FATHER’S DAY
This is a special day, and I want to join with everyone in thanking the fathers in our communities, recognising the vital role you have played, past and present, in giving us family.
I want to address sons and daughters today also. In many different ways you make this day special. Your very existence produces a special delight in your father. As a baby he held you and protected you, and you calmed in his presence as you began to receive the safety he provided.
I hope that today you can give a gift, thoughtful words, or a memory that expresses gratitude for the father that gave you birth, or for the different points in life where he has positively given of himself to shape who you have become today. Our relationship is central to this experience and therefore the response of sons & daughters gives fatherhood significant meaning.
Fathers have so much to give out of their years of experience in life. It is easy as a child to receive from him. For some of us, as we grow in years and independence, it is right to continue to draw from who our fathers are to us. The Apostle Paul Jesus tells us in Acts 20:35 “the Lord Jesus himself said “It is more blessed to give than to receive””. Out of this truth, I encourage you to go out of your way today to go and do something that provokes the release of blessing from a father in your life. With Jesus, I am confident this will in turn be a great blessing for our fathers and our communities. This does not need to be a random act of kindness, that spreads joy and appreciation into the day, but it can be an intentional pattern of giving and receiving between fathers, sons and daughters, releasing spiritual inheritance into our families.
Proverbs (20:5) tells us there is wisdom, advice, and plans like deep waters in a man’s heart. As sons & daughters we can draw from this rich well in our fathers. A heart of honour will cause life to spring up from this source. This is God’s wonderful plan, this is His best. In the same way that our heavenly Father was provoked to jealousy when His children forgot the One who gave them life, He is provoked to release blessings of His goodness to His children when they come to Him.
We can all start with a prayer of thanks for whichever father we want to honour today – the heavenly Father will be moved to overflow with joy, as this pleases Him greatly.
Ultimately, Father God has given you His son Jesus as Lord, so you could receive the gift of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and enter into a never-ending loving relationship, close like no other! If you have not received Him as such, you can do this today. Please take a look here: I want to follow Jesus — All Nations
Come to your heavenly Father today, as His son or daughter and allow Him to delight in His love for you – there is no greater thing than this!
Happy Fathers Day, Dads. Thank you for the strength and safety you bring to our communities.
Gary Worrall