Aware of God’s Blessings

Dannah Gresh: Okay, think big picture here. How can you and I be used by God to bless the world? Pastor’s wife, mom, and grandma Jani Ortlund points to one important way. 

Jani Ortlund: God has given us a great power for good: they’re called “families.” He has positioned you in your particular family for their long-term advantage and for your joy and Christ’s glory. You might feel small, as I often do. You might feel defeated, as I do at times. Oh, those day-to-day routines, they wear us down. But the truth is, we do matter, and we will matter two hundred years from now as we follow the Lord Jesus Christ.

Dannah: Jani’s gonna show us the importance of building a spiritual legacy for our children (and theirs!) to the tenth generation! That’s today, May 6, 2024, on the Revive Our Hearts podcast. Here’s our host, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: Thank you, Dannah Gresh! 

I don’t know if you’re a mother, a grandmother, or maybe a spiritual mother to someone. Maybe you’re like me. I don’t have any biological children, but I have nieces, nephews, kids and grandkids through marriage, and unofficially-adopted kiddos all over the place, and I'm definitely passionate about investing in the coming generations. 

Even if you’re single with no kids (as I was for fifty-seven years), you’ll be challenged by Jani Ortlund’s message today.

Jani is married to her husband, Ray, and they do have children and grandchildren—lots of them. Jani spoke in a breakout session at True Woman in Indianapolis, on the topic “Building a Spiritual Legacy for Your Children—and Theirs—to the Tenth Generation!” That's a long title, but you're going to hear why that is so important.

There were some technical difficulties with the microphone that day, but I hope you won’t let that distract you from the inspiring and challenging points that Jani shared.

The theme at that True Woman conference was “Heaven Rules.” Without further ado, let’s listen to my dear friend Jani Ortlund.

Jani: You may not believe this, but you are a person of great significance! You might think, Oh, Nancy Wolgemuth . . . she’s a woman of great significance, but not me, little old me in my home. You might not see yourself the way God sees you.

This world trivializes us; this world wears us down every day. The messages coming through the cultural air we breathe make us feel small, anxious, inconsequential. But you—YOU—are unique! You are irreplaceable! Heaven is ruling in you and through you. You matter!

You matter today, and you will matter forever, because God created you with a purpose so big, only God Almighty could have dreamed it up! He prepared your very DNA over many generations for your time.

He arranged for you to be born in a certain place and at a particular time in history. He has invested in you every day along the way, both your joys and your sorrows, so that you can contribute to the better future that God Almighty is building through you. 

You are the only one on the face of the whole earth who can fulfill God’s mission for you. He has a plan, and His plan includes each one of us! He’s working that plan. In fact, Ephesians 1:11 says He “works all things according to the counsel of his will.” You are a part of that “all things.”

So you see why I’m so sure about this? Your life is not an accident. Your marriage is not a mistake. Your children are no accident . . . not even that surprise baby you hadn’t planned on. God has a beautiful and eternal purpose for your family. 

Here is why I am saying all of this: a great way that you can follow God’s plan is to build a legacy of faith that will endure into your family’s future long after you’re gone.

Now, for my husband Ray and me, this long-term thinking about our own family has been a change. Thinking out, oh maybe two weeks ahead, or maybe even two years ahead, well okay, we’ve done that before.

But thinking out decades ahead, centuries ahead? That was an unexplored thought. Here is what opened up that thought to us: several years ago I was reading in my Bible, just doing my morning devotions and enjoying my time with the Lord. I was just kind of minding my own business when suddenly something jumped off the page of Deuteronomy to me.

It was in Deuteronomy 23 that sparked this thought in my mind. It said, 

No one born of a forbidden union may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of his descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord. No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation. (vv. 2–3)

Whoa! I stopped reading there. It confused my view of God. I thought, Why should the generations suffer because their mama was an Ammonite or their daddy was a Moabite?Is generational exclusion even just? I had to ask myself that. 

And then I had to think, Well, if God’s Word is true and trustworthy, then I need to think this through. What insight could I draw from this little verse in Deuteronomy 23? Well, we do know this much: that Moses in Deuteronomy was preparing Israel for their future in the Promised Land. He knew they would be gathering all together for worship.

So, Moses explained who would be allowed in to worship the Lord God Almighty and who would be kept out. You see, no one can ever just barge into God’s presence, as if we’re all naturally qualified. Everyone needs the grace of Christ for sinners.

Whatever else is going on in the Old Testament passage, it prepares us for the New Testament's good news of the grace of Christ crucified. So even this verse could point ahead to Jesus Christ. Jesus can make anyone “kosher” before God. We see that in Acts 11 and Galatians 2.

As I kept pondering these verses in Deuteronomy 23, asking the Lord for help to see His heart more clearly, a new thought occurred to me: “If God excluded certain people to the tenth generation, how much more does He want to include people to the tenth generation?” How much more does God always long to bring blessing rather than a curse!

