Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer for the little ones is heard and we join you in lifting them before the Lord Jesus. He has shown how precious children are to Him, warning that it would be better for a millstone to be hung around the neck of anyone who causes one of these little ones to stumble, and teaching that their angels always behold the face of the Father in heaven. That love is the foundation for asking Him to keep them close and to guard them.
We thank God with you for Jesus as the Good Shepherd. He lays down His life for the sheep, He carries the lambs in His arms, He leads them gently and feeds them, and His rod and staff bring comfort and protection. As Micah foretold, He stands and shepherds His flock in the strength of the Lord, so that His people may dwell securely. In Psalm 23 and Isaiah 40 and Ezekiel 34 we see that same care, a Shepherd who does not forget one lamb, who gives rest to the weary and heavy laden and whose yoke is easy and burden is light.
Part of shepherding the young is teaching them to know the Holy Scriptures from their youth, as Paul reminded Timothy, so that they are wise for salvation through faith in Christ. There is no greater joy than to hear that children are walking in truth, and that truth is how they learn to love God and to recognize what is good. God gives children a need for a stable, loving home where that truth can be planted and nourished, and He calls parents and grandparents and those who care for them to provide that security.
Scripture also teaches that the fear of the Lord is to hate evil, because God hates evil. Evil always asks to be tolerated and to be excused, even with the weak excuse that God made a person that way, but evil cannot be justified. The heart that is set on evil seeks only to harm and shows no favor even to a neighbor. We are warned not to share in the bread of one whose eye is set on evil, not in the superstitious sense, but in the plain sense of a person whose mind and desires are bent toward what is wrong. We are to depart from evil and not develop a tolerance for it, and to honor the Lord with our lives. That means we must be watchful to guard children from influences that would warp them, whether it is open violence and impurity that is now so easily available, or the more hidden danger of false teachers and imposters who may even claim to be ministers. We pray for discernment to keep their eyes and ears and minds from what would defile them and to keep their bodies and souls from the evil one.
So we lift up your young ones, their cousins and friends, parents and aunts and uncles and those who care for them, and all the children among the fellowship of believers. We ask the Lord to give His angels charge over them, for He has promised that the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him and that He gives His angels charge to keep His people in all their ways. We ask Him to pour His love into their hearts by the Holy Spirit and to strengthen them to know the breadth and depth of that love, and to give them wisdom and knowledge as they grow.
Do not fret because of evildoers. There is no reward for the wicked and their light will be put out. God sees and He will judge righteously. Our part is to submit ourselves to God, to resist the devil and he will flee from us, to put on the whole armor of God and to stand firm. The church which Christ builds upon the confession that He is the Messiah will prevail against the gates of hell, and He works all things together for good according to the counsel of His will and for the furtherance of the gospel.
We pray now that the Lord will keep these children from stumbling, heal any who have been hurt, draw to Himself any who are weary, and keep you steadfast in intercession. May He bind the work of the enemy in the authority of Jesus, who has all authority in heaven and on earth and who needs only to speak the word, and may He cause His Word to go out to the ends of the earth as He has commanded. We trust Him in advance to answer according to His perfect care, in the name of Jesus.
We thank God with you for Jesus as the Good Shepherd. He lays down His life for the sheep, He carries the lambs in His arms, He leads them gently and feeds them, and His rod and staff bring comfort and protection. As Micah foretold, He stands and shepherds His flock in the strength of the Lord, so that His people may dwell securely. In Psalm 23 and Isaiah 40 and Ezekiel 34 we see that same care, a Shepherd who does not forget one lamb, who gives rest to the weary and heavy laden and whose yoke is easy and burden is light.
Part of shepherding the young is teaching them to know the Holy Scriptures from their youth, as Paul reminded Timothy, so that they are wise for salvation through faith in Christ. There is no greater joy than to hear that children are walking in truth, and that truth is how they learn to love God and to recognize what is good. God gives children a need for a stable, loving home where that truth can be planted and nourished, and He calls parents and grandparents and those who care for them to provide that security.
Scripture also teaches that the fear of the Lord is to hate evil, because God hates evil. Evil always asks to be tolerated and to be excused, even with the weak excuse that God made a person that way, but evil cannot be justified. The heart that is set on evil seeks only to harm and shows no favor even to a neighbor. We are warned not to share in the bread of one whose eye is set on evil, not in the superstitious sense, but in the plain sense of a person whose mind and desires are bent toward what is wrong. We are to depart from evil and not develop a tolerance for it, and to honor the Lord with our lives. That means we must be watchful to guard children from influences that would warp them, whether it is open violence and impurity that is now so easily available, or the more hidden danger of false teachers and imposters who may even claim to be ministers. We pray for discernment to keep their eyes and ears and minds from what would defile them and to keep their bodies and souls from the evil one.
So we lift up your young ones, their cousins and friends, parents and aunts and uncles and those who care for them, and all the children among the fellowship of believers. We ask the Lord to give His angels charge over them, for He has promised that the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him and that He gives His angels charge to keep His people in all their ways. We ask Him to pour His love into their hearts by the Holy Spirit and to strengthen them to know the breadth and depth of that love, and to give them wisdom and knowledge as they grow.
Do not fret because of evildoers. There is no reward for the wicked and their light will be put out. God sees and He will judge righteously. Our part is to submit ourselves to God, to resist the devil and he will flee from us, to put on the whole armor of God and to stand firm. The church which Christ builds upon the confession that He is the Messiah will prevail against the gates of hell, and He works all things together for good according to the counsel of His will and for the furtherance of the gospel.
We pray now that the Lord will keep these children from stumbling, heal any who have been hurt, draw to Himself any who are weary, and keep you steadfast in intercession. May He bind the work of the enemy in the authority of Jesus, who has all authority in heaven and on earth and who needs only to speak the word, and may He cause His Word to go out to the ends of the earth as He has commanded. We trust Him in advance to answer according to His perfect care, in the name of Jesus.
