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Ephesians 5:32. However, each of you must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

 

If men abdicate their position as heads of the home that family is likely to be affected spiritually. Many women are hanging on by their fingernails, spiritually, because there’s no support. They love the Lord but they are not making any progress because they receive no help from their husbands.

 

Seeing that many families are in this condition today, is there any hope? I suggest five steps by which we can once again regain hope for our families.

 

· Abandon secular and unbiblical ideas about how you should be living and behaving. Family life is not accurately portrayed on the silver screen, nor in popular magazines. Abandon all the ideas you have accumulated concerning family life from these sources – they will only add to your level of frustration.

 

· Be willing to be instructed from God’s Word. How can anybody help you if you are not willing to be instructed? You have to contact someone reliable in your church and request biblical help. There must be a determination and a commitment to on-going exposure to the teaching of the Bible. We need to learn how to live as true Christians within our families.

 

· Once you’ve been instructed and understand the principles, obey them no matter the cost or repercussions.

 

· Forgive each other. You cannot expect your family to come together after a lot of hurt, while you are living and drawing on your resentment. You have to make a decision. You cannot keep your family together with grudges. There has to be forgiveness. Abandon what the world tells you and open yourself to what God tells you to do and be prepared to forgive the past. Make sure that you, yourself, are living in submission to the heavenly Father. We must all live in submission to the Lord Jesus Christ. If you want to bring your family to Christ you must first come to Christ yourself. Have you done that?

 

· Let us remember that broken families are a symptom of the sinfulness of human nature. Christ came to deal with the problem of our sinfulness and to bring us back to God. When that happens the Holy Spirit comes into our lives. He brings with Him a new power and energy to love God and to walk in His ways. That includes the ability to do the right thing in our families. If you invite Christ into your life you also invite Him into your family.

 

Prayer:

O God, I dedicate myself and my family to you again. I pray that you will enable us to serve Christ as Lord in our home and to remember that He is the unseen guest at our table and the silent listener to all our conversations. Amen