Most of us have had moments when we felt a particular need to pray for our family. We trust God to protect and keep our families. We pray that no evil would influence their hearts or lives. We pray for the covering of the blood of Jesus. We trust God for our families when they face times of severe testing or sickness. We trust God and pray because our family was in danger. We take our family to God in prayer when they are not living right. Our life experiences are not much different from people in the Bible.
Job 1:1 NIV84 In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.
Many times I have thought about brother Job. This verse is one of the key verses in his life.
Job was blameless and upright.
Job was a man of complete integrity. He did not claim to be sinless or perfect, but He walked before God without condemnation. I want that to be said about each of us. If you want God’s best and His favor, you should live a blameless and upright life.
Job feared God and shunned evil.
When we fear God, we have respect for Who God is. We put our trust in God’s nature and character. We recognize, know and have seen His power, great grace and wisdom. Job’s relationship with God motivated him to live a holy and good life. Job was a living testimony to everyone he dealt with. He was a wealthy man that was very benevolent to his friends and neighbors.
Job knew what it was like to live under God’s protection.
When Satan came to test and try Job, he said God had a hedge of protection around Job.
God’s blessing was evident in every aspect of Job’s life.
Believers are a great testimony to the world. God has placed us as guideposts and a light to the world. When the world looks at God’s children, they know what it is like to be covered by God’s grace and mercy. You are a living testimony of God’s goodness.
Job 1:2-3 NIV84 He had seven sons and three daughters, and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.
Job’s family was a sign of God’s blessing and favor. Job knew what it was like to be blessed coming and going. He was blessed in the city and in the country. God blessed the fruit of his body, and his herds, cattle, basket, and kneading bowl.
Job was blessed.
We should not apologize when God blesses us. Job was like many people. Although Job served God faithfully, he was concerned about his children. Job’s children did not live an exemplary a life.
Job 1:4 NIV84 His sons used to take turns holding feasts in their homes, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.
Job’s children enjoyed the blessing of their father without the relationship with God. Many people in the world today are just like Job’s children. They have the blessings from Godly parents, but they do not have a true relationship with God.
Job 1:5 NIV84 When a period of feasting had run its course, Job would send and have them purified. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular custom.
You can trust God with your family.
Many people mentioned in the Bible trusted God with their family.
The Bible tells us about a man named Abraham.
God made a covenant with Abraham that included his descendants forever. When God made that covenant promise to Abraham, he did not have a child. Throughout their lives, Abraham and Sarah believed that God would fulfill His promise and give them children. At ninety-nine years old, God appeared to them and said, “Sarah will bear you a son and you will call him Isaac.” God promised to establish His covenant with him and his descendants after him. When Abraham was 100 years old, Isaac was born to Sarah. Some time later, God wanted to test Abraham and see if he really trusted God. In Genesis 22, God spoke to Abraham to offer his only son Isaac to Him on an altar.
Genesis 22:2 NKJV Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”
I have always been impressed with Abraham’s faith and trust in God, but especially with Isaac his son.
Genesis 22:3 NKJV So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.
The story is so full of faith and trust in God. Abraham believed that God “would provide Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” (Genesis 22:7) Abraham knew something about God’s nature and character. He knew that he could trust God with his family. Abraham and Isaac took the fire and wood and built the altar. He bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. He took the knife in his hand to slay his son.
Genesis 22:11-12 NKJV But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” So he said, “Here I am.” And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”
That is what it is like to trust God with your family. He knew that he could trust God with his family.
Hebrews 11:19 NLT Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again. And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead.
You can trust God with your family.
Your faith and trust in God is not in vain.
Genesis 22:13-14 NKJV Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. And Abraham called the name of the place, The-Lord-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
Abraham knew that he could trust God with his family.
He is still Jehovah Jireh, the Lord Who provides. Before we leave Abraham, I want to show you God’s reward for Abraham’s faith and trust.
Genesis 22:16-18 NKJV By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son…blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.
Since Abraham trusted God with the son, God said He would multiply the blessing. Every nation of the earth would be blessed… “because you have obeyed My voice.”
You can trust God with your family.
In the Gospel of John, a nobleman came to Jesus because his son was sick unto death.
John 4:49 NKJV The nobleman said to Him, “Sir, come down before my child dies!”
This man’s action was a transgression to his culture and position. He knew that he could trust God with his family.
John 4:50 NKJV Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your son lives.” So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way.
This story of trusting God is repeated in several individual’s lives.
- The man who had a prodigal son trusted God to bring him home.
- The Shunammite woman believed that her son would come back to life when Elisha the man of God prayed.
- Mary and Martha believed that Jesus could raise their brother Lazarus from the dead.
There are thousands of these testimonies.
Many of us have seen God’s faithfulness with our families. He has saved and healed. He has provided and protected. God has shielded from the enemy. He has raised them from the dead.
You can trust God with your family.
Keep on praying and believing. The Lord your God is faithful to save. He is able to heal the cripple. He can remove cancer and tumors. He can calm stormy and troubled water. He can rescue and deliver.
You can trust God with your family.
Galatians 6:9 NLT So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.
