Influencing Our Families
Jacob was led by God to return to Bethel, the place where he met God as he fled from Esau. He did not go by himself. He took his family. He was planning to build an altar to worship God, and I believe, he was hoping God would appear to him again. That is what happened. However, before he went, he told his family to get right with God, too.(Genesis 35:2) This shows us that the head of the family needs to take responsibility to lead his family to be right with God.
Often, people say that it is hard to witness to family or to influence our family members for the Lord, but should that really be the case? Our families are the ones we love the most. We should have the closest relationships with them. If we do, we can influence them better than we can anyone else. However, the problem is that we do not really have close relationships with our family members. That is why we are afraid to talk with them. We are afraid they won't listen, and it will hurt our relationship, so we don't say or do anything to lead them closer to the Lord. That is not God's will.
We need to live so our families see the Lord working in our lives. They should see the changes, as we grow in the Lord. Then, we should show our love for them so much that they know we sincerely want the best for them. If those things are true, we can talk with them about their relationship with the Lord and anything they need to do to get right with Him. We need to do what Jacob did. We need to help our families put away false gods that come between them and the Lord, as well as purifying themselves of other things that prevent them from drawing near to God. Then, we can all come to worship the Lord in Spirit and Truth together.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Genesis 37-40.
Often, people say that it is hard to witness to family or to influence our family members for the Lord, but should that really be the case? Our families are the ones we love the most. We should have the closest relationships with them. If we do, we can influence them better than we can anyone else. However, the problem is that we do not really have close relationships with our family members. That is why we are afraid to talk with them. We are afraid they won't listen, and it will hurt our relationship, so we don't say or do anything to lead them closer to the Lord. That is not God's will.
We need to live so our families see the Lord working in our lives. They should see the changes, as we grow in the Lord. Then, we should show our love for them so much that they know we sincerely want the best for them. If those things are true, we can talk with them about their relationship with the Lord and anything they need to do to get right with Him. We need to do what Jacob did. We need to help our families put away false gods that come between them and the Lord, as well as purifying themselves of other things that prevent them from drawing near to God. Then, we can all come to worship the Lord in Spirit and Truth together.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Genesis 37-40.