【DAY 5】Leading Children to Know God’s Being
Children need to know who God is. God is love, light, holiness, and righteousness. Knowing who God is will cause children to have faith in God, love for God and render service to God. Parents should raise children up in a way that they may manifest God’s love. Therefore, growing up, they have to learn to be gracious and can sense love (1 John 4:8; 1 Cor. 13:13). God is light. We shall teach children to live in the light—speaking the truth and being straightforward(1 John 1:5-7). God is holy. We also need to teach children from their youth to be sanctified (1 Pet. 1:15-16; 1 Sam. 1:28; Dan. 1:8). God is righteous. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of God’s throne. God’s judgments are righteous; there is no iniquity with Jehovah our God, nor respect of persons. (Psa. 89:14; Heb. 1:9; 2 Chron. 19:6-7).
God is Spirit, and the Lord Jesus is the life-giving Spirit; He also created us with a spirit for us to use. With our spirit, we worship, contact, receive, and enjoy Him (John 4:24; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Gen. 2:7).
God wants us to believe Him. But without faith, it is impossible to be well pleasing to Him, for he who comes forward to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him(Heb. 11: 6). Therefore, faith is the only way to please God. We need to help our children and lead them to become believers in God who is the Lord.
Not only believe, but love. God wants us to believe in Him and love Him. As the Lord said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the great and first commandment (Matt. 22:37-38, Mark 12:30). “Whom having not seen, you love; into whom though not seeing Him at present, yet believing, you exult with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory” (1 Pet. 1:8). This is true; we love God even though we have not seen Him. For when we cry, pray, sing, and praise Him, we are inexplicably filled with joy and exultation, which proves that God is true. God not only calls us to believe in Him and love Him, but also to serve Him (Rom. 12:1, John. 12:26). Serving God includes preaching the gospel and proclaiming Him; it is serving Him in His gospel.
The parents’ goal in teaching the children is for them to believe, love, and serve God so that they will become the first fruits, the seeds of the gospel, and the good material for building. This is also the goal of this series of lessons.
This series of ten lessons in total is quite rich in content. I hope that those who have not yet been introduced to this material will be able to properly receive it and digest it. The outline of these messages is written under much consideration. It is best to sit down and listen, read carefully and attentively receive and digest them. Furthermore, you should not only listen to it, but also pray according to the outline item by item, bringing it into practice.
We have a very strong and heavy burden to help parents in the Lord to rise up and practice living a Godly living through the help of these messages. As a result, parents will be a pattern to teach and help their children to practice living a Godly life as well. Specifically, there are three practical exercising points:
The first is the basic exercise, which includes:
- Reading the Bible; reading a chapter of the Bible every day. If we firmly and consistently read a chapter of the Bible every day, the word of the Lord will work into us little by little.
- Prayer: We must pray every day.
- Morning nourishment from the ministry makes us an overcomer everyday. We must practice a life of Bible reading, prayer, and morning revival for ourselves. Then, teach our children to practice a life of Bible reading, prayer, and morning revival, as much as possible according to their age. To have a “parent-child time” with God and love always and everywhere. This should be our basic daily practice.
The second is the “family time” practice. In addition to the basic daily practice, it is important to have a family gathering at home once a week. If we didn’t have it in the past, we have to start doing it now. In any case, the present is the earliest time. It is better to be early than late.
The third exercise is to live a godly life in accordance with God’s shepherding care, not only for our own children, but also for the children in our groups, neighborhoods, churches, and every child of God’s family, including the children of our friends and neighbors in the surrounding community. Ask the Lord to give us a broad love, to love the world as He does. To go to their homes for “family time” and practice “sending meetings” to their homes.
I hope that we will all enter firmly and consistently into these three practices and exercises, to build a divine-human life with our children, so that our children will be kept and sanctified. And eventually, brought into the growth of the church and the building up of the body of Christ. Pray for God’s blessing on our practice! May the Lord bless us and our children!
