Everlasting Father

Advent Devotional

Monday, December 8 – Read Psalm 2:6-8 At the basis of our baptism is adoption. In baptism we become sons and daughters of God our Father and brothers and sisters with Christ. This week, consider what it means to be adopted into a new family, given a new surname, “Christian,” and being able to call God your Father.

Thank God today for your baptism.

Tuesday, December 9 – Read Psalm 10:13-15 Many have not had a great relationship with their father. Many more have had no relationship at all with the one who biologically fathered them. God is the father of us all, but most especially the father to the fatherless.

Today, pray for those who haven’t had a good earthly father and give thanks for our heavenly Father.

Wednesday, December 10 – Read Isaiah 9:6-7 When we hear that God is our Father we tend to think about our own father. Looking at God through the lens of the example that our own father set limits the glory of God to how highly or lowly we think of our own dad. In this verse, Jesus is called “everlasting father.” We are never supposed to see God through the lens of our father, but through the lens of God’s own Son, Jesus Christ.

Pray today for thanks that you have a Father like Jesus Christ.

Thursday, December 11 – Read Matthew 4:21-22 James and John don’t even pack their bags when Jesus called their names. He said, “Follow Me” and they dropped their nets and followed. They left their father and did as Jesus asked them. What are you willing to drop in order to follow after the One who calls God “Father?”

Pray for the faith to follow.

Friday, December 12 – Read Matthew 5:43-48 Each of our fathers had limitations. Some of us experienced bigotry, judgmentalism, quick anger, etc. from our fathers. Jesus expresses to us that God loves all people equally. Jesus then calls us to learn from our Father in heaven by loving others as God has loved us.

Pray that God will fill you with the power to love and not hate.

Saturday, December 13 – Read Matthew 6:9-15 Through Jesus God says, “Talk to me.” Our Father wants us to bring our needs and desires, to ask for forgiveness and seek the strength to forgive others and the ability to resist the temptations of this world. We have a Father in heaven who wants to hear from us.

Rewrite the Lord’s Prayer to reflect your own needs, desires, confessions and what you need help to resist. Pray that prayer today.