"To do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." Hebrews 13:16.
As families, are we connected? Are we disfunctional, or in harmony? Do we communicate in a Christian way, or do we communicate selfishly? Do we communicate enough, about enough things? Do we spend enough quantity and quality time together? Do we know and want to know what's really going on with each other? And do we take interest in how each other are doing? Or do we stick with our own things, and then get annoyed when someone gets in the way of what we want to do? Do we really care about each other? Do we go out of our way to help someone else? When we are done with our work or in between jobs, do we ask our parent or sibling, "Hey, what else do you need to do? maybe I can do some of it..."? Do we ask our Savior often in the day, away and at home, "Jesus, what would you do?" There are many questions we could ask ourselves in this regard. Maybe the Lord will bring some to your mind now, or at other times in the future.
Do we have a tendency to not want our family's company, and to not enjoy being with them, neglecting to do good and communicate? Don't we want to live the verse in Hebrews 13, which says, "To do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased."? Now, I have to bring this out: the previous paragraph mentioned family mostly as opposed to individuals. But, do you (as I've been through) ever feel like your family members are the problem, and like you can't make all these good changes because of your family? Or maybe you feel like they are religious but deny the power, and you want nothing to do with being like them at all, so you turn completely to your own way? If so, that's just Satan trying to divide and conquer. One thing that may work on your parents, siblings, etc., but he uses a different attack on you. We ALL are in a warfare no-doubt, and it's up to us as individuals to choose whose side we're on, serving self and Satan, or serving God. We should not wait for our family to change. We should not serve self and choose not to be on Jesus' side just because others aren't doing what we think is right. We should have courage, strength, and zeal, no matter what our different family members are doing. Do we want to add to the dis-unity, or go ahead and dare to take a stand on Christ's side? Some things are more challenging to do as an individual, but Jesus said, "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross , and follow Me. For whosoever will save His life shall lose it: and whosoever will LOSE his life for My sake shall find it." Matthew 16:24-25.
Let's compare the following questions: "What am I doing in my home?" "What could I be doing?" "What am I not doing?" "What can I do in my home, with my individual family members, through Christ who strengthens me?" He says to us, "Freely ye have received, freely give." Matt.10:8. Really, have we been given great light, knowledge, wisdom and so on, freely and undeserved from our selfless Savior? And then selfishly not lived it and not given it to the dear souls we find in our own homes? Why can this be such a hard issue to deal with? Because of the selfishness we may have in it, and because one of the hardest struggles (or maybe the hardest struggle) is to die to self in each area of life, making sure it is totally crucified when it comes to everyday, practical life. I cannot deny that this is a big deal to me. It is vital that I take hold of it in Christ's strength, and one reason is this, "If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from Him, that he who loveth God love his brother also." And this, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 1 John 4:20-21, Matthew 19:19.
If we can be Christians with our families, we can be Christians anywhere. Do you believe that? I see that as really true. I personally think that since that is made possible by Him who loved us, then anything is possible! If we are not as much like Jesus as possible with our current families, what makes us think that we can all the sudden change and have it right in our future homes(if we have future homes) and mission work? That, partly, would be feelings, emotions, and vain imaginings, along with, perhaps, the desire to escape from our home, instead of focusing on God and letting Him teach us the little and big important things. That is not God's way; He has such great wisdom for us, and when we choose to take hold of it and walk in it, listening, trusting, and obeying, great things will happen. We will see ourselves changing, and with God-given faith, hope and most of all love, we will keep fighting the battle, and journey on.
If we did follow our feelings, emotions, and vain imaginings, that would be walking by our own blind sight. But we need to walk by faith. And, when we are walking by faith, we are actually walking by sight, but it's God's sight. We don't see everything when we walk by our own sight, but when we walk by faith, God shows us everything we need to see. That means we must trust Him. And when we do, He will bless us and work wonders in our hearts and lives. He will change our ways of thinking, making us to grow up to be responsible, unselfish, Christlike adults, with straightened-out priorities, mature thoughts and motives, good choices and high aspirations, and nobility. Don't we see that our feelings and emotions are as a roller coaster, and that there is only one safe way to go? The only safe path is to follow Jesus, our good example, our Savior that saves us from our sins, and wants to live out His life within us.
"So let us throw our burdens aside, and take our stand on Jesus' side.
The trees are swaying in the wind. It will be rough and cold, my friend,
But let our courage never fail; we will get through the rain and hail:
Jesus is with us to the end." *
*From a song called Through the Storm--
