Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer for the little ones is heard and we join you in it with thanksgiving. The Lord Jesus is the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for the sheep, and He stands to shepherd His flock in the strength of the Lord. The Scriptures give us confidence that He gathers the lambs in His arms, carries them close to His heart, leads and feeds them, and that no one can snatch them from His hand. We thank God with you for every child, every cousin, niece and nephew, and every family connected to you, and we ask Him to keep them in His care, to comfort them with His rod and staff, and to cause them to dwell securely.
God has shown us that children are a heritage from Him and that He takes their welfare seriously. Jesus said their angels always behold the face of the Father, and He warned that it would be better for a millstone to be hung around a person's neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. That tells us how precious they are in His sight and how earnestly He guards them. He also promises to give His angels charge over those who trust Him, to keep them in all their ways, and that the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him.
Part of that protection is the wisdom God gives to us as parents and family. A prudent person sees evil coming and takes refuge, and God has made that refuge for us in Jesus Christ. We hide ourselves in Him from judgment and from the power of sin. For our children that means training them up in the way they should go and making the Holy Scriptures known to them from their youth, because the Scriptures are able to make them wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. When children are fed with knowledge and wisdom from a shepherd after God's own heart, they are given a foundation that can keep them when temptations and false teachings come.
That also means we must be discerning about companions and influences. The warning not to eat the bread of one who has an evil eye is not about superstition or a hex, but about a person whose mind and heart are set on evil. We are told to avoid the way of such people, not to turn aside to it, to pass it by and turn from it. Those who walk in darkness leave the paths of uprightness and speak perverse things, and they rest poorly unless they have caused someone to fall. Love for our children requires that we keep them far from that path, keep their eyes and ears from evil, and not give opportunity to those who would exploit or mislead them, even if they claim to be teachers or ministers. We are to remove our feet from evil and keep our lips from perverse speech, looking straight ahead on the path God has established.
We also hear your burden for the presence of wickedness and for those who would harm the young. The Scriptures tell us not to fret because of evildoers or to envy the wicked, for there is no lasting reward for the evil person and they will be cut off in God's time. God has always sought to protect the innocent from practices that destroy children, and His judgment against such evil is sure. While we remain watchful and guard the flock among us, we do not need to live in fear. We submit ourselves to God, resist the devil, put on the armor of God, and trust that the church which Christ builds upon the confession of who He is will prevail against the gates of hell.
So we continue to pray with you that God would pour His love into the hearts of these children by the Holy Spirit, that they would know the breadth and depth of His love, that He would strengthen them with might in the inner person, heal any who have been hurt, and draw the weary and heavy laden to the rest that Jesus gives. We ask that He would work all things together for good according to the counsel of His will and for the furtherance of the gospel, and that He would keep your family and all the children entrusted to you under the shadow of His wings until they grow strong in faith and able to stand and intercede for others as well.
God has shown us that children are a heritage from Him and that He takes their welfare seriously. Jesus said their angels always behold the face of the Father, and He warned that it would be better for a millstone to be hung around a person's neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. That tells us how precious they are in His sight and how earnestly He guards them. He also promises to give His angels charge over those who trust Him, to keep them in all their ways, and that the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him.
Part of that protection is the wisdom God gives to us as parents and family. A prudent person sees evil coming and takes refuge, and God has made that refuge for us in Jesus Christ. We hide ourselves in Him from judgment and from the power of sin. For our children that means training them up in the way they should go and making the Holy Scriptures known to them from their youth, because the Scriptures are able to make them wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. When children are fed with knowledge and wisdom from a shepherd after God's own heart, they are given a foundation that can keep them when temptations and false teachings come.
That also means we must be discerning about companions and influences. The warning not to eat the bread of one who has an evil eye is not about superstition or a hex, but about a person whose mind and heart are set on evil. We are told to avoid the way of such people, not to turn aside to it, to pass it by and turn from it. Those who walk in darkness leave the paths of uprightness and speak perverse things, and they rest poorly unless they have caused someone to fall. Love for our children requires that we keep them far from that path, keep their eyes and ears from evil, and not give opportunity to those who would exploit or mislead them, even if they claim to be teachers or ministers. We are to remove our feet from evil and keep our lips from perverse speech, looking straight ahead on the path God has established.
We also hear your burden for the presence of wickedness and for those who would harm the young. The Scriptures tell us not to fret because of evildoers or to envy the wicked, for there is no lasting reward for the evil person and they will be cut off in God's time. God has always sought to protect the innocent from practices that destroy children, and His judgment against such evil is sure. While we remain watchful and guard the flock among us, we do not need to live in fear. We submit ourselves to God, resist the devil, put on the armor of God, and trust that the church which Christ builds upon the confession of who He is will prevail against the gates of hell.
So we continue to pray with you that God would pour His love into the hearts of these children by the Holy Spirit, that they would know the breadth and depth of His love, that He would strengthen them with might in the inner person, heal any who have been hurt, and draw the weary and heavy laden to the rest that Jesus gives. We ask that He would work all things together for good according to the counsel of His will and for the furtherance of the gospel, and that He would keep your family and all the children entrusted to you under the shadow of His wings until they grow strong in faith and able to stand and intercede for others as well.
