Our Reading: Psalm 128 and Hebrews 5:7-10

The family unit is very important in Scripture. This Psalm was one of the Psalms sung as families would travel together to Jerusalem to attend one of the yearly feasts. God’s Word places great emphasis on the importance of having fear and reverence for God as the foundation of a blessed and fruitful family. 

“Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways!” ‭‭(v1‬) There is a caveat to be found in the Psalm, however, to warn us that we have to be willing to not just talk the talk but walk the walk and put forth some intentional effort if we expect fruitful results.

“You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.” (v2)

As a child raised in a home that was largely based on conflict between what was taught and what was lived out, I know firsthand the confusion and pain that this can cause. But, I also was blessed to witness the opposite situation from spending a lot of time in my Grandmother’s home where I got to see the genuine labor of my Grandmother’s hands plant many fruitful seeds in my heart. 

It is very important to be genuine and consistent in living your convictions. This doesn’t mean you have to be perfect but it means that you should humbly repent and apologize when you falter and you should seek God’s help in your endeavors. If you are not genuine in your Christian walk, you may fool people on the outside but you won’t fool those closest to you and you certainly won’t fool God.  The harm that can be done to your spouse and children and even future generations is not to be taken lightly.

“It is idle to talk of fearing the Lord if we act like those who have no care whether there be a God or no. God’s ways will be our ways if we have a sincere reverence for him: if the heart is joined unto God, the feet will follow hard after him.” (Spurgeon)

“Your own family circle knows whether Christ lives in you and through you.”

Billy Graham

A man ought to live so that everybody knows he is a Christian... and most of all, his family ought to know. - Dwight L. Moody

No family is perfect and God can certainly mend broken family dynamics. It’s never too late to turn relationships around and heal wounds of the past. I have seen God do just that with one of my parents and I am still hopeful that I will see Him perform a miracle of restoration with my other parent. It comforts me to read this Psalm and see that a unified and thriving family is what God ultimately desires too. 

So as the women in our families, what can we contribute.

If we are mothers and are raising our children:

“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs‬ ‭22‬:‭6‬ ‭

If we are wives: “Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table.” (v3) Although being fruitful often means bearing children, there are so many other ways of bearing fruit and enriching the lives of our homes.

“Good wives are also fruitful in kindness, thrift, helpfulness, and affection: if they bear no children, they are by no means barren if they yield us the wine of consolation and the clusters of comfort.” (Spurgeon)

As women, we have many roles, including being wives, mothers, daughters, aunts, cousins, nieces, friends, etc. Whatever “our” family is composed of, our role is to fear God and allow the love and glory of Christ to shine through us so that we can know His blessings and our families can be blessed as well. Fearing God means that we live by His standards, and walk daily with Him.

“We need to place God at the center of our family . . . As a family, we need to walk with God daily.” -Billy Graham

Reflection: 

1. Think about your family growing up. Did you have the blessing of people in your life who feared God and walked daily with Him? How do you think having that or not having that impacted you?
2. Are you in need of reconciliation in your family? Do you pray for your loved ones and for God to mend and restore what is broken?
3. Do you put God as the center of “your” family now? Would those closest to you know that you truly feared God and let His Word guide your life? 

Prayer: Father, we are part of Your family and we know that the unity of the family unit is very important to You. We pray for Your help to encourage and inspire our loved ones to fear and honor You as we try to live those principles with the help of Your Spirit. We pray for healing and restoration for any broken or wounded relationships. We know that through our obedience, You can bless our families. May we grow in the love of Christ and extend it humbly to one another.

Some reject the gift of grace to save us. They argue that it becomes a person’s free ride to indulge in sin.  They add on works and human effort to feel that they are earning their righteous standing with God. They try to master their sin on their own and portray to the world that they are a “good” person. But, in truth, if we mortal humans aren’t good enough to gain our salvation, how could we be good enough to sustain it. Only Christ can save us and break the hold of sin over us. A believer recognizes their desperate need for Christ to give them a spiritual heart transplant and newness of life. 

“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin.” Romans 6:1-7

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When Christ was crucified, he broke the dominion of sin over man. Now, all believers join in that experience. Christ’s crucifixion death becomes our death. Our sinful nature gets crucified too. Sin may vex us but it will not dominate us. When Christ was resurrected, we were also spiritually resurrected to new life. God takes out our heart of stone that is only self seeking and gives us a new heart that is alive and pulsing with desire to glorify Him. We are saved by His abundant grace and from the moment we accept His spiritual breath of life, He is at work to mold us and make us more and more into the image of His beloved Son. This is not something that we can do for ourselves. It is a process that we need only to surrender to. Everyday He is at work within our circumstances, our emotions, our experiences and our deepest desires. We must let Him do His work. It may require hard times and struggles but God will prevail. He will dig out and uproot every enticement of sin in our lives. 

I have now to serve him and delight myself in him, and use the power which he gives me of calling others from the dead, saying, "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." I am not going back to the grave of spiritual death nor to my grave-clothes of sin; but by divine grace I will still believe in Jesus, and go from strength to strength, not under law, not fearing hell, nor hoping to merit heaven, but as a new creature, loving because loved, living for Christ because Christ lives in me, rejoicing in glorious hope of that which is yet to be revealed by virtue of my oneness in Christ. - Spurgeon