The Bible for Women

Weekly Devotional

Our Father

Today we celebrated fathers. Some of us celebrated our own father, a stepfather, a grandfather. Some of us remembered a father we lost and the hope to see him again one day in eternity. We also celebrated our heavenly Father as we do every first day of the week.

If we have been fortunate to know our earthly fathers, we all share different and specific memories. We have memories as children, as teenagers, as adults. Our brains sift through our memories and keep the ones that are important to us. We pull them out now and again and think about them and laugh, smile or cry. These memories are very precious to us and we hold them dear to our hearts.

As important as these memories are to us, we have a greater responsibility to maintain a relationship with our heavenly Father. For He is the one who will carry us into eternity. We know that in order to develop and maintain a relationship with anyone we must spend time with him or her. We must talk to the person regularly and encourage and nurture that relationship. When we stand in judgment, we cannot possibly expect to hear the words welcoming us into eternity if God doesn't know us because we chose not to develop a relationship with him. Simply believing does not guarantee us a place in heaven. The Bible says in James 2:18-20,

But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds."
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?

We must PRAY.

When Jesus walked the earth, what an example he gave us in how to maintain a relationship with the Father. Mark 1:35 tells us, Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.

Jesus left us the example to follow. He taught us the importance of talking to the Father. He poured his heart out in Gethsemane before he died. He asked God to let the cup pass from him if it be his will. Our heavenly Father is a refuge for us. He is strength for us in times of trouble. He wants to be our everlasting Father. He will never leave us or forsake us. We need only to reach out to Him. He gave us Christ and Christ is hope.

We must study.

Paul tells us in 2 Timothy chapter 3,

1But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

 6They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, 7always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth. 8Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth—men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. 9But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.

10You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, 11persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. 12In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Let us pray. Let us study. Let us reach out and be prepared to meet this life with confidence and hope. Let us be ready to meet eternity without fear, but anticipation. Let us commit to that most important relationship, the one with our heavenly Father so that we can inherit eternal life.

May God bless your week. Margie