Prayer
Heavenly Father, I thank you and I praise you for the new day that you have given. I thank you and I praise you, my rock and my redeemer. As I open your word this morning, may your Spirit help me to work out my salvation with fear and trembling as I give thanks to you who works in me both to will and to work for your good pleasure. Lord, please help me to live in a way that brings you pleasure, and make me to rejoice in your delight. Please help me to rejoice in you always. Please forgive me for my many sins. I thank you and I praise you, and I look to you now. Speak, O Lord. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
Reading
1 Kings 11:26-43 & James 5:19-20.
Proverbs 1:8-9.
“Hear, my son, your father's instruction,
and forsake not your mother's teaching,
for they are a graceful garland for your head
and pendants for your neck.”
Meditation
God gives wisdom, and God uses means to give wisdom. Especially to young people we must then say this: God uses your parents. As children, God chooses our parents specifically to achieve his purposes. He calls us to listen to our parents as well, to obey them. Children must therefore learn to listen to their parents. Arguing, talking back – these things are disobedient to God, and a child must instead open his heart and listen to his parents. Even as adults, we must remember that our parents are a gift from God. We are no longer called to submit to them in the same way as when we were children, but we are called to listen to them and to honour them.
This call is not only a call upon children to listen to their parents, but it is also a call to parents to instruct their children. If you are a parent, consider the gravity of your call. God calls us, appoints us, and gives us the responsibility to impart authoritative, rational, positive biblical directives to our children. We are called to do this with the aim of seeing them receive wisdom and grow in godliness. That is what God has called us to. Parenting is a fearful task, for the very souls of our children are entrusted to us.
Be ye doers of the word…
We cannot give wisdom to our children, or those who have been committed to our care, unless we already have it for ourselves. We cannot expect them to be teachable, if we ourselves are not teachable. We must therefore ask ourselves: Am I truly walking with God? Do I know Him? Am I teachable? We cannot give what we have not already received. If you are a parent, you must be real and sincere in your faith, and you must cry out to God each day for help in your task. You cannot do it without him.
We live in a world that disregards the authority of parents. The idea of fathers being in authority has become a foreign concept, the idea of biblical womanhood is scorned and devalued, and the devil loves to destroy families and marriages. We will not succeed in the task before us unless the Lord protects and enables us to do it. Pray, therefore, for your parenting and the parents of your church. Pray for those relationships where you are called to provide wisdom, advice, guidance, or direction.
To those who are single, these things are still relevant. Firstly, because you too can minister to parents in your church through prayer – both for parents and for the children themselves. But secondly, this comes as a sober warning to choose your spouse carefully. Having children is an awesome responsibility, and the last thing you want to do is choose foolishly when it comes to whom you marry. Think about whether or not a potential spouse is a godly person. Will they make a godly father or mother one day? Will they be on the same page as you in seeking to raise children in the ways of the Lord? Ask for advice on these questions from your parents and elders when you’re considering marrying someone.
For those who may be older and single, or older and married, and you’re past the age of childbearing, please pray for the families in the church. Encourage them and counsel them, ask them how they’re going, and be prepared to share your wisdom and experience with them. Let’s close out this meditation with one final practical consideration. How does God use parents? By calling them to instruct and teach their children. Words are the main tools of the trade in parenting, and especially the word of God. Consider Deuteronomy 6:4-9: ““Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
The main calling of parents is to continually sow the word of God into the lives of their children, and the calling of children is to listen to and receive those words. Family life ought to revolve around the word of God, because true family life is rooted in the fear of God. So let me ask a final and very simple question: How central is the word of God in your family life? The main task of parenting, which is an extension of the task of Christian discipleship generally, is to sow the word of God into the hearts of children. SDG.
Prayer of Confession & Consecration
Lord I thank you for the gift of parents, and for the gift of those who serve as spiritual parents in the church. I thank you for placing people in my life at different times who have ministered a direct portion of your fatherly care to me when I needed it. Most of all, I thank you, my Heavenly Father, for adopting me as your son through the Lord Jesus. I thank you that you are always with me, to guide, direct, and discipline me. O Lord, please forgive me for the many times I have proven to be a son who brings shame. Help me instead to be a wise son, that I may make you to be a glad Father. Thank you for the unspeakable privileges that you have given me through the Lord Jesus Christ. Please continue to overwhelm my heart with joy and delight in you, that I may have strength to withstand all the temptations and trials of life in this world. Hasten, Lord. Come, Lord Jesus. Amen.
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