Pastor Hill: A father’s great need

As fathers, we spend years teaching and training our children, preparing them for life and the family God will provide. One of our great desires is that they be happy and successful and grow in their relationship with the Lord. We have a great opportunity to teach them how to reach this place of God’s peace (Philippians 4:9) in their families by showing them our trust in God and our desire to follow Him. Paul provides for us some simple, yet effective methods to keep harmony in the home and know the peace of God. It is a father’s great need. May we always;

Speaking the Truth in Love by Pastor Tommy Hill

Speaking the Truth in Love
by Pastor Tommy Hill

STAND FAST (in the Lord): Paul warns the Philippians against the temptation to give way to the pressures of society. The city of Philippi was a heathen city and the temptations were strong to give in to its sinful practices. Paul said you can make it if you stand but he added a requirement to go along with standing fast. Philippians 4:1, “Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.” The verse says we must stand fast, “in the Lord.” In Ephesians 6:10 we are promised we can find strength in the Lord. The solution for us as fathers, mothers, children and other members of the family is to be in the Lord. It is in the Lord where we are successful. The Lord strengthens us in times of persecution, whether it is physical or verbal. We must stay on our guard, live the Christian life, and stand fast. We are not Christian chameleons, changing based upon our circumstances, we are born again believers who stand fast in the Lord at all times.

If we surrender any ground to Satan, he will press his advantage; he will send his forces through the breach in our defenses. Battle skirmishes, not contained, will escalate into defeats in the Christian life. When we allow little indulgences, live a little careless, Satan takes advantage and looks for the greatest weakness in our lines of defense. As Father’s we must stand fast in the truth of God’s Word and protect our children from the sinfulness of our society. We must stand fast in the Lord.

BE OF THE SAME MIND (in the Lord): Paul further encourages us in Philippians 4:2 to be of the same mind in the Lord. A family that is going in the same direction will arrive at their destination happy and content in what the Lord has provided. When we have the same mind in the Lord we are a happy home, full of the love of God and the peace of God which passeth all understanding. Trying to go in different directions will ruin the happiness and joy in the family. Satan loves to see the family in disarray. He increases his efforts and reaps his rewards when families fuss and fight because we are not of the same mind in the Lord. Our discord adds to the devil’s joy. When our mind is, “in the Lord” we are able to settle our disputes, get along, and move forward.

REJOICE (in the Lord): Everyone wants to be happy, to rejoice in the blessings they have received from God. Our rejoicing is dependent upon our relationship with Christ. He is either Christ present, Christ prominent, or Christ preeminent. If we make Christ preeminent in our lives our rejoicing is then in Him. He is the Creator of all things and He is the provider of all joy and through Him we have peace, contentment, happiness, security, salvation, and many other things that accompany salvation (Hebrews 6:9). When we have Christ, we have great reason to rejoice, but our rejoicing is to be in Him, not in earth’s temporal pleasures and successes that will not follow us into eternity. When Christ is not preeminent, it becomes difficult to “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice”- Philippians 4:4.

Living “in the Lord” resolves all of our needs and problems in our spiritual life. When God becomes our Master and we look to Him in all things, we find we are able to stand fast, have the same mind, and rejoice. We are the wheel, Christ is the axle, and in Him, we find great joy and peace. God created us and established the first family and God is the most capable to instruct us as to how the family can survive and thrive in the world we live in today and tomorrow. When we follow Paul’s simple, yet effective instruction the result is found in the promise of Philippians 4:9, and that is the presence of the God of peace. May God richly bless your family today.

Pastor Tommy Hill is the pastor of First Free Will Baptist Church in Hamlet. He is a Richmond County native. He can be reached at firstfwbchurchhamlet@gmail.com. His column will appear each Friday in The Pee Dee Post.

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