Happy Father’s Day // Malachi 4:6

Happy Father’s Day! I hope you will be able to celebrate with your grandfather, father, children, or other loved ones. Our verse for the day might bring you some warm and fuzzy feelings on this day. We read that God, through the prophet Elijah, will turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the hearts of the children to their parents. That is indeed a beautiful sentiment, but it’s one that must be read in context. You see, the second part of that verse reads as follows: “…or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.” Well, that sure changes the tenor of it, doesn’t it? Perhaps the most concerning thing I see in our cultural rot right now is the attempt to separate parents from their children. This isn’t new to us and has been a tactic of evil practically since Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden. Will you join me in praying and standing against this devilish gambit? We need to have our hearts turned back to the power of family. And for you dads out there, I think we need to read Ephesians 6:4 in that prayerful posture: “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” I am certain I can exasperate Ethan — and sometimes that’s intentional — but the devil is diligently trying to divide families. Dads, we cannot let that happen. So, on this Father’s Day, I pray we feel the love of God, enabling and empowering us to turn our hearts to our children and showing them God’s way. While the world teeters on destruction, the love of our heavenly Father leads us all to life everlasting!