Tues.’s Devo - Family Issues

Read: 2 Samuel 13:1-39; John 17:1-26; Psalm 119-81-96; Proverbs 16:6-7
If you have family problems then you will be able to relate to David’s family. Amnon was David’s son who fell in lust with his sister, Tamar, from another mother. Ironically, Amnon’s name means “faithful” but I think the only one Amnon was faithful to was himself. Since Tamar was a virgin and Amnon was not, he didn’t know how to approach nice girls. He and his cousin devised an evil plan to get Tamar alone. When he had her in his bedroom, he raped her, then despised her.
Poor Tamar’s life was ruined over Amnon’s selfishness and disrespect. She lived distraught in the house of Absalom, her brother. Absalom was furious at Amnon and waited for the perfect time to kill him. He finally found it two years later at sheep-shearing time. He talked his father, David into letting him take his brothers with him to shear the sheep. When he had gotten them away to himself, he told his servants to kill Amnon. They obeyed and the other sons fled.
Word got back to David that all his sons had been killed. He fell on the floor in despair. Then he learned that only Amnon had died because of what he did to Tamar. Absalom fled to Geshur and stayed with the king there. David mourned for Amnon for three years. Then he started missing Absalom.
Anger leads to murder. Absalom had two years to forgive Amnon, but instead he let his anger grow to murder. We will hopefully never kill a person, but when we get angry we kill them with our words. It all comes from the same spirit which is rooted in unforgiveness. Unforgiveness is a seed which will grow if we water it. Or, we can choose to kill it with forgiveness and water our hearts with the Word. We are constantly planting seeds in our lives. We want to be planting seeds that bring forth life and not death.
In John, Jesus invited his disciples into his intimate fellowship with his father. He had just finished making the statement that his disciples finally got who he was and now he felt they could experience his prayer life. In Jesus’ prayer, we see that he knows who he is and he knows his mission. He knows who God is also. He prays for his disciples, not that God would spare them from the world but that they would be sanctified by the truth. He prayed for us that would come to know him centuries later that we would be one just like he and God were one. He prayed that we would be in heaven and see his glory. He also prayed that we would have the same love Jesus had for God and that Jesus would be in us.
I pray that too. Lord, let your love be in us just like it is in you.