Footing #4 - Connection (to Christ)

So many people are always looking for the “silver bullet” to fix their family problems. They believe that if the pastor or podcaster or “self-help guru” can simply give them a “formula,” they can heal their family issues. What pastors have seen over the years is that many people are not willing to “put the work” into their spiritual healing. Instead, most are looking for the easy way or the “quick fix.” The Bible is not a hard book to understand in its most important principles. In fact, it’s quite simple. If you want to “heal your family issues,” you need to have a real and vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ – one that is growing and teachable. As a person abides in Christ, he will stop looking at his spouse or child as the cause of his problems. In deep-rooted “soul searching,” he will begin to understand that HE IS THE ONE that needs to change…first. He will stop “blame-shifting,” and he will humbly look to be more like the Christ who saved his soul. What a person needs is NOT to “ask Jesus into his heart”; he needs to make Jesus LORD OVER HIS LIFE! The greatest gift that you could ever give to your family is to love Jesus more than you love them. At first glance, that seems to be incorrect and even confusing, but remember, Jesus has purpose meant just for you. If your family member is in-tuned to the heart of God, he or she will only encourage that growth in you. When Jesus met with his disciples before dying on The Cross, he made sure to explain to them not only how much he loved them but also what he expected from them. For our families, we want to see results, and so did Jesus with his disciples. He reminded them that they had not chosen him, but he chose them. With that choice, he expected them to “produce the results” of discipleship. Not much is different in a family, a man and woman choose each other and then have children by their own volition. Children are expected to obey their parents, and spouses are expected to respect one another. What each member of your family needs most is a convicting and committed relationship with Jesus Christ. It’s only then that anger, bitterness, pride, guilt, disobedience, and everything else in between can be truly and wholly resolved.