Experiencing God at Home (36 page)

Be sure to ask others to pray for you and your family. Never allow pride to rob your family of the prayers and encouragement they could receive! Seek advice from others. Read books. Attend conferences. Meet with a prayer partner or another couple and regularly pray for your families. Gather as many friends and allies as you can to ensure that you experience victory in your home!

Finally, build accountability into your home life. If there was ever a road paved with good intentions, it is the one leading up to our house. We have all made numerous commitments to spend more time with our children, to be more patient, to pray more, to be less angry, to listen more, to encourage more, to focus on important matters. But inevitably life gets in the way! We get busy. We have a bad day (or month), and before we know it, we never followed through with what God invited us to do.

The best way to address this chronic dilemma is to surround our life and home with accountability. Begin by putting a date beside every commitment you make. Don’t say, “I will try and spend more time with my family.” Rather, say, “This Saturday, instead of watching the game on TV, I am taking my daughter on a date to the zoo.” Accountability can also be established with a group of friends. If you are a father, meet with some men and share with them what God is calling you to do with your family. The next time you meet, be ready for them to ask you how it went. It is amazing how a little accountability can radically impact our follow-through with what God tells us to do!

As we come to the end of this book, we hope you feel encouraged, inspired, and motivated. God dearly loves your family, and He is working night and day to help it to become everything He intended when He created it. You can trust Him. So roll up your sleeves, ask God for strength and wisdom, and never, ever settle for less than having each member of your family experience God at home.

Final Blessing

May you, as parents, so live your lives before your children that they will desire to serve the God they see their parents serving.

May your home be a lighthouse in your neighborhood and community that reflects God’s love, peace, hope, and righteousness for
every person who enters its doors.

May your family be bonded together with God’s love for one another, and may it support and encourage one another to wholeheartedly serve the Lord. May the hallways of your house resound with laughter.

May God’s peace, blessings, and presence rest on your home so that all who encounter your family recognize His activity working in and through you and may it be evident that your family belongs, unquestionably to Him.

About the Authors

Richard Blackaby
is the president of Blackaby Ministries International (www.blackaby.org) and lives in Atlanta, Georgia. He travels internationally speaking on spiritual leadership in the home, church, and marketplace as well as on spiritual awakening, experiencing God, and the Christian life. Richard regularly ministers to Christian CEOs and business leaders.

Richard has been married to Lisa for thirty years and has three amazing kids: Mike (college minister at First Baptist Church, Jonesboro in Atlanta and currently working on his PhD in Apologetics), Daniel (married and a MDiv student at Golden Gate Baptist Seminary), and Carrie (master’s level student in writing and apologetics).

Richard earned a BA; MDiv; and PhD, as well as an honorary doctorate from Dallas Baptist University. He served as a senior pastor at Friendship Baptist Church in Winnipeg and as president of the Canadian Southern Baptist Seminary.

Richard’s books include:

• The Seasons of God: How the Shifting Patterns of Your Life Reveal His Purposes for You
  
• The Inspired Leader: 101 Biblical Reflections for Becoming a Person of Influence
  
• Unlimiting God: Increasing Your Capacity to Experience the Divine
  
• Putting a Face on Grace: Living a Life Worth Passing On
  
• Experiencing God: Revised Edition
  
• Spiritual Leadership: Moving People on to God’s Agenda
  
• Experiencing God: Day by Day
  
• Hearing God’s Voice
  
• Called to Be God’s Leader: Lessons from the Life of Joshua
  
• Discovering God’s Daily Agenda
  
• Fresh Encounter: God’s Pattern for Spiritual Awakening
  
• God in the Marketplace: 45 Questions Fortune 500 Executives Ask about Faith, Life, and Business
  
• The Blackaby Study Bible
  

You can follow Richard on: Twitter: @richardblackaby, Facebook: DrRichardBlackaby, or his blog at www.richardblackaby.com.

Tom Blackaby
holds a BEd, MDiv, and DMin and has served as an associate pastor of music/youth/education in four churches in three countries and as senior pastor of North Sea Baptist Church in Stavanger, Norway, for seven years. He was the National Worship Consultant for the Canadian National Baptist Convention and currently serves as International Director for Blackaby Ministries International. Tom leads conferences/seminars and speaks in the areas of men’s ministry, worship, prayer, experiencing God, revival, the God-centered family, and spiritual leadership. Tom has authored or coauthored:

• The Man God Uses
  (and
  The Student God Uses
  version)
  
• Anointed to Be God’s Servants: Lessons from the Life of Paul and His Companions
  
• The Blackaby Study Bible
  
• Encounters with God Daily Bible
  
• The Family God Uses
  (trade book and workbook)
  
• Experiencing God’s Love in the Church
  
• The Commands of Christ
  
• Sammy Experiences God
  (children’s book)
  
• 7 Steps to Knowing and Doing the Will of God for Teens
  
• Experiencing God at Home
  
• Experiencing God at Home Family Devotional
  

Tom and Kim have three great kids: Erin and Matt (currently attending college), and Conor (still at home near Vancouver, Canada).