As a Christian, one thing that always fascinates me the most is the fact that I am a Christian.
No! No! I am not praising myself for being one since if left to myself, I would be one. This is true of every Christian. So, it always amazes me for God to choose me in Christ to be His adopted daughter. Yes, this is the one miracle in this life I always dwell on. I mean, really? God thought of me, Missy, and He chose me before time and when the time came, He drew me to Himself?
Yes, just as the word of God says,
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him [in Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.” Ephesians 1:4-6ESV
What does this truth of God say to us?
Countless things and one of them is this: No one can make him/herself a child of God! God does the choosing first. That is why Jesus said:
“You did not choose me, but I chose you” – John 15:16 ESV
And John writes,
“We love because he [Christ] first loved us.” 1 John 4:19 ESV
If this truth of God doesn’t fascinate you, I don’t know what will! It fascinates me a lot and it is actually the source of my comfort because think about it! If God did the choosing without any input from me, He would not “unchoose” me for any reason from me for the reason of His choosing me found in Him alone, not in me! That doesn’t mean that my response to His calling and choosing me is not needed. And if my response to His call is important, I couldn’t come to this world being a child of God rather “by nature [a child] children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” Ephesians 2:3bESV
Wow! I came to this world as a child of wrath! Very scary but true! A child of wrath means a child destined to be thrown into the fire of hell. Why? God created Adam and Adam sinned against God and he got separated from God, destined to be thrown into hell. Then Adam who was destined to go to hell gave birth to people (to all his posterity) who are just like him “dead in the trespasses and sins” of their father, Adam.
So, a Christian means a person God “woke up” from “death,” a person God brought from death to life (John 5:24).
Hmm!
So, when babies are born into this world, they come as “dead people” – dead at least spiritually, dead for the things of God. King David put this truth beautifully:
“But I was born a sinner, yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.” Psalm 51:5 Living Translations.
Then this sinner hears the Gospel and responds to the call of God, “Yes, I want to follow You, LORD!” This amazing phenomenon is called the person gets “born-again.” Born from what? The word of God gives us the answer:
“Yet to all who did receive him [Christ], to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” John 1:12-13NIV
And,
“For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.” 1 Peter 1:23NIV
So, the one truth of God we Christian parents need to remind ourselves again and again about our children is this:
Our children came to this world as “dead” – being sinners, dead to the things of God. We don’t need to teach them how to sin against God. Sin is imprinted on their DNA.
So, perhaps if we pray one thing for our children, I believe with all my heart that we should pray so that the spirit of God will bring them from death to life so they know how to fight against sin. We shouldn’t desire for our kids to be perfect, to never sin ever again. Our one desire for our children is for them to know the only Savior and Healer of sin, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the only One who can equip them with His grace so that they will be able to fight against sin.
Yes, our children’s sickness is not smoking marijuana, having sex at the age of 15, getting pregnant at the age of 13, dropping out of school at 10th grade, becoming gay, disrespecting and disobeying parents, expulsion from school for being physically and verbally abusive towards students and teachers. All these and more are symptoms of their sickness.
What is our children’s sickness we parents need to know?
Just like us, our children are plagued by a “virus” called “sin” or “spiritual deadness” from birth or as King David put it, “from conception.”
So, we Christian parents need to pray for our children so God will bring them from death to life, knowing that not our prayers but God has the last say. While we pray for our children, we parents role model before them how a person who believes in Jesus Christ should do life, act, think and speak.
When we have this biblical understanding, we don’t judge or criminalize our children for their brokenness; rather we cry on their behalf before God, and at the same time, showing them our own brokenness and how we lean on God to keep us going as Christians.
Otherwise, we assume that we need to fix our children in every possible chance we get through lecturing and preaching which all fall on deaf ears. If we continue trying to “fix them,” we successfully make a big rift between us parents and our children and our own children start to hate us. They should! I mean, who wants to be fixed by a human being who is just like us in every way?????
I am sure, neither you nor I! ///