Sunday, August 12, 2018

A Prayer

Father,

We are so grateful for the children that you have given to us. They are one of Your many blessing granted to us because of Jesus. It brings a smile to our faces when we see the younger ones march up front to hear a lesson from the Gospel. And we are impressed with those whom we have watched grow older and more mature, getting ready to take their place in this world.

And it’s that ‘taking their place in this world’ that concerns us, Father. Our world is, bit by bit, falling apart. Things that simply used to be assumed as good and true and right are now condemned by so many. Ideas that previous generations would have thought silly are now presented as the new norm. Our world is slowly but surely going crazy. And that makes us concerned for these children. Living as faithful disciples of Jesus is becoming increasingly difficult. They are going to have a harder time of it than we did when we were growing up.

And so, we pray for these children of ours. We ask that You would prepare them for life in an increasingly hostile world. What we want for them is a growing knowledge of You as their loving Father, a deep devotion to Jesus as their Savior and Lord, and a profound dependence on the Spirit of grace.

All of this has much to say about us, the older generations. We are the ones You have called to prepare them for adulthood, something that is a weighty responsibility. And so, we ask that You would also deal with us. Make clear to us the importance of our preparing them. Make us take the time to pass on to them the things that You have taught us. Make us listen to them, to carefully listen to them, so that we will understand their hopes, their fears, their questions.

Teach them to listen, too, Father. We do have some wisdom to pass on, wisdom that we have gained, to some extent, from our mistakes. But if they don’t take the time to listen and consider they will have to gain that wisdom through their own mistakes. We would rather they avoid that.

Father, it is so very helpful that we know that whether our world is falling apart as it pursues its sin or if we are in the midst of a grand and glorious revival that is changing many lives, You are God. Your plan is always right on schedule. Nothing frustrates You. This world will be restored, just as You planned, when we get to the end of it all. Make us believe that so that we all, children and adults, will rest in Your peace as we work to change this world by the Gospel. Through Christ our Lord, Amen.

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