the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Grace for Today
Genesis 18:19
A word about ministering to your children
Read Psalms 127:1-5
All believing parents are concerned about the souls of their children. We want to see them converted, saved by the grace of God, united to Christ in eternal life. But we must be careful, especially careful with young children, not to push them into a profession of faith before their hearts are renewed by the grace of God.
We dare not set any limitations upon the grace of God. God saves his elect when he will. But the gospel of Christ is not addressed to children and youths who are incapable of making moral, reasonable, responsible decisions for themselves. The gospel is addressed to mature men and women who are capable of understanding their moral responsibility before God. The age of such maturity varies with individuals. But I think that a child who still requires the direction of his parents to determine what he should eat, where he should go, what he should wear and what he can do is incapable of understanding his moral responsibility before God.
Free-willism, easy believism and decisionism are as deadly to children as to adults. Every pastor who honestly deals with the souls of men knows that the vast majority of children who make professions of faith prove to be false. Children are especially susceptible to emotional fears of hell and the pressure to please parents, preachers and teachers. If you try, you can get your children to make a profession of faith. Do not be guilty of such treason to their souls. Wait on God to do his work of grace.
How should we minister to our children? Teach them the gospel. No one can be saved apart from a heart knowledge of gospel truth. Pray for them. Commit your children to the hands of God. Seek his grace for them. Set before them an example of faith in Christ and commitment to the gospel. As our children grow to maturity, nothing will so much influence them as the example we set before them. Wait for God to be gracious. If our sons and daughters are chosen of God and redeemed by Christ they will be born again by the Holy Spirit, at God’s appointed time.
