Prayer: Father, You understand a father’s love for his son. You understand the loss of a son. I have grieved for my own son for years. I pray for reconciliation and restoration and relationship. Amen.
Reading: 2 Samuel 19 key: vs. 1 “The king was shaken. So he went up to the chamber over the gate and wept. As he walked he cried, “My son Absalom! O my son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you! Absalom, my son, my son!” TLV
Attention: I have shared before about the loss of a teammate when I was in high school. A Junior Varsity player on the boy’s team called time out and collapsed on the floor. He was rushed to the locker room where they revived him. I could hear him gasping for air as I passed the locker room. The varsity team was told later that evening, after having completed our game, that the player had passed away on the way to the hospital. Unbeknown to his coach and parents, he had walking pneumonia and passed from lack of oxygen.
His father attended all the games and practices. He continued to do so after his son’s passing. My heart always felt for him, as he looked in on the practices, hoping to see his son Rob again.
David had given instructions to Joab, to “Deal gently with the young man Absalom for my sake” (2 Samuel 18:5b). He wanted Absalom spared from what he knew was eminent. No father wants to be preceded in death by any son. David loved Absalom deeply. I have heard it said, the greater we love someone, the greater, deeper, the grief.
Absalom sought what was not his and it cost him his life. It did not have to end this way for Absalom. He did not have the relationship with God nor the anointing from God which his father David had. He did not learn respect for God or His anointed from his father.
There are many lessons to be learned from David’s life. May we learn from David and be spared the grief which Absalom caused his father. If we have caused our fathers grief, may we be reconciled in relationship with our fathers. Humble yourself today, I pray.
Action: I choose today to humble myself and reconcile with my heavenly Father so that I can reconcile with my earthly father.
Yield: I choose today to yield to the Holy Spirit’s prompting to repent and reconcile with my father.
Engage: I choose today to engage with the Holy Spirit in the ministry of reconciliation.
Relationship: I choose to live in holy, intimate relationship with God.
Prayer: Father, I grieve today with the fathers who have had a son precede them in death. Please comfort their hearts today. If their sons are with You, may they, like David, know that they can be rejoined with their sons, by calling on Your name today. Amen.
Memory Verse: 2 Samuel 12:23 “But now that he has died, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? It is I who will be going to him, but he will never return to me.” TLV
Music Video: Chris Tomlin—Together https://youtu.be/lOtMqixroVw?si=mbnE7bMnljgnoTKZ
Remember, “Abide in Yeshua, today!”