Category: MASH United

Compromise as seen through our eyes is very different than how God sees it. As men, we see working overtime hours to provide a better house or a newer car as being a good steward. The Lord may see it as robbing our children of our presence in their lives. We may think that by going on a two-week vacation with the family, we’ve provided our dutiful input into our children’s lives, when the Lord is asking us to invest in them on our knees and in their presence on a continual daily basis.

We may settle for a marriage that seems as good as anyone else’s, when God is asking that don’t settle for anything less than a marriage that’s a mirror of the relationship between Christ and His church. We may think that being a breadwinner is the fulfillment of our obligation, when God asks us to lay our lives down for our wives just as Christ did for us.

Compromise, as God sees it, is acting in any way other than the way Jesus acted. His purpose for your offices is to create an atmosphere in your marriage and your family in the same way that Jesus would. Because you say that you follow Him, you are to act and conduct yourself in the same way that He acted and conducted Himself. We must ask ourselves; in what spirit would Jesus honor the office of husband and father, and then act accordingly.  Acting as Jesus would in every situation we face is not legalism; it’s Christianity 101.

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Jim Corbett

Because they have so much impact, the offices of husband and father are very important to Father God. The world sees a strong man as someone who selfishly dominates his realm of influence. Men not worthy of these offices take advantage of those they steward and cause them much harm. Countless children in every strata of society grow up and spend their entire lives looking to be healed because of ignorant or uncaring fathers.

The offices of husband and father are designed by God to be the highest offices He has created. Because every person on this earth is born into a family situation, that institution is very dear to His heart. Any man, who attempts to raise his family to honor God and live a significant life in His eyes, has great favor with Him. He responds to the father on his knees, who prays for the best interests of his wife and family.

Men, as you begin to understand the importance of your office and function in it God’s way, expect answers to your needs. Expect supernatural intervention in impossible situations. Be prepared to meet unusual responses from formerly unresponsive children. Prepare to fall in a deeper kind of love with your wife, no matter how impossible that may seem at present. When God favors your actions and directions, He hovers over them like a loving, enthusiastic, doting Father. After all, that’s Who He is!

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Jim Corbett

For some of us macho guys, saying “I’m sorry” is very difficult, especially if our parents never told us they were sorry for anything. Let’s face it; we all make mistakes. Sometimes those mistakes occur through our ignorance, our upbringing, or our sin.

As a husband and father, your words and actions have a very big impact on your family. Your undoneness may be revealed every time you open your mouth or with every reaction you exhibit regarding the challenges you encounter involving your wife or children. Sometimes that inability to deal with things properly will cause separation. Maybe your children have separated from you in their hearts or your marriage may be far less than you ever thought it would be.

Usually in these situations, we have a tendency to replace love for our children with discipline, or take on hard work instead of communicating with our wives. The hope that things will get better is a whole lot easier than dealing directly with the issues that have caused the situation we’re in. It’s also much easier to blame others for the things they’ve done or for their imperfections, rather than taking responsibility for the heart separation ourselves.

Holy Spirit-led, heartfelt repentance to those, who have separated themselves from you in their hearts, can go a long way toward healing. Honest repentance for your mistakes and completely forgiving others for their mistakes is God’s way of making relationships whole. Your release of any undoneness and all offenses, which have caused the situation you are in, brings a whole new dynamic into play.

In essence, our relationship with Jesus began and remains whole with saying “I’m sorry,” whenever we offend Him. We need His mercy each time we come to Him. Our job is to extend that same mercy to those who have offended us – real or perceived, especially family members. Your expression of sorrow for the times you may have offended others gives them the freedom to heal from your offenses. It opens the doors of communication and allows weapons of self- defense or survival instinct to be laid down. “I’m sorry” - two little words that could change the direction of your family when said for the good of others. Will you say them?

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Jim Corbett

Do you know that your wife and your children have a right to trust you to keep quiet about their failings? Do you know that no one outside of your marriage or your family has a right to know about the areas the Lord is working on in either one of them? As a spiritual covering, your job is to create an atmosphere of love and trust in your marriage and family, so that everyone can be free to fail and grow without the eyes of others scrutinizing their every move or judging them “in Christian love.”

Often the body of Christ goes around expressing “prayer needs” concerning members of their family, exposing their sins for the whole church to discover. Is it any wonder that the struggling child or the unsaved wife has no desire to enter into that atmosphere? Whether you know it or not, whether you intend to or not, you are minimizing their worth in the eyes of others.

While the Lord is working out the refinements necessary to help all members of your family to become Christ-like, you are called upon to give them love and the freedom to fail within the privacy of your family. You’re to build a safety zone for them. In your conversations with them and with others, you’re to maximize opportunities to affirm their worth, pray for them, and never minimize them - especially to others. Give the Lord the freedom to heal them. Make sure that others understand the qualities they have and the wealth they’ve been given by God, no matter what state of growth they may be in. They are valuable in His eyes; your job is to fully understand that value and express it to others when you refer to them. Will you do that?

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Jim Corbett

This life continually offers us choices. Many of those choices are slam dunks because the options available are simple. Right is always right, and wrong is always wrong. There are many times, however, when choices are not simple. Sometimes weighing all the factors doesn’t lead to making choices clear.

Motivated by love, Jesus made a choice to leave heaven and come to earth. In the garden, He made the choice to do His Father’s will. It was also a choice motivated by love. His whole time on this earth was motivated by the love He had for His Father and for us. We are to walk as He walked if we call ourselves His followers.

As a husband and father, you have been placed in the position of being responsible before God for those you steward. You are presented with many choices that determine the outcome in situations that impact the lives of others. It’s a responsibility of your God-given office and it’s important to Him.

Some choices are easy. When choices that require more than simple decisions are before you, you can never go wrong if you choose love when you make them. You’re to lay down your life as Jesus laid down His life. You’re to live for the best interests of others. If the choice you face is doing something either for your best interest or the best interests of others, follow the life decisions of Jesus. Choose love! Make the choice that is in the best interests of the others involved rather than yours. Jesus did it; so should you at every opportunity. Abba likes that!

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Jim Corbett