The Test of Families

"Who are my mothers and my brothers? Those who do the will of my Father."
I have heard this quoted a lot in our fellowships and sometimes I wonder if we have any understanding of it. This truth will take us from natural families and brings us into a spiritual one. Even if your natural family are in Christ, then your brotherhood to them is transcended from the natural to the spiritual. Fully. That is why some of our greatest tests will be our families....Jesus spoke on this a number of times, about denying our natural families to do God's will. This must be a full and smooth severing. So much so that we are dedicated to the family of God first, and our natural families as seen from that perspective. Not the other way around. When Jesus said that, it was his natural family that came to take him away, and they felt a right to Him solely because they were his natural family. Jesus did not even budge. There was hurt, i'm sure, but a recognition that Jesus is serious about His disciples...and He was not ashamed to call them brothers. He was defining what family means...and that was doing the will of the Father. This is our test, to be clearly and firmly about our Father's business. Sometimes our Father's business is to be about our natural families, for a season. And that too must be discerned, but it will be from the perspective that it is about the Father's business, and once His "business" changes, then we too must move on from there and even break ties that are hard and that should be done efficiently, and gently. When I came from dublin to Atlanta about three years ago now, and i determined in my heart to let my parents know it was happening soon, I heard two little words in my heart "be gentle". I heard no rebuke, about me leaving or about me staying as long as i did, only "be gentle". But now i am learning more and more that I am about My Father's will and those who do His will are brother's of Christ. Amen