devotion spotlights
A Father's Love by Karen Spiegelberg
This Sunday, we will all in some way recognize Fathers' Day. For me, it will be bittersweet as our precious Lord took my dad's hand and led him home to heaven this same week several years ago. Whether you have or had a great dad in your life, or have someone who has fit that role, there is something special about that male love and support for us, as girls and women. A great dad will love you unconditionally through your childhood tantrums, your first car accident, and your bad choices of boyfriends. He will show patience as you grow into the adult God will have you be, and will be there whenever you need him. How great is the love of a father!
1 John 3:1 tells us, "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!"
Imagine, through that passage, that our heavenly Father and his love are even more precious than an earthly father! He forgives the tantrums, and accidents, and poor choices in life and uses them for our good and to his glory. He is not only there whenever we need him, but he has done the ultimate that any father could do-sacrificed his own son for the sins and sake of us, his other children, that we might have eternal life and live at "home" with him and in his presence and glory forever.
My own dad now enjoys that reward. He is at home with his Father and my Father. That is something beautiful to imagine for my dad and to look forward to for myself, because he and I are both children of God who have been lavished upon with the love of the greatest Father! Oh, I thought this would be a bittersweet Father's Day, but now that I think more about it, it will be very sweet, very sweet indeed.
Celebrating Fathers by Karen Maio
I have a pretty good relationship with my dad. He's a big sports guy. Me? I'd be lucky to name a few of our Green Bay Packers in any given year so we don't have a whole lot in common. But, I'd still feel totally comfortable going to him for anything - advice, babysitting, help with just about anything; socializing, even vacationing, together. I count myself blessed to have my dad alive, relatively well, and living close by to boot! The thing I treasure most from my dad is my heritage of faith.
“The Lord is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him." Exodus 15:2
My heart goes out to those who don't have a very good relationship with their dad, or no longer have their father with them here on earth. But, remember, we always have a heavenly Father, an everlasting Father (Isaiah 9:6). We sinners don't have a whole lot in common with a holy God, but we can feel totally comfortable - even confident - in coming to him for anything. In fact, he invites us to pray to him as "Our Father" (Matthew 6:9), just as we would ask our own loving (earthly) father; he promises to hear and help us.
"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him." 1 John 5:14-15
He "knows what you need even before you ask him." Matthew 6:8
The thing we can treasure most from our heavenly Father is the gift and source of our faith, our salvation, and our ultimate inheritance of heaven.
"But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, (Jesus) born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." So you are no longer a slave, but God's child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir." Galatians 4:4-7
So, this Father's Day, while you're celebrating - or remembering - dear old Dad, take a moment to celebrate your heavenly Father"...giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light." (Colossians 1:12) and count yourself blessed!