1 Samuel 8:1,3
\u201cNow it came to pass when Samuel was old that he made his sons judges over Israel\u2026But his sons did not walk in his ways; they turned aside after dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is a painful and vicious cycle that I am not sure how to resolve it. I am talking about the pandemic of children from godly families who walk away from their godly heritage. This really has become a growing epidemic spreading across Christian families, and it has left behind a trail of woes, pains, and heartbreaks. We observe again and again, children from godly families choosing to walk away from the values and commitments of their parents, despite all the good efforts their parents put into parenting. I sometimes hear people put the blame on parents, and we sometimes leave parents with this unreasonable guilt as though it was their fault that their children did not turn out right. Of course, there are parents who have made mistakes in parenting, and this could have been responsible for their children choosing to walk away from Christ, but there are parents who have done everything correctly and walked in all the revealed precepts of godly parenting \u2013 and yet, their kids still rejected God. Today\u2019s devotion is not going to give us a prescription on how to raise godly children (there are dozens of books on the subject). Today\u2019s devotion is simply meant to raise the alarm about this pandemic and call our hearts to the place of prayer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Samuel for example was a godly leader. We saw in the last devotion, how he built an altar in Ramah because he wanted to be close to his family and how he always returned home after his ministry travels. Unlike his predecessor, God never said anything about Samuel not raising up his children properly. And yet, even though he handed over his ministry to them, it was clear that they were just as corrupt as the children of Eli. This must have broken Samuel\u2019s heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Three things however I want us to take away from this as burdens for prayer. The first is that Satan is out to destroy our children, and we need to wage the good warfare for their salvation and victory. We need to recognize that there is a big contention for the lives of young folks and we cannot imagine the danger they are in. But we must arise to fight for them. Secondly, we need to have hope and faith that our children will not become casualties like many others around us. While there are so many bad examples of Christian kids who have walked away from the faith, there are also many good examples of children who remained and followed the spiritual pathway laid down by their parents. Thirdly, speak up and get involved. When you see seeds of unrighteousness being sown into the lives of young people around you, don\u2019t be silent. Whether they are your kids or not, speak up. You may be the answer to someone else\u2019s prayers if you speak up. Silence is a killer, and Satan loves us to leave our kids alone to fight with him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
1 Samuel 8:1,3\u201cNow it came to pass when Samuel was old that he made his sons judges over Israel\u2026But his sons did not walk in his ways; they turned aside after dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice.\u201d There is a painful and vicious cycle that I am not sure how to resolve it. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-reflections-from-1st-samuel"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t