As we celebrate the spark that lit the Protestant Reformation, we should consider the character of such revivals. One of the prominent features of the Reformers was the refrain ad fontes or “to the sources”. This was nothing other than the promised spirit of Elijah, which always accompanies such a renewal of God’s church.
Where the Spirit goes, father’s hearts turn tenderly toward their children, and children’s faces are upturned in a hearty respect for their fathers. But a movement that reviles its fathers of the faith does not bear the tang of the Spirit’s presence. A movement that treads upon children isn’t born from above, but from below.
As we labor for cultural revival it must begin in this relationship between fathers and their children. If you are a father, regardless of how old your children are, you are summoned by the Spirit of God to turn your heart with tenderness to your children. You are not to despair over your children’s failures, nor should you presume that their bad character or habits are permanently fossilized. Rather, you must, by God’s grace, find another gear to pursue your children with scandalously generous love. Your joy and favor should rest upon them like the sun on a cloudless day. While this holds true especially for fathers, of course it’s applicable to mothers as well.
And children, as your father’s turn their hearts toward you, return that love with loving obedience. Let the instruction of your father and the wisdom of your mother be as a crown, a sword, a scepter unto you. They bestow you with the royalty of being children of the covenant, and so receive that lofty calling and fulfill it in honor of both God your Father and your parents. The true spirit of the Reformation is a glorious retrieval of the fifth commandment to Honor thy father and thy mother.
Prayer of Confession
Father God,
In a nation plagued by resentment and animosity between generations, where fathers have abdicated and walked out, where mothers are killing their unborn, where children defy their cultural heritage, we ask that within your church you would send forth Your Spirit. Stir up within fathers a strong paternal and selfless love for their sons and daughters; give fathers the courage to diligently sow seeds of righteousness within their children, plowing the fields in hope. And grant that our covenant children would not slacken their pace in walking according to Your Word, but stir them up to honor their parents by honoring You in all areas of their life. Where we have neglected this calling of hearts turned to our children, and so taught them to turn their hearts from us to sinful enticements, forgive us. Grant such a revival of godly love between fathers and mothers and sons and daughters in our day and in our midst.
You have called Your church to truth in the inward parts, so we now confess our individual sins to You. Selah.
We do this in Jesus’ mighty name, and Amen.
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