The Family was the first thing established and ordained by God between humans. Look it up! It’s in Genesis 1:26-28 (I’ll let you do that yourself). So is it a wonder that’s usually the thing that Satan attacks? And he doesn’t attack it with outright evil: that would be too obvious. No, the enemy feeds it to us in small doses, as he knows that too much would alert us to his plan. The name Satan means deceiver or tempter, and deception is exactly how he tries to draw us further and further from God. This is why Deuteronomy says “Hear and obey: you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, mind, and strength.” It’s why Jesus said this is the first and greatest commandment.
Loved ones, I see the things I pursue and wonder if I should be; sure, they’re harmless enough on the surface, but my hobbies, my entertainment, the things I seek soon become my passion instead of God. This is most apparent when seeing my children in their pursuits. There is nothing bad they’re seeking after, but, and this is partially due to my example, they seek things other than Him most of the time. There’s time filled, but is it filled with Christ? IN my years of ministry, I’ve seen it in family after family. Church is important, but it's what we do, not who we are, and, generationally, it becomes less and less of a priority, until it’s not one at all.
God knows our frame. He knows the things, issues, hobbies, entertainments, and all the things that capture our attention, and, much of the time, our hearts. He saw Israel rebel against Him time and again throughout their 40 year journey in the wilderness, often AFTER they had seen His signs and wonders. Jesus saw the people endear themselves to His miracles, but reject His teachings. This is why we need to pursue God with everything we are: we get distracted too easily! Not that we shouldn’t enjoy the gifts God has given us, we should, BUT we should make sure God is at the center of it all. If we’re pursuing God as we go on family outings, as we go throughout our day, as we work, as we go to do our shopping, as we drive our vehicles, perhaps our spouses and our children will too? If we want our kids and grandkids to pursue Christ, we must do so, fully and completely, so that they will see our example and follow it. Otherwise, God becomes the first of many, not the one and only, and we become idolaters, whether or not we think that’s what we’re doing. Pursue God with all your heart, mind and soul. He will set everything in order from there.
Deuteronomy 6:1-9
“Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the LORD your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, that you may fear the LORD your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Matthew 6:25-33
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
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