How Many Generations of Rejection of God in Your Family?

Prayer – Lord God, I want to honor You with my life…along with my whole family and all my friends and neighbors. There was a problem though with my father and possibly my grandfather…and even great grandfather not honoring You. Now does that mean that my grandchildren—being the third or fourth generation since someone in the family rejected You—will suffer? Lord, please have mercy! Have mercy on the health situations of my granddaughters. Open our eyes and hearts to understand Your word and claim Your promises.

You must not have any other god but me. You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands. Exodus 20:3-6 NLT

 

Meditate. Consider God’s commands in scripture.

 

Do you have people in your family who have rejected God?

 

This is right out of the Ten Commandments. God told the Israelites that He was the one true God and gave them a motivation—their sins would go onto their family to the third and fourth generation, but for those who obey Him there will be love—unfailing love. Time hasn’t changed this commandment we are still expected to obey God’s word.

The old family sod house.
Did the sin of rejection start here?

I woke up the other day thinking about this scripture…and how I’d heard stories of unfaithfulness of my Dad’s cousins. Was my Dad doing the same…and I just didn’t see it? Did they “learn” that from their fathers or grandfather? Is that, as well as the refusal to go to church and worship the Lord our God, the sin that would be put on their families—to the third and fourth generations? Dad rejected God for most of his life. His parents—I assume his Mom—required him to go to church with the family every time the doors were open. So, as an adult, he never wanted to go to church. He said, “I had enough church as a kid to last a lifetime.” I remember him only going to church a couple of times when I was growing up. He would drop us kids off for Sunday School and we’d meet Mom in the sanctuary for the regular service. Since Dad “rejected” God, did that put his sins on my grandchildren—the third generation? Did his deathbed acceptance of Jesus as his Savior erase his earlier “rejection” sin? Was that a true repentance? A true repentance should have erased those sins. All sins are forgiven when one accepts Jesus Christ as their Savior. Were those sins passed on to the later generations? We can only plead with God for mercy…and trust Him that His plan for forgiveness and the blood of Jesus covers those sins. We can claim God's promise of the lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands. I trust that God is good, but like others, I still wonder why bad things happen to good people—especially children.

For you, how many generations of rejection of God in your family? Comments?

 

Verse of Salvation ~ For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There's no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death. 2 Corinthians 7:10 NLT

 

© 2024 Text, photos, and illustrations by Mickey M. Hunacek. All rights reserved. 

All scripture quoted from the New King James Version (NKJV) unless otherwise noted. 

New King James Version, © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Harper Collins Publisher. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

New Living Translation (NLT) copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. 

Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

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