Silas
Beloved of All
Your love for your children and your desire that they grow up knowing and revering the Lord is a good and right burden, and God hears it. He has not left you without hope or without a part to play, even when they are not always in your home.
Scripture gives the promise you mentioned, that children can be taught by the Lord and know His peace, and it also shows how that teaching comes. God told His people that His words are first to be in our own hearts, and then we are to teach them diligently to our children, talking about them when we sit in our house and when we walk along the way, when we lie down and when we rise up. That is the pattern for you. When your children are with you, use every ordinary moment to share with them who God is, what He has done, and what His Word says. Tell them of His works and His deliverance, so that they can come to know Him for themselves and not only through others. It is the Word of God itself that reaches the heart, and as you faithfully speak it and live it before them, God can use it to draw them to Himself and to keep them after you are no longer with them.
It is true and painful that the choices of parents affect children. Scripture teaches that God visits the iniquity of those who hate Him to the third and fourth generation, and we see in life how children often suffer because of a parent's sin. Some would say God is not fair in this, but the same passage shows His mercy to thousands who love Him and keep His commandments, and His desire is always toward mercy. The effects of sin are real, but they are not final when Christ intervenes. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and the way to God is open to every person through Jesus Christ alone. There is no other way, and no one is beyond His reach. That is why your prayers for new life in Christ are so important.
I will not ask God to bless a living arrangement that is outside His design for marriage, which is a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman where alone He intends sexual union and the raising of a family. To do so would be contrary to His Word. What I will pray is that God, who is both gracious and holy, forgiving and also the righteous Judge, will bring both their mother and her partner to a true fear of Him. Without the fear of God in the heart, people can go on in ways contrary to His Word without trembling, but when God grants repentance, He gives a reverence that turns from sin and seeks to obey Him. My prayer is that they will hear the gospel, see their need of a Savior, turn from what is wrong, and receive new life through faith in Jesus Christ. If God transforms them, that transformation will bear fruit in every area of life, and it will also create a far better soil for your children to be raised in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Let us pray together. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, I bring these children before You. Put Your Word in their hearts. Cause them to hear Your truth and to love it, to obey it and to walk in the fear of You all their days. Guard them from evil and from being led into sin, and give them hearts that will not submit to what You call evil even if asked to. Surround them with Your care when they are out of their father's sight, for You watch over them. And Father, I ask for the salvation of their mother and of her partner. Open their eyes to see that all have sinned and need Christ, and that forgiveness and new life come only through Him. Grant them repentance and faith, that they may be born again and learn to walk in obedience to Your commands, so that Your mercy may flow to these children and to generations to come. Let Your Word do its work in each heart. In Jesus' name, amen.
Continue to be faithful in prayer, in the Word, and in the example you set. God Himself fights for those who trust Him, and He is able to keep your children and to save those who are still far from Him.
Scripture gives the promise you mentioned, that children can be taught by the Lord and know His peace, and it also shows how that teaching comes. God told His people that His words are first to be in our own hearts, and then we are to teach them diligently to our children, talking about them when we sit in our house and when we walk along the way, when we lie down and when we rise up. That is the pattern for you. When your children are with you, use every ordinary moment to share with them who God is, what He has done, and what His Word says. Tell them of His works and His deliverance, so that they can come to know Him for themselves and not only through others. It is the Word of God itself that reaches the heart, and as you faithfully speak it and live it before them, God can use it to draw them to Himself and to keep them after you are no longer with them.
It is true and painful that the choices of parents affect children. Scripture teaches that God visits the iniquity of those who hate Him to the third and fourth generation, and we see in life how children often suffer because of a parent's sin. Some would say God is not fair in this, but the same passage shows His mercy to thousands who love Him and keep His commandments, and His desire is always toward mercy. The effects of sin are real, but they are not final when Christ intervenes. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and the way to God is open to every person through Jesus Christ alone. There is no other way, and no one is beyond His reach. That is why your prayers for new life in Christ are so important.
I will not ask God to bless a living arrangement that is outside His design for marriage, which is a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman where alone He intends sexual union and the raising of a family. To do so would be contrary to His Word. What I will pray is that God, who is both gracious and holy, forgiving and also the righteous Judge, will bring both their mother and her partner to a true fear of Him. Without the fear of God in the heart, people can go on in ways contrary to His Word without trembling, but when God grants repentance, He gives a reverence that turns from sin and seeks to obey Him. My prayer is that they will hear the gospel, see their need of a Savior, turn from what is wrong, and receive new life through faith in Jesus Christ. If God transforms them, that transformation will bear fruit in every area of life, and it will also create a far better soil for your children to be raised in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Let us pray together. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, I bring these children before You. Put Your Word in their hearts. Cause them to hear Your truth and to love it, to obey it and to walk in the fear of You all their days. Guard them from evil and from being led into sin, and give them hearts that will not submit to what You call evil even if asked to. Surround them with Your care when they are out of their father's sight, for You watch over them. And Father, I ask for the salvation of their mother and of her partner. Open their eyes to see that all have sinned and need Christ, and that forgiveness and new life come only through Him. Grant them repentance and faith, that they may be born again and learn to walk in obedience to Your commands, so that Your mercy may flow to these children and to generations to come. Let Your Word do its work in each heart. In Jesus' name, amen.
Continue to be faithful in prayer, in the Word, and in the example you set. God Himself fights for those who trust Him, and He is able to keep your children and to save those who are still far from Him.
