Train your children, lastly, with continual prayer for a blessing on all you do. Without the blessing of the Lord your best endeavours will do no good. He has the hearts of all men in His hands, and except He touch the hearts of your children by His spirit, you will weary yourself to no purpose. Water, therefore, the seed you sow in their minds with unceasing prayer. The Lord is far more willing to hear than we are to pray; far more ready to give blessings than we are to ask; but He loves to be entreated for them. And I set this matter of prayer before you as the topstone and seal of all you do. I suspect the child of many prayers is seldom cast away.
I know well that God is a Sovereign God and doeth all things according to the counsel of His own will. I know that Rehoboam was the son of Solomon, and Manasseh the son of Hezekiah and that you do not always see godly parents having a godly seed. But I know also that God is a God who works by means, and sure am I, if you make light of such means as I have mentioned, your children are not likely to turn out well.
Fathers and mothers, I charge you solemnly before God and the Lord Jesus Christ to take every pain to train your children in the way they should go. I charge you not merely for the sake of your children's souls; I charge you for the sake of your own future comfort and peace. Children have ever been the bow from which the sharpest arrows have pierced man's heart. Children have mixed the bitterest cups that man has ever had to drink. Children have caused the bitterest tears that man has ever had to shed. Adam could tell you so; Jacob could tell you so; David could tell you so. There are no sorrows on earth like those that children have brought upon their parents.
Now, the Lord teach you all that sin is that abominable thing which God hateth. Then, I know you will mourn over the sins of your children, and strive to pluck them as brands from the burning. The Lord teach you all how precious Christ is, THEN I feel confident you will use every means to bring your children to Jesus. The Lord grant this, and then I have a good hope that you will indeed train up your children well – train well for earth and train well for heaven; train them for God, for Christ and for eternity
AMEN
This Page Title – A Sermon for Parents (part 6 and final) The Wicket Gate Magazine "A Continuing Witness". Internet Edition number 56 – placed on line September 2005 Magazine web address – www.wicketgate.co.uk |