Week Three – Day 1
TODAY’S FAST – After school or work, fast from all media technology including video games, tv, computers, and internet to spend quality time with God and your family.
Devotional:
At the end of Joshua’s life, he looked back and saw how God brought him out of slavery in Egypt, saw him through wandering in the wilderness, helped him conquer a land, and established him in the Promised Land. It was obvious to Joshua that the hand of God had guided his people through the trials, through the discipline, and to their destination. So, in his final address to the people of Israel, Joshua reminds them of who God is and all that God has done for them. He reminds them of the covenant he made to Abraham, how he preserved Jacob, and how he raised up Moses to release them from slavery in Egypt. He brought them to the place of promised blessing. And after all of this, he asks them, “You’ve seen what God can do, will you serve him or other gods?”
In our time, there is perhaps no greater question you must answer. We can look back and see all that God has done. He sent his Son Jesus to reconcile us to himself so we might have forgiveness and abundant and eternal life. He has carried you through difficulties and sustained you by his grace. After all of that, will you and your household abandon him or pursue him wholeheartedly? There are a multitude of pressures and demands on family life. There is confusion and division, and you cannot answer to God for what has shaped our culture in regards to the family. But you will answer for your own actions in shaping your family toward godliness. Are you leading your family in worship? Are you modeling devotion and love? Is the Gospel demonstrated in your family, or are you subservient to the idols of entertainment, selfishness, and materialism? Choose this day, and each day, whom you will serve.
Prayer Focus:
Pray for the care and protection of families; for children to be loved and nurtured by their parents; and for elderly parents being cared for by their adult children. Lord, give me opportunities to speak life and blessing to my family, and to forgive like You have forgiven me. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Key Verse:
“But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” Joshua 24:15 NIV
