Total Family Makeover: 8 Practical Steps to Making Disciples at Home - Softcover

Spoelstra, Melissa

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1501820656 ISBN 13: 9781501820656

Verlag: Abingdon Press, 2016

Inhaltsangabe

God calls us as parents to be key disciple-makers in our children’slives, but if we’re honest, some days it’s a battle just to get themdressed and ready for school on time. How can you mold their hearts whensometimes you can’t even find their shoes?In Total Family Makeover, author Melissa Spoelstra gives parents away—a sort of spiritual track to run on—when it comes to building familydiscipleship. She focuses on eight key habits of growth: • Spending Time in Prayer• Reading God's Word• Growing Through a Mentoring Relationship• Finding Community in the Church• Serving Others• Taking Time to Rest• Giving Back to God• Sharing Your FaithDisciples are made, not born. Whether your children are babes in armsor teenagers getting ready to leave the nest, making disciples at homestarts with you! Give your family a makeover with this practicalapproach to helping your children learn what it means to be a followerof Jesus.

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Melissa Spoelstra is a popular women’s conference speaker (including the Aspire Women’s Events), Bible teacher, and author who is madly in love with Jesus and passionate about helping others to seek Christ and know Him more intimately. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Bible Theology and enjoys teaching God’s Word to diverse groups and churches within the body of Christ. She is a contributor to Girlfriends in God online devotional as well as Proverbs 31 ministries First Five app. She is the author of eight Bible studies (Acts, The Names of God, Romans, Elijah, Numbers, First Corinthians, Joseph, and Jeremiah) and four books (Total Family Makeover, Total Christmas Makeover, 30 Days of Prayer for Spiritual Stamina, and Dare to Hope). Melissa makes her home in Pickerington, Ohio, with her pastor husband and four kids.

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Total Family Makeover

8 Practical Steps to Making Disciples at Home

By Melissa Spoelstra

Abingdon Press

Copyright © 2016 Abingdon Press
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-5018-2065-6

Contents

Contents, 
"Foreword by Sarah Mae", 
"Introduction: Your Kids Are Not Your Report Card", 
"1. Spending Time in Prayer", 
"2. Reading God's Word", 
"3. Growing Through Mentoring", 
"4. Finding Community in the Church", 
"5. Serving Others", 
"6. Taking Time to Rest", 
"7. Giving Back to God", 
"8. Sharing Your Faith", 
"Epilogue", 

CHAPTER 1

Spending Time in Prayer

My twelve-year-old daughter sobbed as she asked why all of her hair was falling out. I held her close and wept with her. She told me she talked to God about it all the time, but he didn't seem to be answering. It can be rough to help our children learn to hear God's voice — especially during seasons when he seems silent.

The good news is that we don't have to make excuses for God or be embarrassed about his apparent lack of communication. He is real, and he does speak to us. At times we may not understand, but we can help our children learn to seek God in prayer.

When my daughter's hair was falling out due to an autoimmune disorder called alopecia, I searched his Word to hear what truth we could cling to in the situation. He doesn't promise to always heal, but he does say that he is a rewarder of those who sincerely seek him (Hebrews 11:6). God's Word also says, "The eyes of the Lordsearch the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him" (2 Chronicles 16:9a). These are truths we can rely on — especially when God may seem quiet in our difficult circumstances.

Kids are great about being honest when they don't feel as though they hear God. Recently I taught a Sunday school class the story of Elijah. In 1 Kings 19, God says he will show himself to Elijah. First there is a mighty wind, then an earthquake, and afterward a fire. Yet God was not in any of those things. He was in the still small voice. I encouraged the boys and girls in my class not to always look for God in big, showy ways but to spend a few moments every day getting quiet before him. We took a minute to just sit quietly and practice listening. I loved it when a sweet six-year-old boy jumped up immediately afterward and proclaimed, "Well, I didn't hear God say a thing!"

