What we see first is that God is intimately involved with His children. He speaks to them. He works with them. He teaches them. He disciplines them. Fathers ... pay attention. He disciplines them. (Often there is a mentality that says, "Mothers are there more often than fathers, so mothers should do that." Not the case.)
It's interesting to note that God's intimate involvement with His children is not always firsthand. He speaks to them, but sometimes through intermediaries. He works with them, but sometimes through various means and vehicles. He teaches them sometimes directly but far more often through emissaries. He disciplines them by using others to do so. This is something for fathers to keep in mind. (More later.)
God as Father takes ultimate responsibility for His children. For instance, while we are commanded to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12) (our responsibility), we do so because He is at work in us giving us both the will and power to do it (Phil. 2:13) (His responsibility). It is He who started the good work within us and He who will complete it (Phil. 1:6). We are responsible for our sin, our choices, our lives, but in the end God is ultimately responsible, just as fathers are ultimately responsible for their children.
This, then, is the "more later". There is a tendency to think, "If I am responsible for things, I must be the one required to do them." You may choose to believe that way, but God doesn't work that way. When Habakkuk complained that God needed to do something about the sin in Israel, God promised to punish Israel ... using heathen nations. God uses a variety of means and devices to accomplish His plans. He is always ultimately responsible, but not always involved firsthand. When He planned to kill Ahab (1 Kings 22), He accomplished it by sending deceiving spirits to the prophets, and then by a "random" arrow. Means and devices. Fathers, we are ultimately responsible for our children. We may not always be involved firsthand. When we think, for instance, of teaching our children to love God (Deut. 6:4-7), it would be through multiple means. We would tell them and show them. We would gather teachers around them that would tell them. We would reinforce it and train it through as many methods as we can find. But we wouldn't always be the only ones doing the teaching. It would be our responsibility, but not necessarily our direct job.
God is described in Scripture as immutable. "I the LORD do not change" (Mal. 3:6). This is so crucial in the lives of our children. God is often described as faithful. What He promises He will do. There is no doubt. If He promises salvation, He gives it. If He promises blessing, He gives it. If He promises discipline, He gives it. Children desperately need to have a father who is not given to change, a father they can always count on. They need to know that their father will love them even when they do something bad. They need to know that he will discipline them when he says he will. They need boundaries they can rely on as well as love they can rely on. They need the security and safety that a father provides who is reliable and unchanging. There is no substitute for this. It is your responsibility as a father to be that stable, reliable, secure, safety blanket that every child needs.
Another important lesson we learn from God as Father is that God always provides His children what they need. Note that I said "need", not "want". God certainly has the capacity to tell His children "No" when He doesn't want to give them what they want. But He promises to give them what they need. And that is not always pleasant. Sometimes the need is for discipline.
"For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives." It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? (Heb. 12:6-7)Discipline is the responsibility of the father. That may be administered by various means, but it is the father's responsibility. There is one, absolutely vital aspect of discipline that we need to keep in mind:
He disciplines us for our good (Heb. 12:10).Discipline is always intended for the benefit of the child. It is never to soothe the embarrassment of the father or to ease the frustration of the parent or to finally obtain instant obedience. It is for the benefit of the child. For those of you who think that it is best not to discipline children, you don't understand discipline. For those of you who think that discipline can be applied for a variety of reasons, you don't understand discipline.
Sometimes it is pain. Sometimes it is silence. Sometimes it is comfort. Sometimes it is a lack. Sometimes it is an overflow of good things.
In the Old Testament, Abraham refers to God as "El Shaddai". It is translated as "the Almighty", but the origins of the term "shaddai" is actually found in a mother. It means most literally, "The double-breasted one." Just as a mother provides all that her child needs out of herself, God, the Almighty, provides all that His children need.
God is our Father. Some people complain that their poor experience with their fathers leaves them with no useful information about fatherhood. The truth is that we all have a reasonably good idea of what a father should be regardless of our own experiences with our own fathers. The Bible hasn't left us in the dark here. God is our Father. He is intimately involved with His children. He is ultimately responsible for His children. He is faithful, a constant in the lives of His children. He provides all His children need. We need more fathers of this variety.
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