Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs
SIGNS OF A TURNED HEART continued.
2. A TURNED HEART INVOLVES CHANGED PRIORITIES
Next to God, who is without doubt the highest priority, a man’s wife and family is his highest priority.
1 Timothy 5:8 says: “But if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” Even though a man may mentally agree with the high degree of family priority, it may not necessarily translate into action. It takes more than agreement to accomplish the result. A man who has a bad valve in his heart may agree with his doctor that he needs an operation. However, his agreement must be backed up with action to get the job done.
James 1:22-25 says: “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”
It takes the divine Elijah anointing to turn hearts. Malachi 4:5, 6 says: “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.”
Just as mental agreement is not sufficient to make one a good parent, desire can also be insufficient unless we submit our desires to God’s enabling. Agreement and desire both need to be bathed before God in earnest prayer.
Some men think that so long as God sees they AGREE that parenting should be a high priority and they DESIRE to be a better parent, that this should be enough. And yet they still drop their children off at daycare centers. They continue to let the state (with all its ungodly, worldly agenda, plus the uncontrolled peer pressure of the playground) teach their children. There is something wrong with this mindset.
Mental agreement and uncommitted desires that do not result in righteous actions to materialize godly priorities will not “cut it” in these critical days.
It is high time for each one of us who call ourselves Christian parents to take a fresh stock on just how our top priorities affect our families, right now.
Is there anything today in my life that hinders my family from being my highest priority, next to God?
Be encouraged,
Colin Campbell
