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There is peace. Perfect peace in knowing God.
We have a God who answers our prayers. No other God is like our God. No other God can do what our God does… No other God has made the promise that if we ask we will receive.
God will get as serious with us as we get with Him. Those who fully trust God will find a much deeper relationship with Him.
The Bible is a book of answers. There are answers in here for every question you have or the issues you are facing.
God has made us with 3 parts. Body. Soul. Spirit. Our children have needs in each of these three areas. They have physical, emotional and spiritual needs.
When God opened his heart to us and loved us we respond back in love. God is meeting our emotional needs firstly… If we don’t meet our children’s emotional needs we will not be able to meet their spiritual needs.
2 Samuel 11:1-27
David here was “resting on his accomplishes,” instead of being out with the armies he was back at home, relaxing. In committing this “major sin” David broke at least 6 of the 10 commandments.
If one of David’s children would have come to him and asked, “which of the 10 commandments would it be ok for me to break?” David would have replied that none of those commandments should be broken. When we expect more discipline, character and spiritual growth from our children than we are willing to be or do ourselves… we drive them away.
The more David tried to cover his sin with Bathsheba the worse it became. That is the nature of sin. It always gets worse the longer we cover things up.
In Acts David is called a man after God’s own heart. Even though he was indeed a man after God’s heart, he had a number of really bad lapses in morality.
2 Samuel 12:1-31, Psalm 51:1-19
David repented, but it wasn’t till he judged a man in a story that he finally was brought to the place he was ready to ask God to forgive him.
Not only was David’s personal altar in bad repair… his family altar was also in bad repair.
David repented. The child was born and died. David recognized that this was God’s hand against him…
2 Samuel 13:1-39
Later we see one of David’s sons making a similar mistake.
David had a hard time getting to the place where he could repent of his sin, but now his son was in a similar place. When David found out he did nothing… nothing…
What would have happened if David would have went to Amnon and humbled himself and admitted that he had done the same thing. The way forward is always humility and repentance, pleading with God for mercy.
Tamar’s life was changed forever as well. David not only owed Amnon a good humble talking too, but he also owed that to Tamar.
Fathers, take responsibility for your family. David here didn’t take the responsibility that he so clearly should have. The spiritual leaders also stepped aside and did nothing.
Absolom on the other hand knew what had happened. He knew that his father and the High Priest should have taken responsibility and didn’t. Can you understand what was going on in Absolom’s heart? A hatred was growing in his heart… a hatred and disgust that would ultimately lead to him trying to take the throne over for himself.
Maybe David wanted to do something but didn’t know how or what to do. Maybe he was waiting for someone else to step in because he didn’t feel like he was worthy to. The results when this is the case are never good.
Later Absolom arranged for Amnon to be killed. Isn’t it a bit ironic that the son that we look at as a rebel did what the church leaders were commanded in the Law to do? It wasn’t his responsibility to carry out, but it is an interesting piece to this story…
Our children are experts at seeing injustice. Absolom was asked to return, likely with the hope that they could talk about what had happened, what should have happened and move forward. Instead David had him go to his own house and not come forward to see the king.
When Absolom did finally come to see the king there was no reconciliation. Absolom’s response was to rebel, while Absolom was definitely in the wrong and should not have rebelled, David too had a part to play in pushing his son away.
David should have reached out and pursued his son.
Absolom started to build his rebel army by doing three things.
Firstly he listened to their stories… we must listen to our children, pursue their hearts, listen to their stories, listen to their hearts. We frustrate them and alienate ourselves from them if we aren’t willing to listen to them.
The second thing that Absolom did is also very important. He identify with them, saying that he knew what they were going through…
Finally Absolom showed love for each person, regardless… He allowed them to simply “be who they are” and love them. The same thing happens with our children. There are times children need to be given space to just be, yet make sure that they know that they are loved regardless.
When we fail it isn’t reason to quit on our children. We all mess up. We all make mistakes. There are two kinds of parents… those who quit and those who don’t. Let us not be the kind of parents who quit and give up on our children.