Isn’t it a grief to see young people turn away from the Lord? Mothers sometimes ask me “How can I be sure that my children will continue to walk with the Lord?” Let me share a fact with you. It is the “unstable” who turn away. 2 Peter 2:14 talks about deceivers who go about “beguiling UNSTABLE souls.”
As parents, we are responsible to make sure our children are STABLE in the faith. We want them to be rooted and grounded in the faith so that even when they are ridiculed and reviled, they will not give up. Even when adverse circumstances come against them, they will continue to stand.
This doesn’t happen automatically. We have the responsibility to impart God’s Word deeply and richly into their lives. We talk to them about biblical doctrines, making sure they understand them and embrace them.
We’ve not only got to get it into their hearts, but to get it coming out of their mouths (Isaiah 59:21). Is the Word of God coming out of your children’s mouths? If you begin a familiar Scripture, can they complete it? I find that few people in the church today can do this. Sadly, they don’t know the Scriptures.
It is the Scriptures that give us stability in our faith. Therefore, we not only impart the Word daily (morning and evening) to our children but are faithful to pray.
We pray together as husband and wife that they will not be fickle but fixed upon Christ. We pray they will not be vacillators, but valiant for the truth. We pray earnestly for them.
It saddens me when young people love to sit at the back in church. I believe we show what is in our hearts by our actions. When you see young people up the front, you know they have a passion for God. When you see them lagging around at the back (they are only there because they have to be), you wonder how passionate they are for God.
The Bible talks about what happens to those who lag behind at the back. Deuteronomy 25:18 tells us about how the Amalekites struck down all those who were “straggling behind.”
Numbers 11:1 tells us about how the Israelites began to complain about all their hardships. This displeased the Lord and He sent a fire which burned among those who were in the outskirts of the camp. It’s usually those on the outskirts who do the most complaining.
Sometimes it is not only young people, but a husband or a wife that walks away. But it all comes back to the same root. They are unstable. Why? Because the Word of God is not abiding in them. No one will walk away from the faith if the eternal, powerful, life-giving, Word of God is abiding in them.
Many blessings,
Nancy Campbell
P.S. Check out these Scriptures: Joshua 1:8; Psalm 1:1-6; Psalm 119:9, 11; Isaiah 59:21; Jeremiah 17:8; Matthew 24:13; Ephesians 6:13-18; Colossians 2:6, 7; Hebrews 10:39; James 1:8; 2 Peter 1:3-11; 2:20, 21; 5:8; ;and 1 john 2:13, 14. Get these words into your own heart and mouth, and get them into the hearts and mouths of your children.