Read:
John 15:9-12
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."
Reflect:
Describe what you think the role of a father should look like.
How does your relationship with your father compare with your description in question 1?
Do you see God as your Heavenly Father and where do you put him in your life on a day-to-day basis?
Remember:
Father’s Day is this Sunday. All of us have a father, but our relationships with them are all different. When you think of your dad, what’s the first thing that comes to mind?
Is it spending quality time, doing your favorite thing (or their favorite thing) together? Sports, fishing trips, hunting, working on that old car in the garage, or taking family road trips? Or maybe it’s the words of wisdom and life skills they taught you as a child. Is it those Sunday morning pancakes and bacon they serve up, or just the simple grilled cheese and chicken and stars soup for lunch when you’re sick, that they did their best to get by on? To you, there couldn’t be anything more perfect.
Do you feel joy in all the memories you have or pride in the man that you place on a pedestal above all else? Maybe it’s sadness and longing, as your father is no longer with you, or anger because your father walked out on you? Do you feel safe because his strong arms are the one place where no monsters can get you? Maybe you feel scared because when his anger gets the best of him, he’s going to hurt whatever or whoever is within his reach.
Whatever you think of or feel, I’m sure it’s strong thoughts or feelings. The bond between fathers and their children is strong and life-impacting, for good or bad. That is on purpose with purpose. God, our eternal Heavenly Father, gave us earthly fathers to point us to our relationship with Him.
In our sin, we lost sight of what our relationship with Him looks like. We put our sinful human limitations and weaknesses on our view of God our Father, and our relationships with our fathers here fall so short. We put God in a box of our own design. But God, in His great love for us, made a way for us back to our relationship with Him.
John 3:16
For God so loved (you) the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Romans 5:8
But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
This is the love that Jesus is telling us to trust in, have faith in, and, abide in.
John 15:9
As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide (remain continually) in my love.
This love, although looking like foolishness to the world (1 Corinthians 2:14); a Father sending His only Son to suffer and die to save His enemies, was actually the very thing to allow His Son to conquer death on our behalf. And in the process it glorified Jesus above all else. Jesus showed His Father's unconditional, sacrificial, and everlasting love by loving us like that. He placed His Father’s will and His love for us above all, and is once again above all at His Father’s right hand.
God speaks to us through His word in terms of relationships that we understand in our finite minds. These relationships are meant to point us to our Heavenly Father, but in reality pale in comparison to the vast love relationship God wants us to know in Him. He sent Jesus to be the Word become flesh (John 14:1), so that we could know and understand our Father's love. Jesus is the perfect "spiting image," of His Father.
We also were created in the image of God and meant to be the image bearers of His love. Just as Jesus shows us His Father's love, we are to show others our Father's love in that same way. That is His commandment. He works in all things to love us.
He is faithful to use all things for our good and His glory (Romans 8:28), just like He did with His one and only Son, Jesus.
Thank God for your dad this Father's Day. In their greatness and victories; our dads point to God’s glory, salvation, and life abundant for us. In their smallness and failures; our dads point to God’s grace, forgiveness, and redeeming love for us. There is no greater love. Confidence in His love, as we abide in Him, is fullness of Joy.
This Father’s Day, thank God for the eternal, perfect, and good Father He is to us. Seek Him and abide in Him in all things. Your faith will be unshakable, your life purposeful, and your joy will be full as you live in His perfect love for you. That love will overflow as you keep His commandments, loving others as He has loved you. What a wonderful world it would be---it could be.
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