Day 245
Matthew 12:50 NIV
"For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother."
When Jesus was told that His mother and brothers wanted to speak with Him, He responded that His true relatives were those who did His Father's will. At that time in His life, Jesus' earthly family had difficulty accepting His ministry. Most people hold their families dear in their hearts and desire acceptance, approval and warm fellowship with them. Depending on the circumstances, this desire can be a help or a hindrance. In Jesus' case, his desire for a positive relationship with His family would have been a hindrance, if He had allowed it to influence his ministry. So, He chose to focus on His eternal family, instead of his temporal relatives.
When we accept that our real family members are the persons who do the will of God, and we focus our desire for acceptance, approval and fellowship toward them, it will be easier to fulfill the plan of God for our lives. Those who are headed in the same direction as we are will not be a hindrance to our doing the will of God. They will instead be an encouragement to us as we all share the same aim - to please God above everyone else. There are no positive results to look forward to when we are against God's will. Those who do not desire God's will or do not understand it will not benefit from our compromising the call of God to gain their approval.
At the end of Jesus' earthly ministry, after he died and rose again, His earthly family accepted Him and became a part of His continuing ministry on earth. If He had denied His mission to make them happy, He would have failed God, Himself and His family. We must trust God to open the eyes of our relatives, while we pursue the work He has called us to do. Until they have a change of heart, we must realize that compromising will never bring blessing, if it entails disobedience to God. We will help no one.
Christians have missed God by yielding to the pull of relatives to do the wrong things, or to be in the wrong places at the wrong time, and no one profited when they were finished. What they did was not necessarily sinful. They just missed doing what God wanted them to do, according to His divine plan. We may have struggled with the question: "What will my relatives say if I don't show up for this major family event?" What matters more - what God would say, or what the family would say? When the family is as interested in the will of God as they should be, they will say, "We sure will miss you, but we would rather you follow your heart and obey God."
From this moment on, let us determine to leave our relatives in the care of the Lord, when we have to obey God and they don't agree with our decisions. Also, let us make sure we are never the guilty ones, pulling on a relative to disobey God to satisfy our carnal desires. Let us ever keep before us the words of Christ: "Not my will, but yours be done."
With God's help, I will not yield to the temptation to follow my relatives instead of God. I will also not be an instrument used to discourage any of my family from obeying God to satisfy my natural desires.