How to tell if you're a Family after God's own Heart
One of my favorite things to do with my wife, Jess, is go skiing. We don’t see snow or cold much in Houston, Texas, so we count it a blessing to get to the beautiful mountains of New Mexico or Colorado and spend a week bundled up, skiing through the soft snow.
Since we don’t ski often, we don’t own our own skis. So, we rent. We go to the clubhouse of the ski resort, wait in line, and then rent boots, skis, and a helmet. We don’t rent the skis so that we can just stay there in the clubhouse. It would seem absurd to put on all of our gear just to sit by the fire and drink hot chocolate while we watch others ski through the window. We rent the skis so that we can take them all over the mountain, leaving tracks in the snow on every hill.
In the same way, Jesus doesn’t save us and bless us just so that we can stay in the church house feeling good about our salvation. He blesses us so that we will carry those blessings all over the world leaving tracks of the Gospel on every hill, in every village, in every home to the ends of the earth.
Just like Abraham in Genesis 12, we have been blessed to be a blessing. We have every spiritual blessing as Christians, and that is to overflow in such a way that the nations come to know of the Lord’s salvation.
In the Book of Common Prayer, Psalm 67 is referred to as “A Song of God’s Blessing” and recited at evening prayer. It’s a short chapter, but I would summarize the Psalm by saying, “God’s blessings overflow to the ends of the earth for his glory among the nations.”
This is God’s heart for the nations. The bottom line, the priority, the driving force, the primary purpose of all God does is his glory. God blesses so that salvation will come to the nations so that the nations, all the earth, will know of his way and praise his name. When the peoples, tribes and tongues come to know him as Savior, they come to glorify him as Lord.
The Psalmist cries out, “Let all the peoples praise you.” He shares God’s heart for the nations. He longs to see all peoples praising the Lord.
Are we a people after God’s own heart? Are our homes “homes of worship”? Is our greatest desire to see the nations praising God? Do we demonstrate this passion by worshipping God with all of our hearts? Are our hearts pursuing a genuine time of praise when we gather as a family to worship?
If worship is about us, we are not a family after God’s own heart.
If worship is something we can take or leave, we are not a family after God’s own heart.
If worship is something we think nations can attribute to whatever god they desire and it’s still worship, then we are not a family after God’s own heart.
If worship is something we fail to model for the nations then we are not a family after God’s own heart.
If worship is not a natural overflow of all of the blessings we have received from Christ then we are not a family after God’s own heart.
If worship occurs only when we are comfortable, happy, and pleased with the events of that week, then we are not a family after God’s own heart.
Are we a family after God’s own heart?
If worship is focused on an audience of One, then we are a family after God’s own heart.
If worship is something we refuse to neglect, something we expect to take place every time we get together, then we are a family after God’s own heart.
If worship is only appropriate when given to the One True Living God then we are a family after God’s own heart.
If worship is a natural overflow of the blessings we have received, causing us to leave our homes and go through our communities leaving tracks of the Gospel on every hill, on every valley, then we are a family after God’s own heart; a family that understands the purpose of the skis.
Jonathan Williams is the founder of Gospel Family Ministries and the Senior Pastor of Wilcrest Baptist Church, a multi-ethnic church of 44 nations located in Houston, TX.
