As a believing husband and father, I have a deep desire to see my family experience the full impact of God’s love, power, and protection. Having seen God’s Word work in my life when I’ve applied its principles, I am eager to see my family reap the results of increasing in the knowledge of God.
I have learned that my family increases in the knowledge of God when together we take on a need, challenge, opportunity, or goal and address it with the Word. Through the years, my wife and I have applied the following principles—a four-step method if you will—to help us accomplish our goals and increase in the knowledge of God. First, we identify and unify. Second, we hunt and hold on. Third, we focus and pray. Fourth, we remember and glorify. Let’s look at each of these four steps that can help us increase in the knowledge of God and accomplish our goals as a family.
In step one, we identify and unify. As a family we work together, getting like-minded (unified) on what the need, challenge, opportunity, or goal is that we want to prevail in.
Psalms 133:1:
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!
When identifying the need or goal for our family, it is important that we stay clear on seeking God’s best. What are your family’s needs, challenges, opportunities, goals? Get clear and like-minded. Identify and unify.
In step two, we hunt and hold on. We go on a treasure hunt for the scriptures that point toward God’s solution. We find a promise and hold on to the Word that handles our situation. Doing this together helps our family be successful in applying God’s Word, which is the pathway to abundant living.
Proverbs 4:13:
Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life.
As a toddler, my daughter held a Bible fellowship with her dolls and stuffed animals and “read” them pages she had memorized from Egermeier’s Bible Story Book. One of the records she recounted was about Daniel in the lions’ den. Years later as a teenager, she faced a serious health challenge in which she was figuratively facing the lions in the lions’ den. The Word she had held on to since childhood helped her reach God’s solution in this situation. She came out of the challenge with “no manner of hurt” upon her (Daniel 6:23) because she believed in her God and His love for her and in His desire for her good health. What are the promises of God that your family can hold on to in order to get your need met? Hunt and hold on.
In step three, we focus and pray. We focus on reaching a solution by taking action on the Word, and we pray until we receive our answer. This involves figuring out each family member’s responsibility in accomplishing our goal. While we pray together daily for our desired results, individually we may also have different jobs related to taking action on the Word we are focused on.
For instance, I believed it was best for my three children to take our ministry’s Advanced Class on the Bible before attending college. My children believed this also, and our whole family believed and worked toward this goal together. We supported our children in the prerequisite classes they needed to take, saved money, got applications in on a timely basis, shopped for the best plane tickets to the Advanced Class location, made arrangements for our children’s housing during the class, and arranged for time off from summer jobs—all the while claiming the promises from the Word we were focused on. As my family became clear and concerned about accomplishing these goals, we saw God’s solutions come to pass. Throughout the process, we focused on claiming the promises in the Word that pointed to our solutions, and the Word we focused on increased and became more established in our hearts.
Proverbs 4:26:
Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.
What actions can you take to reach your family’s goal? Focus and pray.
In step four, we remember and glorify. We determine not to forget but to hold on to victories and remind each other of them. In addition to our three children taking the Advanced Class, here are some other major believing victories our family has prevailed in: taking many wonderful vacations together, overcoming health challenges by claiming the promises of God, purchasing a home without a mortgage, sending three children to college debt-free, and starting and sustaining a business that meets our family’s needs. We remember these victories and recount them to glorify God and encourage ourselves and others in future opportunities.
Psalms 26:7:
That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works.
What are your family’s victories? Remember and glorify.
As families, we want to increase in the knowledge of God’s Word and grow together. We can do this as we rally together to take on challenges and accomplish goals. First, we identify and unify. Second, we hunt and hold on. Third, we focus and pray. Fourth, we remember and glorify. The result is that the whole family gets to see the Word of God work in their lives and thereby grow together in it.