6/17/2020 – Pastor Brian’s Blog –
Well this Sunday is Father’s Day, and if you are a dad, or plan on becoming a dad, or have become a granddad filling in for a dad, this blog is to you from a dad.
Over my lifetime I have had different life verses for different seasons of life, yet there is one verse that keeps coming back over and over again. It is not a long verse; as a matter of fact, if you do not know it, you can memorize it in just a few minutes. Yet it is a verse that has encouraged me during difficult times. It is a verse that has encouraged me when Satan wants me to live in regret. It is a verse that encourages me when everything around me tells me it is time to quit. Although it is a short verse, it is a powerful one.
“The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.”
1 Thessalonians 5:24
What does it mean? It means that God will never lead you to a situation, nor will God ever require you to do anything, without faithfully keeping true to this verse and doing for me what I am unable to do myself.
I don’t have to tell God how unfaithful I have been to Him in my lifetime; He already knows!! Yet in my unfaithfulness, God has always been faithful to me. God stands by His word to do what He promises…
“What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do.”
Isaiah 46:11
There are times when I look back at the mistakes I have made as a dad and if I chose to stay there, it could become overwhelming. I think of the times that I responded to my children in anger, times when my priorities were all centered on me. Those times that I shirked my responsibilities and made Judy fulfill my role as dad. I look back with regret at the times I could have spent more time with my children, been a better husband to their mother, and set a better example for them to follow.
Maybe you are a dad just starting out, or you are a granddad and you find yourself raising your grandchildren and things just don’t seem to be working out like they are supposed to. At those times, trust in the character of God. God is not faithful to impress people… God is not faithful because He feels sorry for someone… God is faithful because that is who He is and He can’t do anything else!
From… “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1) through… “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen” (Revelation 22:21), you will never find a time when God was not faithful to His Word as well as to His people.
So whether you are a dad looking back, or you are in the midst of raising children, the answer is always the same: the faithfulness of God. Dad – to know that God is faithful in our unfaithfulness, to know that God can bring about His will in the life of my children and grandchildren, not because of me, but in spite of me, brings a peace and reassurance that can’t be found anywhere else.
I do not only believe in God’s faithfulness; like the Palmist, I have experienced God’s faithfulness…
If the LORD delights in a man’s way, he makes his steps firm; though he stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand. I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.
Psalm 37:23-25
Dad, no matter how bleak your situation might look, no matter how painful the consequences may be because of the choices you have made, God has never been unfaithful to anyone, and He surely does not intend on beginning with you! Give God the time He needs to make things work out for His glory; don’t rush Him, don’t question Him; just trust Him. One day you will reflect on what God has done and like me, you will weep with joy as you praise Him for His absolute faithfulness to you.
My children are not perfect as God is still working on getting their father’s sinful nature out of them! But all my children are walking with God and they are raising their children to walk with God. And for this dad, I echo the words of John when he wrote…
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
3 John 1:4
All these thoughts came to my mind this week when I read a post that my 16 year old granddaughter wrote on Facebook for all to see. So let me share it with you as a reminder to my life verse…
The one who calls you is faithful and He will do it.
1 Thessalonians 5:24
“Life. How do we choose to live it? It is our choice right? Because it’s our life. We get to choose our life, but we can’t control what may come into our life and how it may affect us. Yes, God gave us life, and he gives us a choice too. But here’s the question, are you gonna live life popular and have people adore you? Are you gonna be the coolest person in your group? Are you gonna have the hottest boyfriend/girlfriend in the world? Are u gonna make stupid mistakes because you only live once and wanna have fun?
Sure go ahead, but I do need to warn you. This life, which may seem long to you is actually very very short compared to what comes after life. Imagine it this way, there is a whole ocean, covers millions of miles, it’s huge! Even bigger then the universe, okay? So imagine one drop in that ocean, one drop in the ocean, is life. ONE DROP compared to the whole entire ocean. One tiny drop is life. So are u gonna live the one drop the best and have fun and do stupid stuff, and then suffer all the other drops after life in pain and suffering?
Or are you gonna live this life standing with Jesus and sharing Him, you may get torn down by people in this world. But just remember it’s ONE drop. So will u have one drop in the ocean be hard, and have people think your weird and then have all the other ocean with Jesus? Well the choice is yours, will u live your drop carelessly, and have horrible consequences; or live it for Jesus and live the rest of the ocean with Jesus? What do you choose? —-need to remind myself of this too.”
Dad or granddad, it is never to late to start being the dad or grandad that we need to be. May this song encourage you today to go to our faithful Father, and then become that faithful father to our families. And hopefully… you won’t cry through all the way through this song like I did!!
