Do you sometimes feel like a Category Five homeschool hurricane is going to obliterate your faith and smash it upon the rocks? As parents and leaders of your family, your faith in God sets the standard for the next generation. The timeless message from the book of Hebrews provides what we need to live anchored in Jesus Christ.
Parents are to be the anchors and towers of stability for families as they endure the storms of life. Our faith should be a contagious faith, an unwavering faith, a vibrant faith, and an enduring faith. I hope there are young people reading this article also. You should be building the foundation for becoming leaders of the next generation of families. The teen years are the time to build your faith, grow in faith, and be strengthened in your relationship with God.
Although we know we ought to be examples of stability, sometimes we’re not. Right? There are reasons why we are not the bastions of faith we want to be. I think one of the main reasons is that we have not understood the importance of our confession.
Revealing the Foundation
Everyone lives off their foundation, and their idea of the gospel forms that foundation. So if the gospel is the power of God, which it is, then a powerful foundation should produce powerful living. However, if there is a lack of power in your life when the storms are raging, you might consider if the foundation upon which your life is being lived is truly based in the gospel.
I think many people think their lives are based on the gospel because they believe certain facts to be true. The reality is that it’s not what we have heard, but what we do with what we have heard.
Jesus put it this way in the Sermon on the Mount.
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall” (Matthew 7:24-27 NASB).
It is clear that Jesus’ emphasis was on hearing and doing and not just agreement on the information. I have noticed that in more than 30 years of counseling experience, the storms of life reveal the foundation of a person’s life. That’s one of their purposes. It is good for God to let us see what He sees before we face the final Category 5 storm of death and judgment. Furthermore, it is gracious of God to place many small Category 1-2 storms to give us practice in living out our confession.
We had no idea what we were signing up for when we began our homeschooling experience. Perhaps you had the same idea as we, that if we homeschooled our children, we would be avoiding the storms of life. However, we discovered that although we did avoid many of the storms that parents with children in government schools faced, the homeschooling process produced many other storms which threatened our marriage relationship as well as our relationship with our children.
Kids Are Watching
Additionally, we realized that our relationship with God impacted our children’s relationship with God. They watched the way we reacted to the storms created by the challenges of educating them. At times that was a good thing and at other times, it was convicting and frightening. This motivated us to learn how to anchor ourselves into Jesus Christ so that the power of a relationship with Jesus Christ could be revealed to our children.
Many of the homeschool spiritual casualties occur because children don’t see that the gospel is powerful in the lives of their parents. As a result, the gospel is not appealing to them. Their conclusion is this: If the gospel doesn’t give my parents the power to handle the storms of life in their relationship, why should I believe it? So your foundation is important not only for your life, but also for the lives of your children.
Your Confession?
Do you understand or do you know what you confess to believe about Jesus Christ? Your answer to this question is important because your confession is the foundation for your faith. You live out what you believe on a daily basis. All the rest is just religious talk. Are you sure your confession is scriptural and grounded in the essential truths regarding Jesus Christ? For instance, if your confession merely acknowledges Jesus as a prophet, as the Islamic faith does, it lacks the essential truth that Jesus was the Son of God incarnate.
Our confession regarding Jesus Christ is also vital because it provides a basis and a confidence for leadership and relationships. Living by our confession establishes a security which is able to weather any storm. In studying the book of Hebrews we find repeated truths about Jesus Christ, which form the basis of our confession. I’ve put it into a summary statement so we can memorize it and apply it to the events of life.
Jesus Christ is God’s son (1:1-2),
And He is our high priest (1:3; 8:1).
After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high (1:3)
Where He intercedes for us (7:25)
And runs all things by the power of His spoken word (1:3).
He will preserve and save us through suffering, trials, and temptation (10:39, 4:16)
By giving us mercy and grace (4:16)
If we will draw near to Him and hold fast our confession (4:14-16, 10:23).
The Solid Rock
I hope you will study the confession carefully. Every phrase, every truth about our Lord is important. I am sure more could be said about Jesus Christ, but I sought to include the most foundational truths providing an anchor during the storms of life. There is value in understanding the importance of each truth in this confession.
Norm presented Anchored in Christ: A Solid Rock in the Homeschooling Storms at the CHEA conference in Pasadena. In this message Norm shared how to live anchored in your confession and apply it daily in a practical way. Remember, it’s not what you know that counts, it’s what you do with what you know that brings grace in the storms of life. Other resources to encourage you and your family may be found at www.spiritofelijah.com.
Norm Wakefield is the founder and executive director of The Spirit of Elijah Ministries, International. The vision of Elijah Ministries is to build up the local church by equipping men to love and lead their families. Norm and his wife began homeschooling in 1984 and help homeschool their grandchildren.