Is It In You?

2 Chronicles 15:16

And also concerning Maachah the mother of Asa the king, he removed her from being queen, because she had made an idol in a grove: and Asa cut down her idol, and stamped it, and burnt it at the brook Kidron.

Asa was one of the great kings in Judah for many reasons, but maybe the greatest reason is because he was willing to stand against family for right. It was not just family he stood against, but he stood against his own mother. His mother made an idol, and when he removed her from being the queen of the land when he found out about it, which was truly unheard of in any time.

Your willingness to stand against family for right is the test of your love for truth. We live in times when many preachers have compromised what they once stood for because their children stopped doing right. For the sake of keeping a “good” relationship with their children, they change their stance on what they once stood for with the hope that they will be able to stay close to their children.

Jesus taught in Luke 14:26, If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Jesus was not teaching that we should hate our family, but that if we must choose between following Christ or family, we should be willing to forsake our family for Christ. Yes, your family will think you hate them, but it is not that you hate them, but it is that you love Christ more than them. This won’t be easy to do, but this is the command of the Scriptures. Let me share a couple observations about this critical truth.

First, your love for God is revealed by your choice between family or Christ. There will come a time in your life when you must choose between family and Christ, and what you do at that moment will reveal how much God truly means to you. It is not easy to tell your family that you will choose God over them, but it won't be as difficult as some would say when you love God more than them. It is easy to say you love God when you don't have to stand against family. I have seen many talk about their great love for God when there was little sacrifice, but to be willing or unwilling to lose your family's approval for doing right is when your faith is truly revealed.

Second, if you make Christ, who is truth, your choice before you have to make the choice, then there is no choice to make when you must choose between Christ and family. Never revisit your decision to follow Christ when family tries to make you revisit that decision. You made that decision by principle, and to revisit that decision will always result in the wrong decision.

Third, if you can't choose to do right when you don't have to take a stand, you certainly won't do right when you have to face your family. The prodigal son’s father had to make this choice twice, and he never moved from his position of doing right. It was not easy for this man to make this decision, but he already made the decision for right before he had to face his boys. My friend, none of us know if we will ever have to make this decision and what we will do when faced with it, but we can make the decision for right now. Don't let the ease of choosing right be the determination of making that choice, but make doing right the focus of your decisions and you will have a better chance of doing right when you must stand against family for right.