The fight for your family isn’t taking a furlough.
Welcome to the twenty-first century: the age of confusion and chaos in a free-for-all, dilapidated society. If ever Christians needed the peace of God in their hearts and homes, it’s now.
Joshua, the protege of Moses, took a stand for the Lord’s place in society. He boldly declared in Joshua 24:15:
“If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Like Joshua, we’re living a land where options abound. In this land, we too will have to take a stand and predetermine in our hearts that our house will be a house that serves the Lord.
Growing up, my parents would lead us in simple devotionals, at least once a week as a family. This set me on a course for a divine encounter with the Living God.
Family devotional time doesn’t have to be devoid of life and boring. In fact, I’m convinced it should never be boring.
Here are five ideas for a dynamic family devotional time:
1. Play worship music and worship the Lord together. If your kids are small, pick them up and dance to the Lord together! They’ll associate worship with true joy! Our kids are accustomed to hearing us sing our hearts out to the Lord, enraptured in intimate worship. Once, after seeing a devastating news headline, my immediate response was to go the Lord in worship on my guitar. My family walked in and we had a divine, impromptu worship service in our living room!
2. Have a family-focused prayer night. Let every member take turns sitting in a chair in the middle. Let each family member say a prayer over that person. After praying, every member of the family can say how that person is a blessing or encouragement. Do this until everyone is prayed over and blessed. Also, pray together for family needs and watch and journal as God answers!
3. Take family mission trips. You don’t have to go around the world, but ask God, as a family, who the Lord wants your family to minister to and then load up the car and go! Maybe the Lord will give your family a word of knowledge about a single mom in Wal-Mart who can’t afford groceries. Maybe you go to Chic-Fil-A and buy lunch for the family in the car behind you. The point is, the family does it together and it takes family devos out of the house and into the world!
4. Ask everyone to share on a devotional rotation. Make a schedule and let everyone in the family share what the Lord is teaching them. End the time with prayer for each other and a blessing for each member of the family.
5. Have a global-focused prayer night. Turn off the TV and all the lights and light a few candles. Pray about current events. Let the kids mention their friends or even animals who need prayer. Pray over cities that are mentioned in the news. Pray for the President or the Queen of England, but pray together for things outside of yourselves!
Like Joshua, we should make Christ the Lord of our house and our families. Your commitment to devote a night a week to the Lord as a family will leave an indelible mark on your family forever.
M&Y Family! What other ideas do you have for a family devotional time?
Check out this 42 Day Devotional written by founder’s of Married and Young!
Tag: worship
Every pious Christian knows that prayer is an integral aspect of Christianity. Most of us are taught early on that prayer, in its simplest form, is just talking to God. As absolutely true as this is, I want to avoid approaching prayer too lightly. Prayer is a threshold. It is a conference table that we can initiate on-demand. And, our Father is instantaneously there in our midst.
“The family that prays together stays together” is an adage that most of have grown up with. Trite sayings abound on the issue, but I hope to unveil what happens in that secret place. Many of us entered into marriage with an understanding that it is a sacred covenant with God and each other.
What happens when couples pray together is that you, as a couple, are combining your will to align with His will. You invite Him into the day-to-day of your lives and seek His counsel—and fellowship. Together.
What unfolds in this holy conference is beautiful:
1. God’s will becomes clearer. On many occasions, my wife and I approach the Throne of grace together, but confused. Unsure of what to make of the situation, we go to Him and ask Him to intervene or show us what steps to take. In those moments where we do not know whether to turn left or right, the answer, sometimes even extremely practical, becomes abundantly clear to one or both of us and we come away with the peace that transcends understanding. (Philippians 4:7)
2. We begin to see things from God’s perspective. As the two of us submit our wills to His, our aim is that our will conforms to His will. Romans 12:2 talks about this process of conforming our will to His: “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” When we come to Him with hungry hearts and humble submission, we see from His perspective! The goal is to be conformed into Christ’s image. (2 Corinthians 3:18)
3. We’re unified in marriage. Praying as a couple joins us together. Nothing is more attractive to me than to see my wife on her knees, crying out to the Lord to intervene, to bless, to guide, or be present. When we see one another pray, we take one another’s heart cries as our own and contend for them together.
