42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. 43 Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.
So what does that text have to do with daddy’s? Everything! When I was boy I emulated everything my father did. I wanted to walk like him, talk like him…I wanted to be him, and until I came to know Christ, he held the highest place in my life. He was a great dad.
This is a natural outgrowth of our nature. We come to emulate, hold the desires of, and do the things that those we hold in the highest regard do, even if we don’t perceive that we do.
Jesus was pointing this reality out to a group of blinded men who believed that God was their Father, but looked and acted nothing like Him…as He said, these mens works, ways, and desires all looked like Satan. They were murderous, liars, deceivers, and falsely pious. None of theses are characteristics of God, but of Satan, the enemy of our soul. So what story did their lives tell? Though they said with their mouthes that God was Lord and Father, their lives betrayed their profession.
So the big hanging question is this…what or who do you hold ultimate in your life, and what story is your life telling? Does it match the story of your mouth? Does it match your profession? Or do you pay lip service in an attempt to create a reality where your life, though it doesn’t match that of God the Father, is excused by Him because of a prayer you prayed or profession you made?
There is no neutrality in this, you have a father, beyond the flesh and blood one you may or may not know, and your life tells of which one you emulate, and hold in the highest place in your life…so, who is your daddy?
I am starting a 1 John Study with a girl here in my neighborhood and this hits right on the head what we will be talking about. Provokes me to examine my heart definitely.
I am overjoyed that you are leading and discipling young women. Praise God! It provoked me the same way. Hopefully we will emulate our Father to the fullest, by His grace and the power of His Spirit.