God's Challenge for Dads: A 90-Day Devotional Experiencing God's Truths
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About this ebook
In this devotional written specifically for dads, Eric Ballard draws wisdom from the men written about in the Bible to push you out of your comfort zone and into a more authentic, whole-hearted relationship with God, which will lead to more meaningful relationships with your family, coworkers, and community. Each devotional includes a scripture, insight into the context and purpose of the passage, a brief prayer, and a challenge. Sometimes the challenges are external—simple ways to let your wife know you think she’s amazing or to make your children feel cared for. Sometimes they’re internal—like daring to let go of your own self-sufficiency and acknowledge you can’t do anything right without the Holy Spirit working through you.
Allow yourself to be pushed, stretched, and molded into the dad God has called you to be. Discover the Bible’s wisdom on everything from work struggles to parenting difficult kids to loving your wife well. Take an honest look at the idols you need to lay down, now. Look a little closer at how you think and talk about work. Discover what godly parenting really means.
Are you ready to accept God’s challenge? Your kids will be grown before you know it. Don't wait another minute to become the dad God wants you to be.
Eric R. Ballard
Eric Ballard is a youth and college pastor, an outdoor enthusiast, a husband, and a father to two beautiful daughters. He is the author of Finding Jesus in the Old Testament and Rite of Passage: The Making of a Godly Man . With an undergraduate degree in educational psychology from Mississippi State University, he also has an advanced degree from New Orleans Baptist Seminary in Christian education. He lives in Katy, Texas.
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God's Challenge for Dads - Eric R. Ballard
COMMUNITY
God, Three in One
COMMUNITY
Then God said, Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us.
—Genesis 1:26A NLT.
After five days of speaking creation into existence, God took a step back to examine His work. And it was good (Genesis 1:3, 10, 18, 21, 25, 31). But He wanted man to be different from all the other animals He had created. Man would bear His very own image in a mighty and mysterious way. So before Adam became a reality, God looked at the other two members of the Trinity and said, "Let’s make Adam like us."
It has been suggested that God made man because He was lonely. But nothing could be further from the truth. Before the dawning of that very first sunrise, God had perfect company and community within Himself (John 1:1–2). And because this mystical holy band of brotherhood was so amazing, God wanted man to join in. He wanted man to be like the us
of the Trinity.
Do you have this type of community? This type of brotherhood? Friends that stick closer than a brother? Do you have an us
to belong to? Most of us don’t, at least not anymore. In high school and college, we may have had more friends than we could count, but they seem harder to find nowadays. Most men, as we grow older and older, tend to withdraw from relationships more and more. We become isolated. And this trend is not limited to just our friends and neighbors. Men have a bad habit of disengaging from our family, as well. But this is not what God intended when He dug in the dirt and sculpted Adam with His bare hands. God’s creation of Adam was an invitation to join His community. When we choose to step away from community, we choose to step away from God’s original design.
Let’s be intentional about embracing a community of men. Let’s find friends we can trust and share our true self with. Let’s be purposeful about becoming an us
and not just a me.
CHALLENGE
•Read Ecclesiastes 4:12.
•Don’t do this devotion alone. Tell a few friends that you are accepting this 90-day challenge and then invite them to join you so that you can learn and grow together.
Being involved in community was part of God’s original design.
LORD, bring other men in my life that will walk alongside me and help me become the man you created me to be. Amen.
Jonathan and David
CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP
But if he is angry and wants you killed, may the LORD strike me and even kill me if I don’t warn you so you can escape and live. May the LORD be with you as he used to be with my father. And may you treat me with the faithful love of the LORD as long as I live. —1 Samuel 20:13–14 NLT
There are several studies out there that suggest most men over the age of thirty don’t have real friends. Before you say, That’s ridiculous, I have tons of friends, really think about it. Do you? Do you have friends you can share more than just a meal with? Are there friends in your life that know your deepest struggles and fears? Do you have guys you can go to when your marriage is in trouble or work isn’t fulfilling you the way it used to? Who truly knows you?
It seems the older we get, the more we choose our friends out of convenience than anything else. All a guy has to be is a coworker, neighbor, our kid’s friends’ dad, or the husband of our wife’s friend. Possibly none of whom we would voluntarily hang out with. When this is the case, it’s no wonder our friendships are shallow.
Jonathan was more loyal to his friend David than he was to even his own father, who just happened to be king. Both Jonathan and David were willing to fight and die for their friendship. They wanted the best for each other even if it came at personal cost. And above all else they wanted the other to be in good standing with the LORD. Because God was at the center of their friendship, their lives were intertwined. If you and I are going to have true friendships that make us better men, we must find someone that loves God as much as we do. Don’t simply settle for men that happen to be in the nearest of proximity to you as friends; find men with whom you can wage war against this life to call friends. They are well worth the search.
