This Father’s Day, we thank God for the dads and godly father figures in our lives!
If you fall into one of those categories, you’ve probably experienced the highs and lows of fatherhood this year. Maybe you feel like you’re running on fumes as you adjust to working full-time while also caring for a new baby or a rambunctious toddler. Maybe your children have entered their teenage years, and your life is suddenly full of conversations about college plans, breakups, and curfews. Or maybe you’re learning how to relate to your adult children as they take the lessons you taught them during childhood and venture into the world on their own.
Whatever stage of fatherhood you find yourself in, God’s Word offers you strength, encouragement, and wisdom. While there are no perfect fathers on earth, we rejoice in the knowledge that, through Jesus Christ, we have a heavenly Father who is good, kind, and perfect. We can trust our Father in heaven to use every season and experience of parenthood to grow our faith in him!
This Father’s Day, you can learn important lessons about fatherhood and faith by looking at some of the fathers found in Scripture. The Bible is full of examples of good and bad fathers, and each story has something to teach us about how we can grow closer to God and guide our children in his ways.
We invite you to take a few moments and reflect on these three lessons we can learn from biblical dads.
Jairus: Wait on God
Read: Luke 8:40–56
Think about the last time you had to wait for something. Maybe you waited in a drive-thru line or a doctor’s office. Maybe you’re naturally patient, or maybe waiting for 20 minutes felt like an eternity. Now, imagine that your daughter is sick, and the only person who can help her seems to be taking his time.
That’s what Jairus experienced when he met Jesus. An official in the synagogue, Jairus sought Jesus out in a crowd. He fell on his face and begged Jesus to heal his twelve-year-old daughter. Imagine how relieved Jairus felt when Jesus started walking toward his house! And imagine his desperation when Jesus paused to give his attention to someone else who sought his healing. In that moment, Jairus could only do one thing: wait. Then, he received the news he dreaded. His young daughter had died:
A messenger came from the official’s house. “Your daughter has died,” he told Jairus; “don’t bother the Teacher any longer.”
But Jesus heard it and said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; only believe, and she will be well.” (Luke 8:49–50 GNT)
Like Jairus, you might feel like you’ve waited on God until all hope was gone. Waiting can stir up a wide range of emotions in our hearts—anger, fear, despair. But even when we are waiting, the Bible tells us that God does not abandon us. Even more important, Scripture teaches us that nothing is impossible for God. Jairus experienced this truth when Jesus raised his daughter back to life. Today, we can find comfort in the fact that even when it seems like we’ve waited in vain, God is still in control.
- What are you waiting for? Make a list of your requests and spend time bringing them to God in prayer. Ask God to grant patience as you wait for his answer.
- What emotions do you feel when you’re waiting for God’s answer to your prayers? Anxiety? Anger? Sorrow? Bring these emotions to God, expressing your need for his presence and comfort.
- How can Scripture provide hope in times of waiting? Are there any verses that speak to your heart while you’re waiting on God? What are creative ways you can use these verses to encourage your children when they’re waiting for an answer to prayer?
The Father of the Demon-Possessed Boy: Have Faith in God
Read: Mark 9:14–29
One of the hardest parts of parenthood is watching your children experience the harsh realities of a sinful world.
You help your children navigate painful experiences like sickness, bullying, and loss. You walk beside them as they feel emotions like anxiety, fear, and grief for the first time. Sometimes, you’re able to say or do things that make them feel better. But other times, there’s nothing you can do but cry out to God for help.
In Scripture, we meet an unnamed father who could not do anything to help his son. Ever since this man’s son was a child, a demon had attacked him with violent fits. At times, the boy had even been in danger of losing his life. Can you imagine how helpless this father must have felt? He brought his son to Jesus’s disciples, no doubt hoping that they could help. But when the disciples failed to cast out the demon, Jesus intervened.
