Lesson 4, Week 7: Grandparents Model Faith By Recalling How God Has Worked In The Past

Today’s Scripture Focus:  Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands. Deuteronomy 7:9 NIV

*Before you begin, ask the Holy Spirit to teach you as you read God’s Word and seek His meaning. 

Your grandchildren are standing on the threshold of life in Christ.  What do you tell them?  Will it be enough to say follow the Savior, or will they want you to give them reasons?  What reasons will you give?  Will you say it’s the right thing to do, and will they believe you?  How much better it is when you can say this is how God has worked in my life.  I know He is real, and I know He will bless you if you but answer His call with a Yes.

One thing about growing older is we start to forget, or at least we have a hard time recalling names or a pertinent fact the moment that we want to.  A name we are seeking may pop into our minds hours after the conversation in which it was mentioned.  Spiritual matters are more easily brought to mind, at least the mountaintop ones.  But unless we’ve kept a prayer journal, we may forget some of the daily answers we have received through the years.  That is why I encourage you to start keeping a prayer journal even if you never have. You will be amazed when a few months down the road, you look back and see how God has supplied your needs.

Before you move on to the next section of today’s lesson, take a few moments and review Lesson 1, Week 1 of this study.

Think On These Things

A long time ago, God’s people stood ready to enter the promise land.  The book of Deuteronomy deals with what God wanted them to remember—the commandments He has given to them, and also, how He has been there for them at every turn, supplying their every need. 

God commanded the Israelites through Moses, not to forget His laws and that He had cared enough to give them.  Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip form your heart as long as you live.  Teach them to your children and to their children after them.  Remember the day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, when he said to me, “Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children.” (Deuteronomy 4:9-10 NIV)

We are to recall what God has done, sharing it with our children and grandchildren so they will honor the Lord.

After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time—if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the LORD your God and provoking him to anger, I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.  (Deut. 4:25-26 NIV)

What will be the results of our chasing other gods, becoming corrupt, and in turn, corrupting our families?  We will provoke God to anger and cause His judgment to fall upon us.  Are we of the twenty-first century chasing gods of money and recreation?  Has anything or anyone become like a god to you? 

Throughout the book of Deuteronomy, God give His commands, listing the blessings of obedience, and the negative consequences of disobedience.  Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.  (Deuteronomy 8:2 NIV)  He also reminds us to remember how He has worked in our lives. 

God commands us to keep His laws for our own good and the good of our family.  These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  Impress them on your children.  Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gate.  (Deuteronomy 6:6-9 NIV)  Wise we are, when in obedience we hang pictures and place items with Scriptures within our homes.  Our families see God’s Word daily. Our homes become an extension of ourselves, and all that is important to us, as we fill them with Scriptures, impressing God’s Word on the minds of our children and grandchildren.

What I Have Learned

God had Moses give His commandments to the ______________.  He commanded them not to forget His ________.  He wanted them to remember how He _____________________________________________.

Who were the Israelites to teach the laws to?_____________________________________

Why?___________________________________

After the Israelite had children and grandchildren, if they became corrupt, what would they lose?______________

Why did God allow the Israelites to undergo the trials of the desert?  What were they to learn?________________

Where are God’s commandments to be? _____________

How can we do that?_____________________________

List five ways that we can impress God’s laws on our children.

1._____________________________

2._____________________________

3._____________________________

4._____________________________

5._____________________________

I Will Apply What I Have Learned

STEP 1:  I will continually share with my children and grandchildren how God has worked in our family.

STEP 2:  I will examine my life for idols, confess my sins and repent.  I will do this daily so that my family may be blessed. 

STEP 3:  I will begin this day, to place Scripture visibly throughout my home.  I will look for calendars, pictures and items to place in my home that will honor God.

STEP 4:  I will not hide my love for You from my family.  They will know that I consider setting aside a time to pray and study as important.

STEP 5:  I will encourage them to memorize Scripture and I will set the example.

Lord God,

How I thank You for Your Word, and the wisdom it holds for me as a parent and grandparent.  Cause my family to see evidence of Your importance in my life when they enter my home. 

Remind me to share my spiritual life with them, and not to hide the fact that I love You.  Instead, let me proclaim my devotion to You from the housetop.  Let them be able to say after I am gone from this earth, that they saw me reading Your Word, and that they heard me pray.  Let them know that communing with You a vital part of life.

Lord, may I challenge them to memorize Scripture, and may I memorize it too.  Enable me Lord to obey the commands that You have set forth for me as a parent and grandparent.  In Jesus name, I pray.  Amen.