CHALLENGE
•Read Proverbs 18:24.
•Find a new friend. I know that sound elementary, but give it a try. Pray for God to bring a new friend into your life and the time to invest in that friendship. And pray for Him to do it quickly.
Christian friendships will strengthen us like no other.
Father, I don’t want to try to live this Christian life on my own. Send me friends that will stick closer than a brother. Amen.
Nathan
BE A REAL FRIEND
David was furious. As surely as the LORD lives,
he vowed, any man who would do such a thing deserves to die!
Then Nathan said to David, You are that man!
—2 Samuel 12:5 and 7A NLT
After David’s affair with Bathsheba, he had Uriah, her husband, killed so that his infidelities would remain secrets. But the prophet Nathan came to the king and told him a story about a rich man that had numerous sheep and cattle stealing the only lamb from a poor man so that he could feed a visiting guest without killing one of his own animals. This sort of injustice outraged the king, and he demanded to take action against such a selfish and careless man. Then Nathan informed David that he is the man. That as king, David could have had anyone he wanted as a wife, but he chose to take the wife of another. Broken by the truth, David’s eyes were finally opened to his misdeeds.
Nathan was being a true friend to David. Several people in David’s palace must have known the truth about Bathsheba, but only Nathan loved David enough to do the hard thing and confront him with the truth.
A good friend doesn’t simply agree with everything we say or do. A good friend loves us enough to be honest with us. They tell us when we have something stuck in our teeth, when there are boogers hanging from our nose, and when we are being idiots with the choices we make. We need to be this kind of friend to others and to our wife. Let us love her enough to be honest with her. To be truthful with both the good and bad news. As painful or embarrassing as the truth may be at first, it is always beneficial and appreciated in the end, especially when it is delivered out of love.
CHALLENGE
•Read Proverbs 27:6.
•Is there anyone in your life that you need to speak a difficult truth to? Ask God to place that person on your heart and for Him to give you the words to say.
True friends tell the truth. Even the hard ones.
Father, help me love my family and friends with honesty. Amen.
Samson
THE NEED FOR ACCOUNTABILITY
So he attacked the Philistines with great fury and killed many of them. Then he went to live in a cave in the rock of Etam. —Judges 15:8 NLT
Samson’s commitment to following God can be described as up and down at best. At times, he was a mighty warrior for the LORD, and at times he simply did whatever he wanted to regardless of his Nazarene vow. A big part of his waywardness was due to his isolation.
Part of Samson’s adult life was spent living alone in a cave. Secluded and away from a community of other men, Samson lived a life with no accountability. Alone in the cave, there was no one to seek guidance from and no one to step in and put a stop to Samson’s foolish actions. There was no one for Samson to learn from and no one to truly show him how to use his God-given strength.
As men, we still live lives mostly withdrawn from the community of other men. There are several studies that suggest a large portion of men over the age of thirty do not have friendships with other men that reach further than acquaintance or coworker. We may have buddies that we may watch the game with or share a drink with, but few of us have friends that we truly share our lives with. This is a detriment to our spiritual and physical lives.
If you and I are going to have real friendships and accountability, then chances are we are going to have to search them out. Gone are the days where we are thrown into a college dorm to forge deep friendships. Today we must seek them and work for them knowing that they can be life-changing. Meaningful friendships will make our relationships at home stronger.
CHALLENGE
•Read Ecclesiastes 4:9–10.
•Make a list of the three people outside of your family that you consider to be your closest friends. When was the last time you talked to them? (Not by text, email, or social media … actually talked.) Which of them do you go to for advice? Encouragement? When your marriage is struggling? When your kids seem distant or rebellious?
•Pray that God would place men in your life for strong Christian fellowship.
We need a community of men to help keep us accountable.
Father, You did not place me on this earth to live alone. Bring faithful men into my life that will stand alongside of me and help me grow closer to you. Amen.
Uriah
THE GOOD SOLDIER
When David heard that Uriah had not gone home, he summoned him and asked, What’s the matter? Why didn’t you go home last night after being away for so long?
Uriah replied, The Ark and the armies of Israel and Judah are living in tents, and Joab and my master’s men are camping in the open fields. How could I go home to wine and dine and sleep with my wife? I swear that I would never do such a thing.
—2 Samuel 11:10–11 NLT
David called Uriah back from war under the