Title: What are our children?
Contents
God is blessed. (1 Timothy 1:11)
All the blessings that man seeks and seeks are all of God and come from God, the source of blessings.
In this way, the blessed God has bestowed His eternal blessing on our lives, the only-begotten Jesus.
▣ Why did God send His Son into the world so that all mankind might believe in Him?
He was trying to pour out God's blessings on people,
He is trying to pass on the blessings of God to the descendants of all mankind in this time and in the life to come.
In Deuteronomy 5:10, God says, “I show mercy to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” He wants all mankind to become fathers of faith who inherit the blessings of God.
Proverbs 17:6- “Parents say, “Parents are the glory of their children, and offspring are the fruit and crown of their house.”
Just as the honor and wealth of parents are naturally inherited by their descendants, God's people should be able to inherit the spiritual blessings they enjoy from their descendants.
▣ Even if unbelievers want sacrifices for their own souls, giving away the material you had to your children to pass on the sacrifices to their descendants,
} We have a duty to weep and pray to God, as Jesus said, “to weep and to pray to God in order to pass on the name and glory of God to our descendants whom we love.”
▣ How do we become fathers of faith who inherit God's spiritual blessings to our descendants?
Parents must first draw close to God in order to pass on God's blessings to their children.
Parents are the most influential teachers and closest teachers to their children.
He is the gentlest teacher who can discipline your children for their strengths and weaknesses without hurting them.
So, we should nurture our children in faith so that they may receive grace and esteem before God and men, even if they do not remain in the world.
God will acknowledge the blessings that our descendants have received through faith, and the world will recognize them, and God's Spirit will also guarantee the blessings we and our descendants have received from God.
▣ The path of the elderly and the path of adulthood have already been decided, and if the days of life are shorter than the days to live and the energy is strong, the body will return to dust and the soul will return to the god whom he received in his lifetime.
▣ The path of a young son and the path of young people are given more opportunities to make decisions and choose because there are more days to live than those that have yet to be lived.
As such, many things are not decided and the most important thing we will teach our children who have many choices is to walk on the path of faith that is pleasing to God, rather than anything else.
Parents in each country may have the same love for their children, but there is no parent who loves their children and sacrifices and dedicates themselves for their children as much as Korean parents, and the important thing is the method.
No matter how great your sacrifice and dedication, it is not true love if it does not benefit you when you consider the impact it will have on your children and their future.
In that sense, God's people must realize the principle of true love for children.
To do this, first of all, you need to have a good awareness of your children.
What are we going to teach our children, and which ones will we choose to follow in life?
▣ Like the Egyptians who do not know God, will you teach that the world's wealth and glory is the most important thing in your life?
} Or will you teach that it is more important to live for the soul, the essence of man, than to live a physical life like Abraham's descendants? are the things that parents who have become our parents must choose.
However, in today's text, before parents choose how to teach and educate their children, "What is a child to parents?" and "How will our parents view their children?" You are saying that the recognition of the most important thing, will you consider it as my property just because I gave birth?
Or, from God's point of view, will I see it as God's property, even though I have inherited the body, because death and life are in God's almighty hand? This is the perspective of faith that parents should have in the first place in the education of their children.
This time, let's look at what our children are to me from God's point of view.
1. Children are an inheritance God has given us.
Verse 3 - “Children are an inheritance from the LORD.” saying that.
The word “enterprise” in the text means inherited property, that is, inheritance.
} “inheritance” is not strictly one's own.
It belongs to the one who inherited it, and he is only the one who takes charge of it, that is, the steward.
Such was the conception of heritage that the Israelites had.
So they did not sell the land they inherited from their ancestors.
Even if the land was sold because it was too difficult, the ownership did not go to the person who bought the land, but he kept it for a while.
Then, if the person who sold the land brought back the money, the person who bought the land had to give up the land unconditionally. Because they had the concept that “the earth is thoroughly God’s.”
That is the reason we are still at war with the Palestinians.
Even when we think of our children, we must have this kind of stewardship, faith that they belong to God.
We often mistake our children for ours because we were born and raised them.