4. We prioritize correctly. When we enter into the secret place as a couple, we catch a glimpse of the fullness of Who He is. Everything comes into proper alignment when a husband and wife engage with the King of the universe. We are able to order our lives in agreement with God’s grandness and our reliance on His power.
5. We are bonded together with a purer bond. As we press more deeply into Him, we together witness the remarkable, unfolding saga of God’s faithfulness to our family in every season. Journal His workings as your family’s stories for generations to read! Also, simply hearing your spouse cry out to the Lord is one of the most beautiful insights into your spouse’s heart and needs.
6. We access Heaven’s resources. Jesus told us that we could ask anything in His name. (John 14:14) When a couple is devoted to Christ, there are no limits to what God avails to two burning hearts, united in love for Christ and one another. The power of agreement (Matthew 18:19) is an unstoppable weapon!
Heaven is eager to act on your behalf. Amazing things await you when you pray together!
“The family that prays together stays together” is one of those priceless, yet tragically overused and underestimated clichés that bombard Christian culture. I despise how numb to the concept of prayer we have become. The staggering truth is that prayer is a weapon of mass destruction to the schemes of the enemy and an instrument of mass con-struction for the good of His children.
Have you looked around lately? Have you noticed how volatile our society is? Do you hear the “wars and rumors of wars” reverberating through the sound bytes? Do you think your spouse isn’t affected? You’re affected by it, aren’t you? Listen to what David says about prayer in Psalms:
“In my distress [when seemingly closed in] I called upon the Lord and cried to my God; He heard my voice out of His temple (heavenly dwelling place), and my cry came before Him, into His [very] ears.” Psalm 18:6 (Amplified Bible)
You owe your spouse the gift of your prayers. Maybe you simply forget, or maybe you don’t yet grasp the impact of your prayers for your spouse.
Let me help: Jesus taught His disciples to pray by giving them an outline, of sorts. You can pray for your spouse using His model! I’ll use my wife for the example below, but try it for yourself using your spouse’s name.
Here’s an easy-to-remember eight step outline for praying for your spouse using the Lord’s Prayer, which you probably already know, found in Matthew 6:9-13:
1. Our Father in Heaven, holy is Your Name. (We enter the conversation with our Father by worshiping Him and declaring Who He is. We call on our Daddy, proclaim how high His authority is—in Heaven, and declare His holiness.
2. Let Your Kingdom come to my spouse. Let Your Kingdom and my wife’s kingdom merge to become one, where You are the King. Give her revelation of her position as Your daughter and empower her in her mission to expand Your Kingdom.
3. Let Your will be done in her life as in Heaven. Lord, help her to walk in Your authority, in the love of her Father in Heaven. Help her to bring Heaven to Earth with every breath and every step.
4. Give her today her daily bread. Provide the spiritual nourishment that she needs today that You have specifically provided for her as her loving Father. Speak to her by Your Word and Your Spirit. Also, provide for our family, Lord, that we may have all that we need.
5. Forgive her of any sins, Lord. Please remind her of anyone that she must forgive.
6. Lead her, Father. Lead her away from situations that cause her to stumble (temptation). Overall, Father, just lead her. Your Word says in Psalm 37:23 that You order the steps of the righteous. Guide her every step, Father.
7. (Here’s where you get to take up the sword!) Deliver her from every detestable and desperate scheme of the powers of darkness, over whom You gave her authority! No weapon formed against her will prosper. (Isaiah 54:17) You have placed Your angels around her. (Psalm 34:7)
8. End it in praise: It’s all about You, Father. This is Your Kingdom, for Your honor and glory. Forever. I commit my wife to you today, into Your hands, Father. I love You. Thank You for the gift of my spouse. In Jesus’ name. Amen
Customize it. Study it further. Make application to your spouse as you intercede, whether you use this model or not. The point is to jump into a lifestyle of intercession for your spouse!
