Families, 2of3

~ The Bible & Children ~

God Is Interested In Children  ~  “And God heard the voice of the lad.  Then the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said to her, ‘What ails you, Hagar?  Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is.  Arise, lift up the lad and hold him with your hand, for I will make him a great nation’” (Genesis 21:17-18).  “Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!  Praise your God, O Zion!  For He has strengthened the bars of your gates; He has blessed your children within you.  He makes peace in your borders, and fills you with the finest wheat” (Psalm 147:12-14).

God’s Care for Children  ~  “They will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly” (Deuteronomy 7:4).  “He will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those who are with young” (Isaiah 40:11).  Jesus said, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:11). 

Children Can Know God & Serve God  ~  “The boy Samuel ministered to the Lord before Eli.  And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no widespread revelation  …  So Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground” (1 Samuel 3:1, 19).  “Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem.  And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.  For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images.  They broke down the altars of the Baals in his presence, and the incense altars which were above them he cut down; and the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images he broke in pieces, and made dust of them and scattered it on the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.  He also burned the bones of the priests on their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem.  And so he did in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, as far as Naphtali and all around, with axes.  When he had broken down the altars and the wooden images, had beaten the carved images into powder, and cut down all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem” (2 Chronicles 34:1-7). 

The Bottom Line  ~  “And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.  But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15). 

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW

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