There are many days when I feel the desire to take life into my own hands and assist God. Like everyone else, I struggle with surrendering to God’s guidance and patiently waiting for His plan. However, the saving grace for me is that I have been walking with God for a long time. Since I was a child, I have had a relationship with the Lord who has stood by my side through every event of my life. He has helped me during the most difficult times and celebrated with me during my life’s best moments. Along my journey with the Him, I have discovered the more I make Him the focus of my life, the better equipped I am to persevere through the trials of each day.
In practical terms, this is the focal point of the sixth chapter of Ephesians. Paul begins by addressing the importance of children obeying their parents. Paul understood our reverence for authority is formed through our interactions and behavior with our own parents. If a child does not respect and obey their parents, it is unlikely they will revere or obey any other authority figure in their lives. As God handed Israel the ten commandments – which established the pattern for legal systems that span the globe – the commandment for children to obey their parents was the only commandment that came with a promise.
However, Paul doesn’t stop there. While he emphasizes the importance of children incorporating reverence and obedience into their lives, he also reminds fathers not to exasperate their children. As the first authority figure in their lives, fathers need to lead with love, humility, and integrity. The way parents live out faith shapes children’s perception of God. If a child lacks a father figure or has an abusive father, it becomes challenging for them to serve God who calls Himself “Father” with love and respect. On the other hand, if fathers exemplify the sacrificial and loving life pattern of our heavenly Father, it will give our children hope and faith to trust and follow Him.
As God’s children, He desires that our lives go well. If we can follow His pattern of reverence and trust as children and parents, it will go well with us. He will walk with us through life’s peaks and valleys and we will know Him as our God and good Father always.
God Bless You.
Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise), 3 so that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth.
4 Fathers do not provoke your children to anger but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
5 Slaves, be obedient to those who are your [a]masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ; 6 not [b]by way of eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the [c]heart. 7 With good will [d]render service, as to the Lord, and not to men, 8 knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free.
9 And masters, do the same things to them, and give up threatening, knowing that both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him.
Walking With God 