Starting a new sentence

I know a lot of Christians who have been brought up in godly families. In fact one or two people that I know can trace their godly heritage back through many generations of Christian believers, sometimes on every branch of their family tree. What an inheritance! What an amazing blessing!

When I first came to know the Lord thirty two years ago I quickly realised that there were no other born-again Christians in my immediate family line and I felt this lack very strongly. It seemed to me to be very unfair. Why didn’t I have the blessing spoken of in Exodus 20:6, but rather had inherited something of the problems mentioned in this verse from Lamentations.

One day feeling very disgruntled about this unfairness, I dared to challenged God on this matter and, rather to my surprise, He answered and said a very strange thing. He seemed to say clearly “you are part of a long line of believers” I remonstrated with Him. Surely not, Lord, I have checked it out and there are no others. The truth is clear; I am all alone in my family. Then he spoke again. What He said amazed and thrilled me. “Together we have made a full stop in your family line and you are the capital letter at the start of the new sentence for your family. You are part of a long line of believers but you are the first”. I was thrilled and humbled to think that I could, in some way, be the catalyst for blessings for my children and their children’s children, and that they might one day each know the Lord personally. One day, I fervently pray, someone will say, as they check on the forebears in their family tree, “Great, great granny Denise was the first Christian in our family and we have been feeling something of God’s blessings ever since”

I wonder if you have the benefit of generations of family preceding you that have loved the Lord? If you do, then praise God again today for that godly inheritance, and ensure that the blessings that come from walking closely with God continue down your family line for generations to come. But if you are a first generation believer then take heart. God wants not only to give you a new start, but He also offers a new beginning in your family line. Your love of God and worship of Him today will be a catalyst for His blessing to flow to the generations to come.