Good morning, Lord Jesus. Arise in my heart with Your Spirit as I seek to begin my day embraced by my Father, centered in Christ, and filled with the Holy Spirit. ...
“Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When His mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with Child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the Child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a Son, and you are to name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.’ All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son,and they shall name Him Emmanuel,’
which means, ‘God is with us.’ When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a Son; and he named Him Jesus” (Matthew 1:18-25).
We don’t really hear that much about Joseph, maybe because he’s not mentioned again in Scripture after Your birth and early years. But he was a man of faith and obedience. He was a man of honor and character, compassion and mercy. He was a man with prophetic dreams and supernatural encounters, willing to make life-changing decisions based upon his faith in God and seeking to discern the will of God above his own.
We think of Abraham as the father of faith (Romans 4:16). And maybe we should think of Joseph as the stepfather of faith. In a sense he was the stepfather of Jesus -- not the biological father because You were conceived by the Holy Spirit rather than by a human father, but entrusted to Joseph to “father” You as an expression and extension of Your heavenly Father.
Like many who will read this post, I have been blessed to be a father. Many others reading this post have been blessed to be mothers. You may have been blessed to be fathers and mothers through the birth of your children or by becoming step-parents like Joseph. Or maybe you find yourself in the blessed season of being a grandparent. Either way, I pray that by the grace of God, I as a man can “father”, and those who are a woman can “mother” like Joseph as a man faith and obedience, honor and character, compassion and mercy, led by the Spirit to seek and obey the will of God for my life and to be a godly influence in the lives entrusted to me. I pray the same for each of us called to be an expression and extension of the father or mother heart of God in our world through these times. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
My family, I pray you may be filled and led by the Spirit to walk in faith as an extension and expression of the heart of God in every relationship entrusted to you, in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friends!
