You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice, and you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him.
—Deuteronomy 13:4
The words of Joshua teach us that our consecration to God must be practical: “We will serve the Lord.” There are many parents who view Christianity only in terms of salvation, and not in terms of service. They pray most earnestly that all their children may be saved. If their children spend their lives in the service of the world, they comfort themselves in the idea that they will yet be saved before they die. No wonder that their training for this life has been a failure. These parents never understood the truth and never trained their children to understand that to train for God’s service secures the fullest salvation.
God said to Abraham, “I know him that he will command his children and his household after him, that they shall keep the way of the Lord…that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which He hath spoken of him” (Genesis 18:19). Remember God’s words in connection with Israel’s deliverance from Egypt: “Let My people go that they may serve Me.” Remember Pharaoh’s reply, “Go ye, serve the Lord…let your little ones also go with you” (Exodus 10:24). The Holy Spirit has spoken, “How much more shall the blood of Christ…purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (Hebrews 9:14).
All redemption is for service. God does not want to be worshipped without being served. The glory of heaven will be that “His servants shall serve Him” (Revelation 22:3). Let our lives and our homes be consecrated to serving God. Let obeying His will, carrying our His commands, doing His work, and devoting ourselves to the interests of His kingdom give family life its proper place of importance.
Excerpt taken from Raising your Children for Christ by Andrew Murray. This excerpt can be found in Chapter 15. Public Domain.