There is no magic formula for hearing God. There's no checklist that will guarantee a message from the Lord. Still, we can cultivate a relationship with God that creates room for dialogue. When we know someone well, our conversations move to greater depth and intimacy as we share our joys and fears with them. But how do we get to know a God we can't see? Just as we deepen our relationships with others through spending time together and dialoguing about things that are important to us, so we can get to know God better by spending focused time with him.

MODELING

Let's look at the example Jesus set for us by spending time in prayer.

1. Jesus intentionally pulled away from other responsibilities to spend time alone with the Father.

Jesus left some very worthy pursuits to make time with his Father a priority. His disciples needed direction. The sick needed healing. The hungry wanted food. The crowds were anxious for teaching. Yet Jesus purposely abandoned these tasks to demonstrate our need for time alone with God.

Sometimes Jesus prayed in the early morning hours: "Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray" (Mark 1:35). Other times he stayed up late into the night to pray: "After sending them home, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. Night fell while he was there alone" (Matthew 14:23). We also learn from Luke's Gospel that Jesus prayed frequently: "Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer" (Luke 5:16, my emphasis). Jesus set the example for us, showing us our need to connect with God in prayer. I believe that in addition to communing with the Father, Jesus wanted us to know that time spent talking and listening with God is vital to a disciple of Christ.

As parents, our greatest enemy of time in prayer is often the endless list of tasks and responsibilities. The laundry buzzes; the phone rings; the baby cries; the work e-mails pile up; and someone always seems to need another piece of us. The tyranny of other things can be our biggest barrier to time alone with God. Yet Jesus, the Son of God, who went place to place teaching, healing, and feeding people, found it important to take time away from those pursuits and make prayer a priority.

As you think through your days, what is God calling you to pull away from for just a few minutes every day so you can spend time with him? God would rather have a few minutes with you than none at all.

I've often made prayer too complicated. I think that if I don't have a good block of time or complete privacy, then I can't pray. Susanna Wesley is said to have sat in her rocking chair with a shawl over her head to spend time with the Lord. When my kids were little, I would sometimes steal away to my room in desperation to get on my knees and pour out my heart to God. After just a few minutes, they would break into the room and climb onto my back, using me for a jungle gym. That was okay. Even just a few minutes of connection with God gave me the strength I needed for the moment. I decided that I would rather have interrupted prayer times than no prayer times at all — and that it was a good thing for them to see me praying.

Making time for prayer may mean getting our sleepy selves up a little earlier in the morning or burning the midnight oil. If we're honest, we make time for what we value. When there is a television show I really want to see, I find the time to watch it. If my budget finally allows for new carpet, I somehow find the time to research the different choices and colors available. If we really want to know God and hear his voice, we will make the sacrifices necessary to connect with him. Jesus modeled it for us so that we could learn to talk with God. In the same way, we can show our kids that prayer is a priority in our lives by doing it.

When was the last time your kids discovered you praying? Whether you were on your knees, on your face, or in the car with your eyes closed while you were waiting for them, your example shows your children that you talk to Jesus regularly. We can model the importance of spending time with God by intentionally laying aside other tasks and pursuits — even good things — to make prayer a priority.

2. Jesus communicated to his disciples that he was praying for them.

Another way Jesus set an example for us was by talking about his prayer life. Now, Jesus was no prayer bragger. Unlike the Pharisees who recited their spiritual pedigrees, Jesus didn't feel the need to make himself seem spiritual by mentioning his long hours in prayer. In fact, it is only because others observed him praying and made mention of it in the Gospels that we have a record of his prayer life. But Jesus wasn't ashamed to tell people he was praying for them. Jesus encouraged Peter with prayer: "But I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. So when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen your brothers" (Luke 22:32).

How do you think it encouraged Simon Peter to know that Jesus was pleading in prayer for him? Has anyone ever stormed the gates of heaven on...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Abingdon Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2016
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1501820656
• ISBN 13: 9781501820656
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 224
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar