If Nothing Else, Give Them Jesus

If you’re looking for great action/adventure stories, you can’t go wrong with the books of Joshua and Judges. There you’ll find miraculous, epic tales, one right after another of how God fought for His people and faithfully kept His word to them no matter what they were up against or how many times they turned their backs on Him. (Be warned though, there are some pretty gruesome, wild events in there that leave you wondering what on earth you just read!)

Even as a young man, Joshua took God at His word, believing He would do just as He said He would. We first see the heart of this young man in the book of Numbers when 12 men are sent to scout out threats in the Promised Land. While 10 men cowered in fear, telling Moses that there was no possible way they could fight the enemies that were in the land, Joshua and Caleb assured Moses it could be done with God. Wow.

It was this faith, trust, and “all is possible with God” belief that secured Joshua as the next leader of God’s people when Moses passed away. God saw him, and God called him out to lead His people. And lead he did. Battle after battle, keeping God’s commandments, he fought until his body wore out with age. In his final word of encouragement, and spurring on to trust God, Joshua left his people with some words that really challenged me:

But if it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served, which were beyond the Euphrates River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15

Choose for yourself today who you will serve. It’s a question so powerful you literally have to give it a moment to flow over you. Who will you serve? 

In a previous blog post, A Beautiful Invitation to a Life Set Apart, we looked at what it means to be set apart—not what we think it looks like, but what God says it means. And the question of who we will serve fits right into that because you can’t serve two masters. A choice, a million little choices are being made in our lives each and every day. Each moment we have the choice to live set apart for God or to be of this world. 

In Joshua’s final speech, he built up his people, reminding them of God’s past faithfulness, encouraging them to keep their eyes set on God, and God alone, instructing them to not even look to the right or the left, and soon after, he died.

This takes us to the book of Judges. As I began to read, I quickly learned that in the years following Joshua’s death to the beginning of that book, a tragedy had taken place. One that I’d never heard anyone talk about before. It says…

All that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and another generation rose up after them who did not know the Lord, nor even the work which He had done for Israel. 

Judges 2:10

What?! How? How could that be? 

How could one generation see the very hand of God miraculously at work on their behalf, have their lives changed by Him, live in the peace and security He alone provided, pass away, and their kids know nothing about the God of their parents? To me, the only logical explanation for this could be that they weren’t told. The stories were not passed down from the parents to their children. I mean, how could they have not told their kids?

Before we go on though, I think it’s important to take a look at the word “know” used in this verse, because understanding the meaning of this word will really help shed some light on how they got into this predicament in the first place and will help us answer the question of how an entire generation could not know about the God of their parents. 

The Hebrew word for “know” is yada (Strong’s #3045) and the list of what this tiny word encompasses in its meaning is wild! But let’s look at just a few of the definitions:

• acquainted 
• aware
• clearly understand 
• cohabit 
• experienced
• familiar friend
• instructed 
• intimate friends
• investigate 
• know with certainty 
• know assuredly 
• observed 

And in my opinion, most importantly: 

• to know (properly, to ascertain by seeing).

As we can see by the word definition, the next generation likely did not know God due to many factors, but if you look at all the ways they didn’t “know” Him, (they weren’t acquainted with Him, they didn’t clearly understand Him, He wasn’t any kind of friend of theirs), I think it’s likely safe to assume that they didn’t know Him because they did not “ascertain by seeing”, meaning they did not observe Him, they were not instructed about Him, they didn’t have any experiences with Him, and they did not witness God being lived to them.

And this really got me thinking, does this same thing happen today?

As I contemplated this question, friends of mine began coming to my mind—friends who I know have experienced deep fellowship and intimacy with God throughout their lives, who set the world aside in their younger years to pursue God, who faithfully serve in their churches—some even in leadership, and yet they have wept privately with me because they don’t know where their children are at spiritually. They confide that their kids don’t talk to them, that they are disrespectful to them, and simply put, that they have no interest in knowing God. 

Why? 

How?

When I heard these stories my heart broke for them. There isn’t anything much more terrifying to me than the thought of my son turning his back on God, or worse, realizing he doesn’t even know Him. 

And please know, this is not to judge and point the finger, this is a call to me and you. It’s to stir each other's spirits to keep running the race, it’s to not be deceived that our kids will find God on their own, it’s to not forget the crucial role we play in our children's lives—a life or death role in fact! And it’s a role we as parents are called to, not school, not even church, it begins with us in our homes every day. It’s a reminder to us all to join in prayer for each other, asking God to build us up in heart, soul, and spirit so that we might fight tirelessly the most important battle we will fight in our lives—the fight for our children's lives. 

