Where to live, what work to take, how to raise the children, what comes into the home through the screen, how to spend the evenings and the money: these feel like private family decisions, and many Christian families make them without ever asking God. But a home that invites Jesus to the table, to every decision and not only to Sabbath worship, is building on rock. This study looks at God’s plan for the family and why letting Him lead is the wisest choice a family can make.
A Bible study · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 5 min read
Where Everything Begins
“The restoration and uplifting of humanity begins in the home. The work of parents underlies every other. Society is composed of families, and is what the heads of families make it.”
Ellen G. White · The Ministry of Healing, p. 349
Jesus Himself spent thirty of His thirty-three years in a family home in Nazareth, working with His hands and living an ordinary family life. God chose to show the world what He is like first of all inside a family.
“Home should be made all that the word implies. It should be a little heaven upon earth, a place where the affections are cultivated instead of being studiously repressed.”
Ellen G. White · The Adventist Home, p. 15
Except The LORD Build The House
“Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.”
Psalm 127:1
It is possible to work hard, earn well, buy the right house and give the children every advantage, and still labor “in vain.” The difference is who is building. And the biggest danger is not open rebellion. It is simply leaving God out of the ordinary decisions:
“A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.”
Proverbs 16:9
We plan; God directs. The intelligent family plans with Him, not around Him. He promises wisdom to anyone who asks:
“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”
James 1:5
Take the job that pays more but leaves no Sabbath? Move to the city or the country? Which school? Which friends? What goes on the screen? None of these are too small to pray about, and every one of them shapes the souls in the home. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33).
As For Me And My House
Joshua made the decision for his household publicly, whatever anyone else chose:
“And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
Joshua 24:15
God said of Abraham, “I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD” (Genesis 18:19). And Moses told parents how faith is passed on, not in a class once a week, but in everyday life:
“And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”
Deuteronomy 6:6-7
Invite Him To The Table
The painting at the top of this page takes its name from an old table prayer: “Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest.” The artist painted what the prayer asks for. Jesus stands in a poor family’s kitchen, and the father welcomes Him in. That is what family worship is: morning and evening, inviting Jesus into the home for real.
“There are homes where this principle is carried out—homes where God is worshiped and truest love reigns. From these homes morning and evening prayer ascends to God as sweet incense, and His mercies and blessings descend upon the suppliants like the morning dew. A well-ordered Christian household is a powerful argument in favor of the reality of the Christian religion—an argument that the infidel cannot gainsay.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 144
The Sabbath gives every family a weekly day to do this without hurry (see The Bible Sabbath).
Parents And Children
“Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”
Ephesians 6:1-4
Children are to honor and obey. Fathers are told not to “provoke” them, or as Paul says elsewhere, “lest they be discouraged” (Colossians 3:21). Firmness and tenderness together reflect the way our heavenly Father raises us.
“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
Proverbs 22:6
Turning The Hearts
The very last words of the Old Testament are about families, and they are a last-days promise:
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”
Malachi 4:5-6
Before Jesus comes, God will be at work turning parents toward their children and children toward their parents. Reconciliation at home is part of preparing for heaven.
When Your Family Is Not What It Should Be
Not everyone has a Christian home. Some are the only believers in their families; some have no family at all. God has not overlooked you:
“God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land.”
Psalm 68:6
Jesus said, “whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother” (Mark 3:35). The church is meant to be a family for everyone who has none. (See My Brother In Christ!, and if you are longing for Christian fellowship, Hearth Moments, the weekly webcam meeting hosted on this site.)
Keep Studying
- God’s Design For Marriage
- Family
- My Brother In Christ!
- Hearth Moments
- The Bible Sabbath
- The Health Message
