A Father's Best Advice and Wisest Prayer

Tuesday, March 24, 2020

If anyone is truly honest, one thing which could never be said is how they wouldn’t change a thing; no human (with the exception of Jesus) has ever lived a perfect life.  With that said, when I look back at being a father, I tried to do two things with our children…always give them sound advice, and pray for them to enter God’s holy family by faith, and that they would walk in that faith.  And I’m certain those were the best targets a father can hold up for his children.

The Advice

Don’t put your confidence in powerful people; there is no help for you there.  When they breathe their last, they return to the earth, and all their plans die with them.  But joyful are those who have the God of Israel as their helper, whose hope is in the Lord their God.  Psalm 146:3-5

The Prayer

So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you.  We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding.  Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit.  All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.  We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need.  May you be filled with joy, always thanking the Father.  He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light.  For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.  Colossians 1:9-14

King David understood power and powerful people, and how fragile trust can be misused and broken if placed in another human’s hands, even if that person genuinely tried to be honorable and faithful.  David knew the best advice he could give to his son was to look to a much higher authority and source for finding his life’s pathway. 

He also knew praying for his son was the best legacy he could leave.

For You Today

Those are two very lofty targets to hold up for your children to hit…

1.     Get your advice from God.

2.     Pray without ceasing.

If you are to accomplish that well in your children, grandchildren, and for anyone which your life touches, those targets must first be yours.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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Title Image:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

For other posts:  Psalm 146 see I Think I'm Having Stress  or  Colossians 1:7-10  It's the Circle of Life

Life Off-Track (Part 5) Staying On-Track

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Friday, February 20, 2015

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives.  It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.  God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.   2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NLT)

We are looking this week at four operations of the Scripture that help us with our relationship with God and each other.  It’s a connected progression.

The first of these is TEACHING – which is Scripture helping us to understand, or being able to know the track or pathway God would have us walk with God, and love our neighbors as ourselves!

The second operation is REPROOF – how the Bible shows us when we’ve slid off the track. 

The third operation of Scripture we looked at yesterday is CORRECTION - how to get back on the pathway of living, so that we are once again blessed, and a blessing to others. 

Today’s final operation of Scripture is TRAINING IN RIGHTEOUSNESS - The Bible teaches us how to live so we can stay on the pathway – so that God will be pleased with us.  Instruction is like a roadmap for life.  We can find the avenue that leads to salvation in the Scripture.  And we can travel the highway of confident living when we "trust in the Lord" with all our hearts. 

And the Bible tells us that the operation of the Scripture is the best you can have in your life when it comes to living a right life:

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.  Hebrews 4:12 (KJV)   

While it may be difficult to accept Scripture’s teaching, rebuke and correction, training in righteousness is definitely the most difficult.  That’s because it isn’t just for a moment, an event or a season – it’s a lifetime practice.

God’s Word is designed to transform our character and nature comprehensively, day by day, step by step, down to the last molecule; it works on us until we see no trace of the carnal nature that so controls many people today.  In place of the flesh, or natural appetites we see the operation of the Spirit of God. 

In short – when people look at a Spirit-driven/controlled believer, they only see Jesus.

Paul, God’s great apostle to the Gentiles, invited us all to join him in following after Jesus in this pursuit.  He didn’t claim to have arrived – but was hot after the goal:

I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection.  But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.  No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing:  Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead,  I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.     Philippians 3:12-14 (NLT)

This is that going on to perfection John Wesley was fond of proclaiming.  He knew there was always a rough (rocky) road for anyone who chose to follow Jesus, but being perfected in loving God and others IS the job description for believers. 

It is the difference the world should see when they look at a follower of Jesus Christ.

That, my friends, is what staying on the track is all about.

For You Today

Has God’s Word taught you?  

Has it reproved you?  

Has it corrected you? 

Has it been busy transforming you, until the old you is so far in the rear view mirror you can hardly remember what living for your own desires was like?

Good!  That’s what it’s supposed to feel like when life is On-Track!

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[1] Title image:  By Louise Docker from Sydney, Australia, via Wikimedia Commons