Description
Providing for Family with Godly Wisdom
This episode reflects on 1 Timothy 5:8 (and 2 Thessalonians 3:10) to explore how… (visit YouTube for more)
Transcript
What should we do for our families? How should we care and provide for them? Let’s take some guidance today from the word of God as we meditate first on one Timothy chapter five, verse eight. But if anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
Now we need to keep the word of God in balance. So we’re also gonna take a quick look at two Thessalonians three verse 10. For even when we were with you, we would give you this command. If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.
Let’s focus on these two passages, especially the first by answering some questions.
Question one, what questions does this raise?
For me one of the biggest questions is, who then am I supposed to be providing for? Who am I supposed to be caring for? Practically? I need to answer that question, don’t I?
Whatever circumstances you might be in, there will be people that you feel some measure of responsibility for. They may be living in your house or they may not. So how do we answer that question?
Well, I think it’s not always gonna be clear, isn’t it? We need wisdom from God to help us to make these decisions, sometimes on a case by case or day by day basis. But what is absolutely clear is that where God has given us authority and responsibility for a household, then we’d better not shirk that responsibility.
If we’re in a household where we have youngsters that we have to care for children or other dependents, then we take that responsibility seriously. If we need to go out and get money in order to pay for things, then that’s what we do, and we do that remembering we’re doing it not just for our dependents, but we’re doing it for God.
We’re doing it as a holy thing. Our work to care for our family is sanctified. It is holy.
Question two, what does this tell me about God?
It tells me, first of all that God’s not going to do everything for us. We can’t just say, well, I’ll pray for them and, and that’s all I need to do. Now, clearly I can’t just pray for my children and hope that somehow they’ll be all right. No we have a duty to fulfil, to discharge our responsibilities towards them. So it tells me that God wants to work with us.
It also tells me that God cares about what we do and he too cares for the people under our care. He has in fact decided that he will put us in place to be his hands and feet, to be those people who will raise the next generation, who will look after aging or infirm relatives.
God is a God who cares for us all. He wants us to be part of his plans for how everybody is looked after. He’s a good God.
Question three, what is God saying to me through this?
One of the strongest things that comes through to me when we look at both of these passages together, is the exercise of godly wisdom. We need godly wisdom to tell when it is right to do something, to give some help, some money, some resources, whatever that might be, and when actually we ought to hold back because we will in fact be compounding a problem.
Do we give somebody a fish or do we teach them to fish? So God is saying be wise, but he’s also saying, be diligent. Do the things please, that I have asked you to do. There are many prayers that are asked of God, and the answer to those prayers is God working through a person. We are God’s answer to prayer for many people.
We need to be alert to that, to pay attention to the things that he has given us to do, and to make sure that we are not neglecting our family duties, our household duties in favour of doing other things that may be as important, but not our primary mission.
Especially for parents looking after our children, raising them, raising them in the knowledge of God, keeping them safe is one of the most important things that we will ever do and is itself a mission from God. We need to stay on mission friends.
Lord, thank you for these words today. I ask that you will help us to proceed in wisdom, always walking in step with the Holy Spirit, looking to you for guidance, but then carrying on and doing the things that you have given us to do. Because that is what you want from us as obedient, loving children. Amen.
