One of the fundamental problems facing many homes across the world today is the absence of a responsible father. There are millions of children growing up without a human figure they could point to as their father. Many women today have had to shoulder the responsibilities of being the father and the mother at the same time to their children. In fact, behavioural scientists have proven that children who grow up without a father figure in their lives are sometimes (if not most times) prone to violence, more likely to be aggressive, more likely to be depressed, more likely to have a low self-esteem, more likely to do poorly in schools, more likely to be incarcerated and commit suicide and more likely to use drugs.
Fathers are very important personalities. The devil understands this fact, and that is why he has not relented in his quest of attacking homes, and each time he strikes, he attacks God’s representation in that home, which is the father. Fathers across the globe today faces enormous challenges: ranging from how to cater for their families, how to ensure the society progresses in the right way and direction et cetera. With these enormous task and responsibility, the devil still never ceases in coming with his own battles in order to ensure that fathers don’t live up to their full potentials.
God’s design for fathering is that of ease. If we cast our minds back to the beginning, how He made the first man, the Bible says He made everything ready for the man; talking about the garden of Eden; and He God planted the man in that garden to tend and to keep it. Adam as we know, was the first father figure that God made, an extension of His image and likeness. The Bible says He was fashioned in the “image and after God’s likeness.” We know, that God Himself, is a Father, and He never made Adam anything less of Himself – His fullness and likeness. But the devil came and truncate this arrangement. He went after Adam and caused him to sin against God. The consequence of that was the curse that God placed upon Adam:
17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’:
“Cursed is the ground for your sake;
In toil you shall eat of it
All the days of your life.
18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you,
And you shall eat the herb of the field.
19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
Till you return to the ground,
For out of it you were taken;
For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return.”
Genesis 3:17-19
This was the beginning of man’s toils on the face of the earth, because he walked outside of God’s mandate and plans for his life. Many fathers are like this today. They are going through so much, struggling with life and destiny, simply because they have allowed the devil to mislead them from the way of the Lord. Many homes are in shambles and shackles of the devil today because the devil has placed a hold on the father. Our society today don’t have adequate role models, men in whom God have shaped to lead the next generation and model them into all that God would want them to be.
But thanks be to God, because He has redeemed man from this curse through the finished works of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary (Galatians 3:13). The chains had been broken, the curse is over and now, there is need for the fathers, all over the globe, to step into their destiny and to take responsibility for the upcoming generation.
What Does it Mean to Father With Ease?
Fathering with ease entails fathering without pain or trouble. It means fathering without difficulty, but in comfort of the body and mind. It means looking up to God, our Father and the source of our strength to execute His fathering assignment on the face of the earth. It also means that we understand what God would have us do, our assignments as fathers. God’s expectation of us as fathers is to raise a family that would model His image and likeness on earth. God said concerning Abraham in Genesis 18:29 that “For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.”
How many fathers are there today that God can boldly vouch for in this way and manner? How many fathers are out there, raising their homes and kids in the way and admonition of the Lord? I mean, this is our singular responsibility on earth! It is good that as fathers, we work and make available every good thing in life to our households. But this is not all that God wants from us. As much as we work and labour in order to make life good for our children, it is also important that they are nurtured and brought up in the way of the Lord. This is exactly the first thing that God has committed into our hands.
Ephesians 6:4 also corroborates this very thing. It says “And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.” Did we see that? If you have given your children everything they need in life for example, they are comfortable, attend the best schools, have the best of education, live in the best of environments et cetera; and you have failed to bring them up in the Lord, all that you think you have done would end in futility. Your responsibilities as a father, amongst many other things; is to raise a generation that knows and fears the Lord.
So, as the world celebrates Father’s day today, I want you that is reading this piece, to examine yourself and your role as a father. Do you think you have failed or failing in your real role and capacity as a father? Are you modelling a lifestyle of Godliness before your children? Can your children boldly say “they are proud of you”, not because of the mundane things of this world that you have provided them with, No; but because you simply showed them the way of the Lord? You need to think about these things right now.
The decisions you make or would make at this moment, would determine whether you would be deem fit as a successful father or a father who has failed in his responsibilities.
That your son who is currently on drugs, that your daughter that is extremely wayward can still be restored. Your decisions so far as a father, has gotten them where they are right now, simply because you have shown them every other ways in life, except the way of the Lord. If you would make it right with your heavenly Father today, He can still restore them. That your son that has left home can come back. That your daughter can still be reformed, and become useful to herself and her society at large. But the decision starts from you first, the father. You have to get it right with God, and now is the accepted time to get it right.
I pray that God will help every fathers out there, in Jesus’ name!
[Centre for New Dimension Leadership]
