【DAY 3】Caring for the Future of the Child
“What then will this little child be?” (Luke 1:66); “teach us what we should do with the boy” (Judges 13: 8); “what shall he do?” (V. 12). Most people in the world only care about their children’s future education, material wealth, and social status, but as Christians, as children of God, we have to think about all aspects of our children’s being, especially their spiritual life (Rom. 14:17). What we think, hope, and ask for our children is not only whether they can enter a good university, but also whether their vessel can be preserved until the Lord returns. Can they stand before the Lord’s judgment seat when the Lord returns? Where will they be in the coming kingdom? Where will they be in eternity future?
We have a very serious responsibility for the children we give birth to and the children we raise up. We must plant a living faith in them, put a correct and wonderful faith into them, and put Godly values, ethics, views, and the humanity of Christ into them. We start with a baby, and while the baby is still in our hands and by our side, we must bring each one to the Lord Jesus, and transfuse a genuine and living faith into his or her being.
To encourage the Lord’s return and to spread the gospel of the kingdom throughout the world as a testimony to all the nations, we must equip and prepare our children to become gospel seeds (Matt. 24:14). Before the Lord returns, the gospel of the kingdom must be preached throughout the whole inhabited earth. It is our responsibility to preach the gospel, so the gospel must be preached. As for whether people believe the gospel or not that is up to God. The more wicked and corrupt the age is, the more people will reject the gospel and the colder their hearts will be, but we just need to preach the gospel of God with strength. Therefore, we must equip and prepare our children to become gospel seeds. When they are young, we must give them strong faith so that they know that it is glorious and valuable to preach the gospel and testify for the Lord.
To prepare for the Lord’s return, we must prepare and perfect our children to become the first fruits (Rev. 14:1-5). Revelation 14:1-4 says, “And I saw, and behold, the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him a hundred and forty-four thousand, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads. These are they who follow the Lamb wherever He may go. These were purchased from among men as first fruits to God and to the Lamb.” These one hundred and forty-four thousand first fruits are raptured living overcomers before the great tribulation; among them quite a few are young people, and many of them may be children. The first fruits do not need to go through the last three and a half years of the tribulation, they will be kept “out of the hour of trial, which is about to come on the whole inhabited earth, to try them who dwell on the earth.” (3:10). We all eagerly hope that our children can become first fruits; and we must prepare and perfect our children to become first fruits.
For the building up of the Body of Christ and the preparation of the Bride, we must perfect our children to be material that can be built up in a coordinated way (Eph. 4:12-16). The Lord’s heart’s desire is to obtain a built-up Church, a built-up Body, or a prepared Bride. Because of this, we must perfect our children to become persons who are willing and ready, and capable to coordinate.
Therefore, our three goals in raising children today are: First, to make children the seeds of the gospel; Second, to make children the first fruits; and Third, to make children good material for coordination and building up. If we take these three goals as our goal in raising our children, not only will our children become glorious and honorable vessels, but also our Lord will have dispensational building materials in the last days of the last age to fulfill His heart’s desire. We hope that this would become our goal and our prayer, and that we would all desire our children to be such persons.