His eagerness to bless us is all throughout Scripture. His eagerness is all over the Bible; His eagerness to bless us! Let me read some verses to you; I’ll give you the references again. We won’t take time to look up all these verses. Just listen to the words “bless” and “blessing” in these verses.

Genesis 12:2, way in the beginning: “I will bless you.”

Numbers 6:23–24: “You shall say to them, ‘The Lord bless you and keep you.’”

Deuteronomy 23:5 (that same chapter that I was reading in that morning) says this: “. . . instead the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loved you.”

Deuteronomy 28:2: “And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you.” Don’t you love that? So many that they just roll over on us!

Nehemiah 13:2: “. . . yet our God turned the curse into a blessing.” 

Psalm 109:28: “Let them curse, but you will bless!”

Proverbs 28:20: “A faithful man will abound [in] blessings.”

Galatians 3:14: “. . . so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.”

Ephesians 1:3: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.”

The list could go on! We don’t have time to keep reading, but oh my goodness, blessing is all over the Scripture, much more than curses! The whole Bible keeps emphasizing the blessings of God freely given through Jesus Christ who we receive with the empty hands of faith! 

God is disproportionately toward blessing over cursing. In a sense, God is asymmetrical in kindness over discipline. 

When we receive Christ, we’re repositioned for historic and eternal blessings from God Almighty! Do you believe that? Do you receive that? Ray and I began to think that through as a couple. It was really encouraging to us! What about us as a family?

If God excluded, say, the Ammonite people back then, how much more . . . Did you notice in some of the verses that I read some of the words: “abound with blessing, every spiritual blessing.” How much more would God joyfully be willing to bless our family today through Christ? Even to the tenth generation. That thought thrilled us!

The generational blessing of God just stretching out over our family into the distant future left us almost breathless!

By God’s grace we can, and we must, think “future.” Let’s be women who think beyond today! All those precious people who will appear in this world according to God’s plan and through our marriages will be facing unimaginable challenges! They deserve, and they will need, the best that we can send on ahead. You see why I say you really are a person of historic significance? It changes how we all do family right now. It expands our categories.

For example, Ray and I have started to pray in a bolder way. Maybe you’ll join me in this prayer. Now we pray that the Lord would bless our family by setting each family member apart to Christ, not one excluded but all included in the family of God, with wholehearted devotion to Him.

Our audacious prayer lately has been that the whole world would hear about Jesus through our family! Is that crazy? Well, maybe . . . but maybe not! We belong to a big God! Why not pray big prayers about our families?

 

Now, let me be clear: don’t think that when we pray that Ray and I are, or you should, ask God for an ideal or perfect family. No, we just want a saved family, a family who knows they’re sinners, who know they need Jesus, and they look to Him for their salvation, no one or nothing else.

And it’s through fallible, but saved, people that the whole world will hear about Jesus. Does He have any other kind of people to work with? We believe it is God’s desire to bless His people, so we pray these big prayers for our little Ortlunds. We pray for them every day. You can, too! 

Acts 2:39 puts it this way: “For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off [“to the tenth generation!”] everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Himself.” So we pray, “Do it, Lord! Every member of our family called to Yourself, please!”

We have found that this way of thinking and praying and dreaming and caring for our family is thrilling . . . and sobering . . . and stretching! Often in our daily lives, our simple family rhythms rarely seem impressive. Our routines are so familiar, repetitive, non-dramatic. 

Why not leave this conference daring to believe that the future of the world is being shaped in our homes through all those unimpressive details? The truth is, nothing—however simple—goes unused by “. . . him who works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Eph. 1:11). He uses even the unimpressive details we have to deal with every day.

God loves to tell family stories that will matter for a long time, even to the tenth generation. Ray and I find that this long-term family vision fills our hearts, it raises our standards. It reminds us that the family God has given us is worthy of our all for the glory of Jesus. And, so is yours.

Now this breakout session is not a family management guide, nor a list of handy tips. So, if you want to get up and go to another breakout now, I understand. I do hope you’ll gain a few insights for guiding your family into their Christ-centered purpose, but I cannot offer you a fail-safe plan, because there is not one, at least not for your family’s amazingness.

God is not into grandiosity of any kind, but He does give grace to the humble in the ordinary lives that we daily live. So as we humble ourselves before Him, we can pray this. Think of this breakout more as an investment proposal. I believe your family can live together now in such a way as to build a lasting legacy into the future. There are no guarantees, but there are plenty of investment opportunities.

God has given us a great power for good: they’re called “families.” He has positioned you in your particular family for their long-term advantage and for your joy and Christ’s glory. You might feel small, as I often do. You might feel defeated, as I do at times. Oh, those day-to-day routines, they wear us down.

But the truth is, we do matter, and we will matter two hundred years from now as we follow the Lord Jesus Christ. So the first point I’m asking you to embrace is this: God desires to bless you and your family. It is God’s heart to bless you and your family!

Our generation is not a lost cause! You cannot control your family’s future, but you can invest in it in ways that can still be making a difference ten generations from now, and even beyond that, because God desires to bless your family.

