Turning the hearts of the fathers toward the children and the hearts of the children toward the fathers in our own families and churches is paramount.
Not only was this the last message of the Old Testament, it was a warning. Unless this happened, a curse would come. But we are way past the days of believing in curses, right? Well at least curses over a whole land, right? First, no, we are not way past that at all, but really all it takes to be cursed is to have God stop blessing you for a bit. When God curses, it is not so much that He sends bad things as it is the cessation of His blessings.
In this instance, the blessing is tied to His presence. Ancient Israel constantly sought the Lord's presence as the highest blessing. But be careful to realize that this is not God giving us the cosmic silent treatment. We are the ones who push Him out of our presence.
I imagine it like this, I'm doing a project with my son and his friend comes and knocks on the door. He quickly bows out of the project to go play. I continue working on it, but it just isn't the same without him. Later though, he returns because his friend was being a bully and wants to reengage the project with me.
The reason our land (modern society) is cursed for the most part is the lack of real true father/child relationships. Not only have we found fathers to be wanting and absent, many who are present are abusive, manipulative, and selfish. They provoke and use their children rather than raise and teach them. Society also teaches our children to make their own decisions by using their own wisdom, their own morals, and their own agenda apart from any parental oversight; much less any patriarchal authority.
I recently learned of a teacher telling a little boy that they "should not listen to their dad at home...". Now, I get that this teacher was probably frustrated with something that the parent was teaching differently regarding what they were supposed to be payed to teach. However, my issue is with the fact that this child probably only heard, "don't listen to your dad".
The undermining of the authority of the parents, and the father in particular, is of no help to our society. In fact, it has taken us away from the presence of God and without Him, we are getting bullied around by the enemy.
So we must find a way to remedy this disease. Unless we can mend this critical relationship in our society, we will continue to unravel until there is little to no resemblance to what we were created to be as a people.
HOW?
I'll just list a few thoughts on remedy here and leave the rest to those of you who might comment, to come up with some more ideas on how we might facilitate the restoration of the paternal influence and the blessing of God's presence.
1. Prayer - Prayer, while severely misunderstood, is a most powerful weapon. Not only does prayer keep the issue at the forefront of our minds, it also establishes a thing in heaven in order to see it fulfilled here on the earth. Pray for this to become a reality for our world; that fathers everywhere would fall in love with being dad.
2. Kindness - This one approach, more than any other, will lead the generation of youth to repentance. It is the opposite provocation.
3. Respect - The young must learn to respect the authority and position of fatherhood and respond accordingly with honor and obedience. Learning this lesson actually relieves a lot of stress and pressure from a child.
Just these three things would revolutionize the nation. But what else might you suggest?
Please take a moment and post your own thoughts on how we might foster this removal of the curse.
Jesus Loves Evansville,
David Warren
In today's day and age my situation is not uncommon. I have three children, two of which are step children. It is my human nature that wants my step children to love and respect me like a father, but they also have their biological father in their lives. Luckily, he is a good man and, although he lacks spiritual leadership, he does love them and provides for their earthly needs, as every father should. I often have to check my ego and not push the boundaries of step dad vs. biological dad. It is a difficult road to travel and it's not a road without pot holes and rough spots, but it is possible. I remind myself continually that if I raise these kids in my home by the Christian values I hold dear, blessings will still be theirs. We often get caught up in the moment and don't look at the long term picture. Kids grow up and their understanding of love for them will be more obvious in years to come. My advise to step-dads...lead by example and bite that tongue when you feel the need to speak negatively about your step-kids biological father. He may not be the father he's supposed to be, but for the kids sake, don't bring a negative image of a father to their minds. Be the man God has designed you to be and in time, they will see the father image in you, as well as the Father image of God.
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