The Best Father Ever

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to receive forgiveness of my sins through your Son, Jesus Christ, who died for me. I now turn from my ways of disobedience to You and ask that Jesus Christ be my Savior and Lord. I give You my life, and I ask that You make me into the man—and the father—You made me to be. Amen. Ted Griffin 1 1 John 3:1; 2 Luke 15:20; 3 Romans 5:8; 4 John 1:12. ©1999 Good News Publishers. Updated text ©2002. Printed in U.S.A. Photos © Jon LeMay Good News Publishers 1300 Crescent Street Wheaton, IL 60187 For helpful Christian literature, please write to the address above or visit our Web site at www.goodnewspublishers.org • Bible references: NIV. In the process, God’s example of per- fect fatherhood will become clearer and you will gain the strength and wisdom to follow Him more closely. You have committed your soul to God; now com- mit your fatherhood to Him as well. Or perhaps you realize that as a father you need to be more like God, but you know little about Him or don’t understand how to know Him person- ally. Talk to Him in prayer, asking His Son Jesus to come into your life. “But to all who did receive him [Jesus Christ], who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” 4 If you desire to take this step, we invite you to pray this prayer: Lord, I want to be the father I ought to be, but I know that before I can do that, I need to be the man I should be. I need to know You and

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The Best Father Ever

Transcript of The Best Father Ever

Page 1: The Best Father Ever

to receive forgiveness of my sins through your Son, Jesus Christ, who died for me. I now turn from my ways of disobedience to You and ask that Jesus Christ be my Savior and Lord. I give You my life, and I ask that You make me into the man—and the father—You made me to be. Amen.

Ted Griffin

11 John 3:1; 2Luke 15:20; 3Romans 5:8; 4John 1:12.

©1999 G

ood New

s Publishers. Updated text ©

2002. Printed in U.S.A

. Photos © Jon LeM

ay

Good News Publishers1300 Crescent StreetWheaton, IL 60187

For helpful Christian literature, please write to the address above or visit our Web site at www.goodnewspublishers.org • Bible references: NIV.

In the process, God’s example of per-fect fatherhood will become clearer and you will gain the strength and wisdom to follow Him more closely. You have committed your soul to God; now com-mit your fatherhood to Him as well.

Or perhaps you realize that as a father you need to be more like God, but you know little about Him or don’t understand how to know Him person-ally. Talk to Him in prayer, asking His Son Jesus to come into your life. “But to all who did receive him [Jesus Christ], who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”4 If you desire to take this step, we invite you to pray this prayer:

Lord, I want to be the father I ought to be, but I know that before I can do that, I need to be the man I should be. I need to know You and

Page 2: The Best Father Ever

Fatherhood is an adventure, a challenge, a chore! It’s exciting to teach a son (or daughter) how to hit a baseball or to watch a daughter (or son) win a spelling bee. But being a father is hard when a six-year-old son asks

“Why?” for the thousandth time in the last hour or a daughter throws a screaming tantrum in a mega-store just because you won’t buy her a fifteenth Barbie! And sometimes fatherhood is just hard work—cleaning up after a sick child or trying to get siblings to stop fighting again.

We all want to be better fathers. We try our hardest to be like Cliff Huxtable on The Cosby Show but often are more like clueless Raymond on Everybody Loves Raymond. Perhaps our own fathers failed to be role models for us; or even if we had great dads, we know we can improve as

fathers with our own children. If only we had a perfect father to imitate.

The good news is, we do. God gives us an example of perfect fatherhood in the Bible—Himself! He made each one of us, and in His great love, He claims us as His children.1 By becoming more like Him, we can become better fathers. He is the Father of fathers—the best ever, the Heavenly Father who can help us be the dads we were meant to be.

As our Father, God loves us—always, unconditionally—when we please Him and when we don’t. Just as our children have often disobeyed us, but we still love them, we have often disobeyed God and He still loves us. In fact, He sent His Son to bear the punishment we deserve, to die in our place, and He is willing to forgive us if we will just come to Him and confess our acts and thoughts of disobedience, believing in Jesus Christ as our Savior. He

longs for our return to Him, just as the father of the prodigal son waited for him with open arms in Jesus’ famous story.2 We don’t deserve God’s love and forgiveness, but He loves us anyway.

“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”3

We all fall short as fathers, and as men. Even on our best days, when we’re trying so hard to be patient with our sons and daughters, we can become critical or demanding. We not only need God’s wisdom and love as fathers—we need His forgiveness and love for our-selves.

Perhaps you already know God through Jesus Christ but need to grow in your relationship with Him. Begin by reading the Bible, spending time in prayer, and fellowshipping with other Christians at a Bible-teaching church.

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The Best Father Ever

God demonstrates the qualities of a good father throughout Scripture and offers to help human fathers become more like Him.

to receive forgiveness of my sins through your Son, Jesus Christ, who died for me. I now turn from my ways of disobedience to You and ask that Jesus Christ be my Savior and Lord. I give You my life, and I ask that You make me into the man—and the father—You made me to be. Amen.

Ted Griffin

11 John 3:1; 2Luke 15:20; 3Romans 5:8; 4John 1:12.