Fleeing False Gods

Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. – Joshua 24:14-15

Yesterday, we talked about the first thing you need to do if you want to lead your family to be one that serves God, just like Joshua did in today’s key passage. If you missed yesterday’s devotion, I urge you to go back and read it. But for now, we’re going to look at two more things you need to do if you want to lead your family to serve Jesus.

The second thing you must do is commit to leading your family to reject other gods. One of the reasons why the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness for forty years is because they respected false gods and rejected the one true God. For as far back as almost as time began, there has never been a shortage of two things: false gods and false religions.

The reality is that everybody serves some god, and everybody is going to believe in some type of religion. It may be the god of self, sex, or success. Or it may be a religion where your business is the church and you are the high priest. Either way, there is a line in the sand, and you’ve got to be on one side or the other. Your goal as a follower of Jesus is to be on the right side of that line and to teach the next generation to stand with you as you reject the false Gods and choose to worship the one true God.

Finally, the third thing you need to do is commit to leading your family to rely on the only God. The question we must ask ourselves is this: “What God are you and your family going to serve? What God is our generation going to commit to lead the next generation to serve?” You have to choose. You can claim to be agnostic, open-minded, or indifferent and say you really haven’t made a choice, but you have. At the end of the day, a choice must be made on who you’re going to follow and who you’re going to serve.

I believe more than ever before that if you are truly going to follow Jesus and stand for the truth of God’s Word, you are going to have to stand alone and you are going to have to prepare your children to do the same. But even though that might be a lonely place to be, it’s the right place to be and the best place to be. And that truth is one of the greatest things you can teach the next generation.

Dear Lord, I first want to pray against any temptation to worship or follow any false gods. I pray that my family and I will reject any false gods that try to lead us away from you. Instead, I pray we would learn to rely solely on you and live our lives fully surrendered to you. In Jesus’ name, amen.