Jesus told this father that everything is possible for the person who has faith. In response, the man asked Jesus to give him the faith he needed:
The father at once cried out, “I do have faith, but not enough. Help me have more!” (Mark 9:24 GNT)
Through his simple plea, this father reminds us how essential faith is in our walk with God. Scripture teaches us that faith is a gift from God. It is the foundation for our salvation and the power behind our prayers. Only God can grant us the faith to believe in him and his promises. And only faith in God can sustain us through every challenge we face.
In his request to Jesus, this father went right to the source of faith. And in response, Jesus granted him the faith he asked for and healed his son. This father’s example can remind us that faith is something we can request from God each day. In moments of helplessness and despair, faith helps us hold on to God’s promises for us and for our children. When life doesn’t go the way we expect, faith comforts our hearts with reminders of God’s goodness and love for us. And through God’s gift of faith, we find the ability to wait on his answer to our prayers.
- Have you ever asked for God to give you more faith? When? How did God answer?
- Do you see any areas in your life where your faith needs to increase? Spend some time praying for God to grant you the faith to rely on him for every need.
- Think about the unique challenges or questions your children are facing. How can you encourage them with the truth of God’s gift of faith? How does this truth encourage your own heart?
Joseph: Trust God
Read: Matthew 1–2
As we read about Jesus’s life in the Bible, it can be easy to forget that the people who knew him best for most of his life didn’t know him as the Son of God. Instead, Jesus was known as the son of Joseph, the carpenter.
Overall, Joseph isn’t a major player in the ministry of Jesus as recorded in the four Gospels. In fact, it’s widely assumed that Joseph died at some point before Jesus’s death on the cross. Although it can be easy to overlook Jesus’s earthly father, there is a precious lesson that all fathers and father figures can learn from Joseph’s faithful obedience and trust in God.
We learn in Scripture that Joseph was engaged to Mary, a young virgin, when she became pregnant by the Holy Spirit. In the traditional Jewish culture, Joseph had a difficult decision to make in response to what seemed like infidelity:
Joseph was a man who always did what was right, but he did not want to disgrace Mary publicly; so he made plans to break the engagement privately. While he was thinking about this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary to be your wife. For it is by the Holy Spirit that she has conceived. She will have a son, and you will name him Jesus—because he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:19–21 GNT)
Imagine Joseph waking up and thinking about all the implications of trusting God in this situation. It’s unlikely that Joseph’s family and community would have understood his decision to marry a woman who was already pregnant. Adopting Mary’s child also meant that Jesus, and not Joseph’s own biological child, would receive the birthright reserved for the firstborn son.
From an earthly perspective, Joseph’s decision to obey God seemed foolish. But by God’s grace, Joseph chose to trust God. He cared for Mary and Jesus. When God spoke to Joseph in another dream and warned him about wicked King Herod’s plot to murder the children around Jesus’s age, Joseph protected his family by fleeing to Egypt. In a poignant reminder of Joseph’s important role as Jesus’s earthly father, we see his name recorded in the list of Jesus’s ancestors. And as Jesus’s father figure, Joseph had a part in caring for his Savior as Jesus grew up.
In parenting and in our general lives, we often face situations that require absolute trust in God. There are times when we don’t understand God’s plan for us. There are times when God is asking us to go against the opinions of our family, friends, colleagues, and culture. We may even experience added difficulty and suffering in our lives because we choose to follow him. But even when we wrestle with God’s calling, we can always fall back on the truth that God is a good and loving Father. And like Joseph, fathers and father figures can set a bold example for their children by choosing to live differently and trust completely in God.
- How does the truth that God is a trustworthy Father inspire you to be a better father, grandfather, or father figure?
- In what areas of your life do you need to deepen your trust in God today? Spend a few moments asking God to help you trust his promises in every circumstance.
Happy Father’s Day from all of us at American Bible Society! We hope that this resource encouraged your heart and reminded you of God’s deep love for you. To help you continue exploring Scripture, here are three additional resources: