Pray the Word with David Platt is a resource from Radical.net.

Genesis chapter 31, verse 19.

Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole her father's household gods.

This is a really humbling verse when you think about it and you think about its effects

long after this moment. So Jacob and Rachel and their family are fleeing from Laban at this point

who has, in a sense, held them captive.

And as they are fleeing, and there's all kinds of deception going on, so much we could talk about here.

But this verse, while Laban is out shearing his sheep, tells us that Rachel stole her father's household gods.

So the picture is here in this family, there's a father who is set up gods, little G, gods in the house to be worshipped, prayed to, sought, leaned upon,

trusted in.

And the effect of those household gods doesn't extend just to the father, but to his daughter, who adopts those household gods to the point of stealing

them and taking them with her in a way that they will show up again in Jacob's tent as he is

traveling.

And God will say, what are you doing with these gods in your presence?

Why are you worshipping these household gods? And it's this picture just from one generation to the next,

from one household to the next, idolatry being passed down. And so I just want to

encourage you as we pray, according to Genesis chapter 31, verse 19, to consider one, what are the

idols in your house? What are the idols in your life? What are the idols in your heart? And how are those

idols not just affecting you, but also affecting people around you? Whether it's family members,

whether it's parents affecting children, children affecting parents, Or maybe it's just affecting friends.

Or maybe it's affecting your church.

When you and I think about sin, idolatry, immorality, let's never be fooled into thinking.

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