How often do you pray for your spouse? What tools do you use?
Click here for a one time offer that will help you and your spouse have a better prayer life.
1The Holy Bible: The Amplified Bible. 1987. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation
Categories
7 Ways to Survive a Hard Season
“I used to be so bold. I had dreams. Now I’m just a bench warmer.” Such were my thoughts after returning from the mission field. Though we had heard God’s instruction to return home, I carried a sense of failure. I felt like I had laid everything to rest that I had fought so hard for, but I couldn’t explain why. I was feeling tired, invisible, easily offended, discouraged, and extremely cynical.
I wish it weren’t so, but there are just some things we only learn in the wilderness. The wilderness (or some call it the valley) is that special little place where it seems like God is silent, everybody hates you, and everything that can go wrong, will.
All sarcasm aside, we have all experienced it.
When these season fall upon us, every corner of our lives is affected, not excluding marriage. The Bible, in Matthew 4, Mark 1, and Luke 4, tells us how Jesus dealt with the wilderness. Though Jesus’ wilderness experience demonstrated that Jesus is the Son of God, it also created a template for us to grasp in those dry times.
If you’re married, the wilderness will affect either you, your spouse, or both of you. In fact, in my experience, I haven’t been through one of these dry seasons in which my wife wasn’t right there with me, staving off death, right alongside me.
Here are seven facts about the wilderness, your “Spiritual Wilderness Survival Guide”:
1. It’s hard. No sugar-coating, here. If you’re in the wilderness, I know it hurts. The wilderness, either by God’s design, your own, or the enemy’s is very hard. (John 16:33)
2. It’s a season. Ecclesiastes 3 reminds us of the seasons of life for every person. God may have you in your season of the wilderness for a year, maybe two, or maybe just for a few months. Every season varies. We see examples of long seasons of the wilderness (Numbers 32:13) and shorter seasons (Matthew 4, Mark 1, Luke 4). The encouraging takeaway is this: it won’t last forever.
3. God is sovereign. The Gospel accounts of the Lord’s wilderness experience depict a God-ordained wilderness. Maybe you caused your wilderness. Maybe Hell’s assignment against you is ferocious. Or maybe the Lord is developing faith that won’t blow over in the wind on the mountains.
4. Discouragement is your worst enemy in this season. If you find yourself trekking through the lonely valley, discouragement is the enemy’s weapon of choice. He loves to dismantle the notion of divine destiny. He thrives when you heed phantom, irrational fears. Know this: if you’re in the wilderness and you’re discouraged, you are a target. (I Peter 4:12, Hebrews 4:15)
5. Prayer and worship will carry you vast distances. In Acts 16:25-34 Paul and Silas sang in their prison! In my own seasons of the wilderness, worship was not desirous at all. I didn’t want to fabricate love when I didn’t feel it. But this weapon of worship is a game-changer! Worship, even when you don’t feel it, speaks the language of faith, which God pursues! Don’t hold back your song. Pray together, couples! You just may be a song away from the valley to the mountain.
6. Your spouse is not the enemy. In the wilderness moments, when the tension and chaos of life relentlessly infringe on your peace, there’s a tendency for hardness of heart to turn spouses against one another. In our wilderness season, I interpreted my wife’s exhortations as criticism and pretension! Your spouse is not your enemy, that’s a mirage. Your journey in the wilderness is your spouse’s journey in the wilderness. Encourage one another in the Lord!
7. There is war in the wilderness. Jesus didn’t surrender. He knew His authority! With every “right-hook lie” of the enemy, Jesus countered with the Sword of the Spirit — God’s Word! In the wilderness seasons, it may seem like nothing is going right. Your car may break down, your health goes haywire, dissension rises in your family. Rise up, husbands. Don’t despair, wives. Don’t buckle, knuckle up! You’re not a victor, you’re more than a conqueror (Romans 8:37)!
Run to God, cling to your spouse, and fasten your eyes on hope. The wilderness is a season and God has a reason.
What have you learned in the wilderness?