I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. John 15:15 (NLT)
Family Pursuits
Our families are all very unique and they all have different pursuits in this life which family members spend a lot of time, money and energy pursuing. Our hearts get so stirred up and passionate about our life adventures, all the things we are trying to master and all the things we want and have not yet gotten. We pursue a lot of things as a family, but how much time do we put into getting and being in a friendship with God, a vital-vertical relationship? God wants our families to pursue His God Adventures. It is the heart desire of God to be an incredible friend to our families.
“We should not be satisfied until we are brought to this, that we know the Lord Jesus Christ experimentally, habitually to be our Friend: at all times, and under all circumstances, ready to prove Himself to be our Friend.” Author~GeorgeMueller
Highest Family Attainment
What is the highest attainment that your family is growing towards? Does it involve God and His Kingdom or is it all about this world and its temporary gains? The greatest thing we could achieve in this life is a friendship with God and He holds it out to us with no pre-existing prerequisites needed. God’s friendship is so unconditional and He is ready for us to attain the highest and best friendship that we could ever reach for. God is a friend to our family, a constant, reliable, trustworthy, present friend.
“Cultivate the habit of speaking aloud to God. Not perhaps always, because our desires are often too sacred or deep to be put into words. But it is well to acquire the habit of speaking to God as to a present friend while sitting in the house or walking by the way. Seek the habit of talking things over with God — your letters, your plans, your hopes, your mistakes, your sorrows and sins. Things look very differently when brought into the calm light of His presence. One cannot talk long with God aloud without feeling that He is near.” Author~F.B. Meyer
https://youtu.be/ALvNy7GNeJk
Family Life Is God Inclusive
We should strive to know God better as a family and include Him and the pursuit of His will and ways in our family life. His truth should be at the center of our family passion and should drive the motives, moods, atmosphere of our family’s home. Every pursuit that we are pursuing should have a kingdom purpose, always including the ways of God’s kindness, sharing, wisdom, and great commission to reach people, to point people to Him, to love people like He loved them. Even a family backyard barbeque can be used to bring God into the center of our lives. There is nothing that our families do, that should not include Him. He should be in the all of our everything, like it is natural for us to live with a supernatural, miraculous edge from family to family as we walk with Him at the center of our families. When God is included in our family living, we get the opportunity to know the joy of leaning hard on our friendship with God, as we endure and grow through our life situations with Him, and He increases our faith, our belief, our trust in Him, our family life thrives. We must be families who are busy growing in God, in friendship with God which is what He desires most from our family, because His heart desires so much that our family thrives because He created us to thrive in our family life.
“Constantly choosing to be busy may be an unconscious attempt to have value before the Lord. To deepen requires exactly the opposite! We must slow down, choosing to spend blocks of time with God in private. We need to let go of the value we place on service, availability and busyness and take up the value God places on quietness, trust and peace (rest). We need to be aware of being too needed in any work; we are not! God calls us not foremost to “accomplish,” but to a deep relationship with Himself. A deep friendship with us as persons is what He desires most.” Author~Dr Standford
Families Growing With God
Families grow through various trials, some big, some everyday little, yet it is these trials that help our faith grow and cause us to lean into God’s Sovereign Sway. Difficult times in our family life does cause us to learn the discipline, patience and courage of faith and we do get to know the faithfulness, power and love of God better, as we cling to Him and dig our life roots deeply in His Kingdom. Our friendship with God increases by leaps and bounds when our dependence on Him during the trials of this life, is at its greatest measure in that wholly-holy completely kind of way God loves. When this happens, we will see a really big increase in our friendship with God, He becomes our best friend in this world and we are more disciplined and fruit bearing family.
The capacity for knowing God enlarges as we are brought by Him into circumstances which oblige us to exercise faith; so when difficulties beset our path, let us thank God that He is taking trouble with us, and lean hard on Him. Author~L. B. Cowman
Pray For Your Family
Selah! Stop and pray! Take some time right now to pray for each member of your family, call them out by name to God as you listen to this song called Make Me Glad by Hillsong.
A Family Prayer
Lord Jesus, You are the shield, strength, fortress, shelter and strong tower of our family, we look to You, we ask You to be at the center of the all of our everything. Lord cause us to exercise our faith, lean hard into You. Help us to trust You at all times with our family. Father God may the faith of this family increase as we stand courageously trusting and believing in You. Jesus, you are the Solution to every situation this family faces and You are also the victory of our faith.
Holy Spirit, I pray you add to the faith of this family discipline to wait on you, may we always walk in trust and may our patience keep us from impulsively making our own way. I pray this family will always be in the followship of Your Holy Spirit from every moment into ever choice. Lord Jesus, increase our friendship with You, may You be at the center of all this family does, may we learn to love Your Presence and cultivate an unshakeable friendship with You.
Lord Jesus, open our mind to You and may we be completely openhearted to You, stir up our hearts with a passion for all things You and Your Kingdom. We want to know You personally as a family and have a strong vital-vertical relationship with You. You have given us a truly remarkable gift, a family gift that continue to bless this family from generation to generation and that gift is dependence upon You.
Holy Father God, lean this family into Your Sovereign Sway, increase our friendship with You, may our faith stand strong through all the trials of this fallen world as we stir up the courage in the heart of this family by the Power of Your Holy Spirit. Jesus may trust in You rise passionately as we reach the highest attainment of personal relationship with You that is possible and we face every challenge of life with Your purposes in play. AMEN!
“Commitment to a routine of frequent prayer is a statement that I put God first whether I feel like it or not. It also says my prayer time is my response to a divine initiative. God has first come to me with an offer of friendship.” Author~Glen Argan
Family Life was written by the author of The Bridegrooms Café, KimberlyMac. I come from a very large family and over the years we have “grown through” our life situations with the help of God. God bless you MUCH. Please share this with other families, let’s get this word out to them, so they too can be equipped by God with an understanding of how important it is for their family to have a great friendship with God. Use your social media to do so with the button below. Please leave a comment to encourage others, share about your family, so others learn and grow in God’s family dynamics. Thank you!