10 Things We Can Do as Christian Women to Save Our Families
By Carol Doyel on January 8, 2017
By Carol Doyel–
I think we can all agree, as Christian women our greatest desire is for our loved ones -our husbands, our kids and our “children’s children,” to have a personal relationship with the Lord. To know God, to love God, and for the “eyes of their understanding” to be opened to Biblical truth.
When we know the truth and the power of God’s Word we want everyone to get it. If only they would come to a revelation of who He is and an understanding of the truth – contained in the Bible.
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The first step to know God is to seek Him, as I committed to do in 1997 when I came to the end of myself, living life on my own terms which was not working well. I simply said, “God if you are real then please reveal yourself to me!” I longed to know once and for all, so I agreed to open my heart to Him if in fact he was real…if there was an almighty God, I wanted to know Him.
So I simply began to seek…and oh boy did I find Him. I’m so grateful that He loved me first, that He pursued me, and that He never gave up on me. I will be forever grateful for how He redeemed me. It makes me want to weep, even now after all these years – It never fails to bring me to my knees.
My heart aches for those who do not know Him. Over the years I have prayed for family members to come to know the Lord, including my own husband. I prayed for 3 years – often wailing over my own sin, crying out to God so much so that one day my husband called me from work, while I was praying, to ask me if I was praying for him.
I knew my part was to pray. And that’s what I did. I quit working full time to spend more time with my kids and to pray for my family.
What I came to understand is that speaking, preaching, arguing, or trying to persuade my husband only led to tension at best, and often ended in a battle that left me feeling disappointed, hurt and angry. When the Lord revealed that the battle belonged to Him – I was released to pursue Him with all of my heart, so he could show me how to pray for my family and strategies that would win their heart for the Lord.
My husband eventually received the Lord as his savior, as did my three kids, who are now all adults. My daughter married a Christian man, and their two young daughters love Jesus. My oldest granddaughter often talks about Jesus, and our oldest son’s five year old son attends a Christian preschool – which is an answer to prayer. My hope is that all of my grandchildren will come to know the Lord, intimately.
What can we do to draw our loved ones to the Lord? Below are 10 powerful things we can do to save our families, communities and nation:
- Seek God first with all our heart – We must be the example for others, if we are not seeking God with all of our heart and making Him first in our lives then how can we expect others to want to seek Him.
- Ask God to examine our hearts – We must look at the log in our own eye before we try to remove the speck from the eyes of those around us. If we have unresolved heart issues we will come across as ineffective, powerless Christians that will repel versus draw people to the Lord. Sadly, as Christians we often miss the little foxes in our lives that keep us from living the abundant life that Jesus talked about.
- Repent – We all want to see revival, but revival starts in our own heart first (I’m preaching to myself as much as anyone) and the power of revival starts with humble, broken people who are willing to repent – who are drawn to repentance by the loving kindness of our Lord.
- Pray, petition, and make supplication to the Lord – The most powerful weapon we have is prayer, and petitioning God to do our bidding (2 Corinthians 10:4-6). Making supplication, earnestly seeking God for an answer to prayer – a great example can be found in the movie The War Room.
- Obey – Part of prayer involves listening. As we seek God and petition Him for strategies and creative ideas to reach the lost we must also act on what He asks of us. And we must be obedient to fulfill His will in our own lives, “walking in His ways” as the Word commands us to.
- Sacrifice – Often our greatest method of reaching our loved ones will require self-sacrifice. We may have to forgo our own agenda in order to do what God calls us to for our families, neighbors, or church family. Self-ambition is a common distraction from following God’s will versus our own desires. This is one I have to check often.
- Be in Fellowship and Attend Church – The Bible is clear, we should not forsake fellowship with other believers. The best way I know to do that is by attending church on a regular basis. My husband and I were drawn to the Lord when we began attending church again as adults. We have attended church together since we returned to church in 1997.
- Walk in Grace – Towards others…in order to walk in grace we must be filled with God’s grace. To experience God’s grace, we need to abide in Him.
- Extend Mercy – I would say the same thing about mercy as grace, we must abide in the Lord to experience His mercy, so we can extend it to others. I find that I’m more forgiving, gracious, and merciful when I’m spending extended periods of time with the Lord, seeking Him, reading the Word, and praying. Out of intimacy with God I become more like Him.
- Love, unconditionally – This is a challenge. The Word says that Love never fails and that love casts out all fear. To love unconditionally, like grace and mercy, we must experience unconditional love; the love of our Father – God. There is no greater love than when one lays down his life for a friend (John 15:13), as God did for us. God is love, and his love will teach us to love others as He does.
I’m reminded of 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” Our land includes our territory that we are given, our land, our tent – our families, our church, our communities, and our nation.
We are in a battle, so we must put on the armor of God and seek Him for divine strategies because the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.
Carol Doyel is Founder and Editor-in-Chief of LivingBetter50.com. She is a graduate of The Full Gospel Bible Institute and has a passion for women’s ministries. Her desire is to inspire women to live better physically, emotionally, financially, and spiritually.
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