even as it is correcting and keeps believing even in the midst of failure and disappointment. Let all fathers be encouraged to continue praying to and believing God for His promises in their children’s lives. Let each father continue in a spirit of love towards their children, remaining open at all times to the opportunity to aid in the restoration of their children. Even as fathers stand boldly with and for God in all of His ways, fathers can be encouraged that if they submit to and look to God as their master teacher for fatherhood, they will have everything that they need to continue in faith as they lead their children and households to submit to and follow the ways of the Lord (Genesis 18:19).