A Nugget from New Life Network
(by Dr. Larry Ollison)
Scripture for the Day – June 12, 2019
But He said, “Leave the children alone, and do not forbid them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” (Matthew 19:14)
Jesus loved the little children when He was here on the earth, and the implication is that not everyone else did. We must be like Jesus. We must love, protect, and teach the little ones. We must train them in the things that are right. When we do this, not only will our children be strong in the Word of God, but they will be at peace. Isaiah 54:13 says that our children are to be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of our children if they are. How will our children be taught of the Lord? The answer is quite simple. We must teach them.
Last week while I was in a restaurant, I saw a minister who I had known for years. Although I had spent many hours with him and we had always enjoyed our time together, I had never met his family. One of the first things he did when he saw me was to introduce his wife and his young son. I reached out my hand to shake the hand of the young boy. He probably was in the first or second grade. The young boy would not shake my hand, but drew back and grabbed his father’s leg and held on tightly. Why did he do this? Quite simply, the reason was that his trust was in his daddy.
Children place their trust in their parents. They will believe what their mom and dad say before they will believe the word of a stranger. They will trust and obey their parents more than anyone else on this earth. Of course, there are times when parents may wonder about this statement and there are times when children seem rebellious, but God has planted deep in each child’s heart the natural desire to be like mom and dad. Good or bad, children many times grow up to be exactly like their parents. So, we must develop faith in our children.
Faith is developed in our children the same way faith is developed in us. They must hear the Word of God in such a way that it becomes rhema knowledge in their heart. How can they hear the Word? They must hear it at home. Yes, hearing the Word at children’s church is wonderful, but it must be confirmed in the home.
So, if you have children (or grandchildren), be a faith parent (or grandparent). If you don’t have children, help develop faith in those who are in your sphere of influence. Believe the Word of God, speak the Word of God, and do the Word of God in your home and when you are with the children of loved ones, friends’ children, the neighbor’s kids, and so on,
and you will be well on the way to developing a faith child.
“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17).
