Good morning!
Welcome to your morning coffee! May our Heavenly Father help us to see exactly what sort of family we belong to. Do we belong to a family that loves him? Or are we all sort of drifting on autopilot? Hoping the right decisions get made eventually and that someone at church will make sure everything ends up all right? Father, convict us of the foolishness that leads us to refusing to accept the responsibility you've laid upon us to serve you and lead each other in serving you. Father, in the name of your son Jesus, help us as households, to love and serve you. On your terms. Not our own.
Your Morning Song: "As For Me" by Rend Collective
Your Morning Scripture: Joshua 24:15
But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
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Do you understand that each of us must choose for our own families which God we will serve, as a family? Do we, as fathers, choose for our family who we will serve? Or do we each deal with our own personal walk with the Lord and allow the others in our family to decide for themselves and to deal with themselves. Do we abdicate the Godly authority given to us and allow our family to wander off into the darkness without our protection and love?
This is disgusting, ungodly, wicked, selfish, and cowardly.
Fathers, choose for your households who you will serve and obey. Choose God. You cannot choose for your children and wife whether or not they will actually believe. But you can choose to create in your home a place where God is honored and obeyed. And your words will sit atop your actions. Your wife and your children will see the truth in your living whether or not you have chosen to dedicate your household to God.
Your pastor and elders can't do this for you. And yet, for some time now the sentiment of, "the pastor or elders will do it" has been growing like a cancer.
We can't lead your household for you. Only you can, fathers. And I know this is hard. It can be the most difficult thing we've ever done, to lead our household according to God's Will. But it is worth it. And not only is it worth it, but it is the only right way to be the husband and father. All else is foolishness and failure.
So perhaps you and your household do not currently serve God. Fathers, you might ask, "what can I do?" Mothers and children in such a household, you too might be asking the same sort of question, "what can I do?"
If you are a father, here's what you can do. Take this all seriously. Remember your vows to your wife and to God. And repent. Repent to God. Repent to your wife. Repent to your children. And make the world-changing shift today, of serving the lord as a household. Pray with and for your family. Talk about God with them. Read the bible with them. Go to church with them. Sing the worship songs so that they can hear you. Make whatever changes you need to make to honor and obey God with your whole family, your whole household.
If you are a mother, here's what you can do. Take this all seriously. And pray for your husband who has not led as he was supposed to. He still isn't. Pray for him. Ask him how you can pray for him. Love him and honor him and reveal to him your need for him to fulfill his role. And pray for him. And then let your life be so Godly that your husband cannot escape God's gracious love for him.
If you are a child, here's what you can do. Take this all seriously. And pray for your father and your mother. Love them and honor them and respect them. It doesn't mean things will necessarily change, but you will be changed if you love your family like Jesus loves us. With gentleness and self-sacrifice. And as you love your parents, decide for yourself that even if your parents will not serve God on his terms, you will. And prepare yourself for the day when you will have a household of your own, whether as husband or wife. And then take up the challenge laid down here in Joshua, and also again by Jesus, where we can all as God's children cry out, "Father, not my will by yours be done in me!"
Let us be known as people who choose to honor God as families. We cannot do this without God's help. But our Father in Heaven is always willing to help us obey the commands he has set before us.
Who do you serve? Who does your household serve? Is it God? Or have you let the responsibility slide off to someone else, hoping it will all eventually get figured out? It won't. Unless you make the hard choice and do the hard work to honor and obey God.
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