Every day on my drive to work I listen to Christian Talk Radio 100.7 the Word. I heard this message by Pastor Reis over a Father’s Priority. The message was so good, I felt I should type up a summary. For your edification, a Father’s Priority:
A Father’s Priority
One key contributor to a breakdown of the family is a father’s lack of Godly leadership.
1. God is called to be first in the father’s life
2. God has called fathers need to love their wives and children
3. God has called fathers to take the leadership of the home- children portion here
Proverbs 4:1-4 gives instruction for fathers to teach sons. One of the greatest problems in the church and in the world today is the father’s absence of father’s in the home. Fathers have many basic responsibilities, with two such responsibilities such as being the financial leader of the home, and protecting our wives and children
God is called to be first in the father’s life. God has called the man to work and to be the provider of the home. When you look today at homes that are breaking up and going through problems, it’s because the men haven’t taken the authority that God has given to him to be the “man” of the home. God has called men to protect the home. God has to be first in the husband’s life in order for man to be the head of the home. Think of how many children are struggling today because the father won’t take the leadership of the home. One thing we will all have to understand is that we will all have to give an account before God of ourselves, our spouse and children. It’s really important that we understand the calling of God in the life of man and the first thing he requires is to know him intimately. We need to spend time in the Word and in prayer. Men need to be the spiritual head of the home. God has setup the model and the model first is that the husband first needs to seek ye first kingdom of God- Matthew 6:33.
Fathers need to love their wives and their children. We love our wives and children by being with them, by teaching them, by praying with them, by reading with them, making ourselves available to them when I come home from work- not plowing down on the couch to watch television all night long. All the way through the New Testament and in Ephesians 5 God instructs how we husbands need to love our wives; and in verses previous to that, it starts with wives submitting themselves to the husband in the fear of God. The wife will never submit to the husband as long as the husband does not love his wife. Men will never be respected by his wife or his children if we don’t love our wife, and God will not honor us. God has spoke through his Word and he tells women what they need to do, and man what we need to do. If a man loves his wife and the wife does not submit to the husband, she has a big problem. It’s really important that we men understand that God is looking to us to be the leaders of our home; that’s what is missing today. Our wives need to feel they are loved and that they have safety in the home. We need to know where our children are at all times, and where their friends are. We need to learn about God’s word so that fathers can teach it to our children, and teach it to our wife. It’s so sad to see the pressures teenage kids have in the public schools among their friends. The styles of clothes, the way they dress, the concerts they go to, the things that they read, and it eventually takes them to place in time where they start drinking. Our children need to see that husbands love our wives, and that our wives respect us husbands, and that we husbands are a “man’s” man. Otherwise our children will not respect us fathers.
Fathers need to take the leadership of the home. How do we do that? By reading God’s word, by teaching God’s word and by praying with our family. For example, having routine meetings with the family to make sure we everybody is on the same page. They see the father as the leader leading, and that we fathers are making decisions to honor God, our home, and in every decision to honor Jesus Christ. God has this purpose for men. Men were created first, and the woman was created out of the man but from the closest part of the man’s heart.
The father’s priority in the home is to first to seek ye first the kingdom of God. Priority 2 is for the love of his wife and his children. Priority 3 is that the Father must take leadership of the home.