The world never stops calling to us, and it will obliterate any of the Godly priorities you might have if you let it! It reminds me of a James Dobson quote I learned from my parents, one that really impacted them as they raised me: “We are so busy giving our children what we never had that we forget to give them what we did have.” For those blessed to grow up in a Christian home, what we did have of importance was Jesus, and if you came to know Christ later in life, you have Him now, He is now the most valuable thing you have to build your house upon.

I’d love it if I had some how-to list for you, or a 5-step plan for results, but I don’t. So, how do we give Jesus to our kids? We live Him to them. It always starts with us first. And we can’t give them what we don’t have. And if we’re honest, it’s kind of crazy to expect them to live a way we ourselves have no desire to live. After all, they will do as we do, not as we say. Kids have a great ability to see through hypocrisy. 

We as parents have been entrusted with our children by God. And yes, while it’s important to feed and clothe them, to make sure they get good grades, get to bed on time, be independently able to care for themselves one day, and ultimately grow up to be “good” people, those things are all secondary. They were given to us by God, for God. So what will happen if we don’t teach them about Him? 

Without God life is scary, anxiety-inducing, and most of all, confusing, and we see in this world today the toll that the depths of confusion can take on kids. It’s imperative that we set our children on the firm foundation of God, ensuring they know who He is, how He feels about them, who He says they are, what He’s promised them, what they can count on from Him, and then every day, tell them how God is showing up for you in every way, big and small. Help them build a list of God’s faithfulness so long that they will have no doubt that He is, in fact, everything He says He is so that when they face tough times when they’re out there in this world without you, they will be able to connect the dots back to the God of their parents. And when they struggle to have faith, they will bring before their God your faith, the faith they witnessed, and God will prove Himself faithful, showing them that they have given their lives to a God that never failed their parents, and so they can trust He will be faithful to them too.

Throughout Scripture, we are told that the way we live will have a direct impact on the generation that follows. Did you know that how you live will directly impact your kids spiritually? Did you know that there are promises to those who love God that extend not just to them, but to their children? 

Proverbs 20:7 says, “A righteous person who walks in his integrity—how blessed are his sons after him.” 

And Deuteronomy 11:18-21, “Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.” 

If you haven't given your kids Jesus, or if you’re unsure of where they are at spiritually, it’s not too late, take heart that it’s never too late. The prayers of a parent are important in their child's life. A quick search through Scripture will show you that time and time again, before glory was brought to God through someone's life, it was often the mother who stepped out in faith first and honored her promise to make sure her child would know God.  

As moms, our domain is our home. May we fill it in such a way that our children will “ascertain by seeing” the Lord God Almighty that we serve. Fill your home with Scripture-based music, read the Word of God, bless your children before they leave your home and head out into this dark world, pray for your kids without ceasing—pray in their doorways while they sleep, pray as you watch them play, or do homework, or drive down the driveway. And moms, talk about Jesus every chance you get. Tell your kids how God is showing up in your life, how you needed Him and He was there, how He did something for you that you couldn’t have ever done on your own. Draw close to God, leave this world behind, and let Him show you who He wants to be to you. This is how you will hold back the darkness for your kids and how you will bring them to Jesus. 

Lastly, here are 4 (of the many) things I pray every morning:

1. That God will make me the parent that my child needs. Not a “good” mom by the world's standards, but a “good” mom to my child, the mom God knows he needs.
2. That God will give me wisdom and discernment in my parenting. He has been so faithful to equip me in moments I didn’t see coming where later I literally thought, How did I know how to handle that? How did I know just what to say? (And remember, when you’re kids thank you for being what they needed, make sure to tell them the truth, it was their loving Heavenly Father who always knows exactly what they need!)
3. That the Holy Spirit will be at work in my child’s life, desiring and working for God’s good pleasure (Philippians 2:13). After all, this is something only the Holy Spirit can do.
4. That God would use every circumstance of my child’s life for his spiritual good (Romans 8:28).

We are in the middle of a war. And the war is not hidden like it once was. Just outside your door is a battlefield, blatant and raging. Be on alert that your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking to devour your child—yes, it’s that serious (1 Peter 5:8). Fight for your children, and give them Jesus. If you give them nothing else, give them Jesus. 

“Now then, do away with the foreign gods which are in your midst, and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.” 

Joshua 24:23

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Blog post - A Beautiful Invitation to a Life Set Apart

Podcast episode 88 - Part 10 Walking Through the Bible: Judges

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