Discipleship: It's Easier Than You Think

The statistics about the next generation are staggering. Young people are walking away from the Christian faith in historic numbers. There is a fierce spiritual battle raging for our children and it is critical that everyone is aware of it and engaged in the fight.

So, what is the battle plan? God gives us the path to victory in Deuteronomy 6:4-9:

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. 

God didn’t give His people a ten-step program to ensure the next generation would know Him. Instead, He gave a straight-forward command: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” Deuteronomy 6 gave the Israelites a model of discipleship—passing on a love for God as they lived that love out in every area of their daily life. In the New Testament, we see Jesus demonstrate this same type of discipleship with the Twelve. The path to spiritual victory with our kids is the same for us today: a sold-out, all-consuming love for God. It is the greatest commandment He gives to us, and obedience to it impacts everything about our lives, including our parenting.

Yet what does this look like lived out? It’s less complicated than you think. Here in Wisconsin, you never have to schedule times to sit down with your children to discuss becoming Green Bay Packers football fans. You never have to consider at what age they should start being taught the rules or when to watch the game. No, you just watch Packers games together, you talk about favorite players, you wear Packers clothing, you listen to Packers coverage on the news, you may even have a basement painted green complete with Packers paraphernalia. The simple reality is Packers fans love the Packers; it’s obvious, it’s obsessive, and they do a great job of discipling their kids to love the Packers too.

The same is true for our faith. When our lives are consumed by Jesus’ love, then we won’t have to sit down and plan out how to pass on our faith to our kids. If we love God and are passionate about reading His Word; if the focus of our life is to do the work Jesus commanded us to do—to love others and make disciples—our kids will see it. A deep love for Jesus cannot be contained and will naturally overflow into our children’s lives as it impacts everything we do. It’s obvious, it’s obsessive, it’s discipleship.

So, is Jesus our life? Does our love for Him flow into everything we do? Have we shown them through our words and actions what it looks like to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.” to “Set your mind on things above.” or to “Go make disciples.”? Have they caught the obsession? Are they growing up with one desire—following Jesus too? Or, has our life shown them a love for the things of this world, and how to live for the here and now? The question we need to ask ourselves is what is our life discipling them to love?

The starting point towards victory in the spiritual battle for the next generation is when all of us as parents humble ourselves before God and repent for how often our lives have been consumed by a love for so many other things rather than God. Then, in view of what Jesus has done for us on the cross, let’s respond in love with what God has told us to do. Let’s cry out to God asking Him to give us a greater love for Himself. Let’s dive into God’s Word realizing it is the truth our lives need to be built upon. Let’s live each day of our lives following Jesus. It’s obvious, it’s obsessive, it’s discipleship and guess what, it works.