Well, you might be asking, “What does it look like now to live with the future generations in mind?” So let me get a little more practical here, okay? Let me offer you:

 Three Ways That You Can Live Today Offering Your Family Hope for the Future

1. The first is by setting a gospel tone in your home. 
2. The second is through the attractive beauty of marriage: yours and other marriages.
3. The third is through your children’s cheerful obedience. 

We’re going to talk about those three points. There are many we could talk about, but these are the three the Lord seemed to set on my heart to share with you. Let me gently help you refuse to “settle,” but instead encourage you to reach for your enduring greatness in Christ. He will help you to pour wisely into your family with a commitment that will matter.

Let’s envision together the simple daily life of a home where the love of Jesus feels natural. Let’s think through three winsome, practical ways to build a family of generational faith.

The first, let the gospel set the tone in your home. I’m asking you to believe in the God who loves to save families. Is that hard for you? Maybe it feels impossible in your family with the way things are going today. 

Cry out to Jesus as that father did when he brought his little boy to him in Mark chapter 9: “Oh, Lord, I do believe, but help my unbelief!” (see v. 24). We can all cry that out to our Lord and Savior. Help the Bible become the center of your home, the most important possession in your household.

What does the Bible mean to you personally? Do the other family members see you treasuring it, reading it, learning it, meditating on it? 

Can you bring it into your daily life in meaningful ways? Do your children and your guests see it written, framed, on the walls of your home? How is your Bible honored? How do your kids treat their Bibles? Do they just toss them on a chair or pile other things on top of them? Do you treasure the Bible in your home, and do others see that it is a treasure?

Teach your children from the Bible. I want to encourage you to have family devotions as often as is reasonable. “Reasonable” looks different at different stages in a child’s life. Now, those of you who are married, your husband will need your help here when your children are young.

I married a man who thinks in ancient near-Eastern Semitic languages. That was his doctorate, and you know, he just thinks, “Oh, of course the kids will get this if I read three chapters from Leviticus and ask them what they think of it.” (laughter) He needed my help.

And he was glad, after a while, to receive it. I would ask you, really do give it some thought. We tried—I suggested this and Ray picked up on it—we used to do it after our whole meal was finished. 

The kids were anxious to go play, and they didn’t really want to listen. They had homework, piano practice, soccer practice, whatever. So we tried to time it so that we’d have devotions over dessert.

And as we’d say, “Go get your Bibles; I’ll get dessert ready, we’ll put it on the table.” We would say from Psalm 119:103, “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” And we would say, “As you grow, God’s Word is going to taste even sweeter than this chocolate chip cookie or this ice cream sundae,” or whatever we were having that day. 

And my kids survived without cavities, I just want you to know that. Don’t worry about that, okay? “A little sugar . . .” We won’t go into Mary Poppins.

Nancy: That’s Jani Ortlund, speaking in a workshop at a recent True Woman conference. She’ll be back tomorrow to say more about ways we can live and the choices we can make that offer hope to our families and future generations.

I hope the Lord has given you a fresh desire to make God’s Word and the gospel a more present reality in your home. That’s what we’re all about here at Revive Our Hearts. 

Recently, we heard from a listener named Carolyn. She’s a widow of a little over two years. She wrote to say, “Through the long months of grieving, your program sustained me. It was as if God was giving me the exact words I needed, every day, to face my new reality.” She said that listening to Revive Our Hearts helped remind her that the Lord would supply her needs—emotional, physical, and spiritual needs. 

Carolyn went on to tell us how she’s using Revive Our Hearts materials as she mentors three younger women. And now she’s a Revive Partner! (that’s someone who supports Revive Our Hearts monthly.) And how thankful we are for each Revive Partner!

Carolyn said, “I was recently in Mexico City, where my nephew’s wife showed me a book in Spanish by you, Nancy. She said she listens to you all the time. I couldn’t believe it! You are really reaching the nations!”

You know, it’s because of stories like Carolyn’s that we’re more committed than ever to comforting, serving, and building women up. That way, they can, in turn, pour into other's lives. 

But here’s the deal. We can’t reach the nations or even bring you Revive Our Hearts here in the United States without your prayers and your financial support. Your partnership is so vital, especially now in the month of May. 

Would you prayerfully consider making a donation to Revive Our Hearts? When you do, you’ll be benefitting from the ministry yourself, you'll be helping us serve other women like Carolyn. To give, just head over to ReviveOurHearts.com, and click or tap where you see the word “Donate.” We’d love to hear from you here in the month of May.

Dannah: Yeah, and don’t forget that we’ll send you the 30-day devotional Living Out the One Anothers of Scripture in appreciation for your donation. Just request it when you give. Our website once again is ReviveOurHearts.com, or you can call 1-800-569-5959.

Jani Ortlund will be back tomorrow, to share some practical considerations all of us should keep in mind as we invest in coming generations. I hope you’ll join us for Revive Our Hearts.

This program is a listener-supported production of Revive Our Hearts in Niles, Michigan, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

Scripture taken from the ESV.

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