The Importance of Fathers to Their Children

Scripture: Malachi 4:5-6

"Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD. "He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse."

 Insights:  Touchstone magazine reported the following, “If a father does not go to church, no matter how faithful his wife’s devotions, only one child in fifty will become a regular worshipper.  If a father does go regularly, regardless of the practice of the mother, between two-thirds and three-quarters of their children will become churchgoers.”  We are living in a society here in America where the hearts of many, if not most, of the fathers are not with their child(ren).  In other words, we have the largest generation of absentee fathers or fathers who have completely abandoned their child(ren) in the history of our nation.  The same kind of serious sin was occurring during the time of Malachi and the Lord showed him that there would be a day coming in which the father’s hearts would be turned back to their child(ren).  That day would come when the spirit of Elijah would come on John the Baptist and he would become the forerunner to Jesus.  I think we as a nation are in desperate need for men like John the Baptist to come on the scene.  In other words, we need godly men who will take a stand and raise their child(ren) in the ways of the Lord Jesus.  We need men who will mentor younger men in the ways that one is obedient to Jesus, which will make them better fathers.  It is not too late for America and the children of this nation.  If, however, we do not step up and take this challenge to stir the hearts of men back to God, then what we will look at tomorrow will come to pass and that would be very bad.  I encourage you to stick with the reading of this blog throughout this week.  I know at this moment and even tomorrow the verbiage sounds very bleak and downcast, but there is hope.  When we get to Thursday and Friday we will see that hope in a more evident fashion.  So hang in there throughout this week.

Questions:

1. If you are a father, have you not taken seriously your responsibility to your child(ren)?
2. Are you able to recognize the departure of fathers in the American home?

Prayer: Father, I pray you raise up a generation of men who honor You and point their families to You.  You are worthy and Malachi saw a generation under John the Baptist as one where relationships between fathers and children would be restored.  Lord, let that happen again.  Amen.