▣ So, on Sundays, rather than teaching them to go to God, the owner of their children, and worship them, they send them to school to raise them as successful children in the world, failing to teach them the importance of Sunday and worship.
Since our children belong to God, we must teach them to wait and long for the Sunday to meet God.
Our children should be nurtured and taught as instruments of God to do God's work, not tools to find my satisfaction and accomplish my purposes.
Jesus' parents Joseph and Mary were parents when they raised and educated the baby Jesus, but they raised the child while always recognizing that Jesus was the Son of God. Please nurture in faith.
2. Children are the reward of God's people.
Verse 3 (b) - “The fruit of the womb is her reward.”
Emphasizing the fact that children are not ours, but God's and an inheritance,
It is easy to become neglected and weak because love and attachment to children are not mine.
However, in today's text, it is said that children are the reward we receive from God.
These words mean that it is the most precious thing we have received from God. There are countless things God has given us, but the greatest reward among them is children.
So, from the old days, having many children has been regarded as a great blessing and a great reward.
However, these days, there is a tendency not to regard children as a reward, so the fertility rate has fallen to 1.6 per household to the extent that there is a saying, “Children are the best.”
There are even cases of abandoning or killing their own children, because those who do all these things only see their children as burdens, not as rewards or blessings.
How hard did we run on the playground as a child to get a reward?
And if you get a reward for doing something, you don't know how precious and precious that reward was.
In Genesis 33:5, when Jacob met his brother Esau for the first time in 20 years, he referred to his children, saying, “They are the children God has given to your servant by grace. is saying
As such, our children are the greatest reward God has given us by grace.
When the owner sees this precious and precious reward, please nurture it with faith.
3. It is said that children are arrows in the hands of merchants.
Verse 4 - “The children of a young man are like arrows in the hand of a merchant.” Says.
Once upon a time, a general who went to war and fought against the enemy carried a bow to defeat the enemy.
The arrow in the hands of a merchant is one of the only weapons to protect himself and the country. In today's text, we tell parents that children are like the arrows of a quiver that a merchant takes when he goes to war.
However, there is a characteristic of an arrow, and the arrow goes in the direction of the person who shoots the bow. So, if you shoot the wrong thing, it will cause great harm, and your children will grow up according to the teachings of their parents.
If we raise our children well in faith, we will receive grace and value in the sight of God and people, but just as a business owner shoots wrong arrows and harms others, if we raise our children incorrectly, what kind of person will we become in the future and what kind of impact will we have on this society. It may harm, but the problem of youth is serious in our society these days, but the will of the youth also plays a part, but isn't it caused by irresponsible parents? Having many children makes it difficult and difficult to raise and educate.
But God says that the children of His people will be Psalm 37:25- “From childhood to old age the righteous will not be forsaken, nor their descendants begging for food.” He says.
▣ Proverbs 3 tells how God's people will raise and educate their children.
If we nurture and educate our children, who are God's inheritance, gifts, and beings like arrows in the hands of businessmen, with the word and truth of God, they will become the glory and joy of our parents in the future. You will live long and be at peace.
Please remember that our children are not mine, but merely stewards of God's things, so that they can inherit the blessings of God by nurturing them as workers using the Word and the truth.
We don't know what our children will be like when they are in my arms now, but one thing is certain: their future is in our hands.
Ephesians 6:4- “Fathers, do not provoke your children, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”
Proverbs 22:6- “Teach a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”
▶ There is a saying.
“Children who grow up to be scolded learn to criticize,
Children who have grown up hostile and hated learn to fight.
Children who grew up being teased learn to be shy,
Children who grew up in an atmosphere of jealousy learn the feelings of guilt.
Children raised in tolerance learn to be patient,
Children who grew up with encouragement learn confidence,
Children who grow up with praise learn to be grateful.
Children who grew up with fair treatment learn justice,
Children who have grown up with a sense of security learn to believe.
A child raised with recognition learns to like himself,
Children raised with inclusion and intimacy learn to find love in this world.
Children were born by me, but they are an inheritance given by God.
Children are the best reward and blessing.
Children are like arrows in the hands of a merchant.
Today is Children's Day.
Looking at the children of our family with this kind of faith, nurture them well in the Lord.
May God glorify you.