Tuesday, March 3, 2020 Some material taken from Counting On A Comeback by Sam Nobles
Thus says the Lord: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.” Jeremiah 31:15
Trusting God with Our Lost Children
Nothing can break a parent’s heart more than a child that has
turned away from God, especially when most of our adult lives has been spent
pouring into our kids. If we are Christians, we strive to do all the things
that will ensure our children understand salvation and asking Jesus to be their
Savior. We do everything we can and then
we have to turn them over to Him and pray hard.
Even after they become Christians, many of them will turn away for a
time, or possibly the rest of their lives.
What are we to do? We may try to influence
them or inflict a punishment on them, such as distancing ourselves from them,
but truly only Jesus Christ can bring them back. We can love, we can lead, we can disciple,
but He is the only one who has the power to change hearts. The hardest part of
parenting is handing it over to God and praying and trusting.
This past Sunday, Sam Nobles gave us some things we need to be
aware of and some good things to remember in his sermon Counting on a Comeback.
We Have An Enemy Who is Out to Destroy Our Children
As vigilant as we are in praying for our kids and doing all the things, Satan is on the prowl. If you are waiting on and praying for your child to “come back”, don’t give up hope, which is exactly what Satan wants you to do. 1 Peter 5:8 tells us Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. He targets those who have the greatest potential for God because they are his biggest threat. They are the ones that can change the world and lead people to Christ, and away from him. Those are the ones he wants in his clutches.
As vigilant as we are in praying for our kids and doing all the things, Satan is on the prowl. If you are waiting on and praying for your child to “come back”, don’t give up hope, which is exactly what Satan wants you to do. 1 Peter 5:8 tells us Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. He targets those who have the greatest potential for God because they are his biggest threat. They are the ones that can change the world and lead people to Christ, and away from him. Those are the ones he wants in his clutches.
We can tend to feel completely responsible for our children’s
downfall, but Satan is crafty. He waits
and he knows exactly when we are weak, and he helps us right down the path –
the wrong path away from God. He is the
greatest factor when it comes to rebelling against God. We can do everything right and still our kids
can stumble. Ultimately, we teach them
and then they have to learn how to make their own choices. Sometimes along the way they make a few wrong
choices and Satan is more than happy to influence them, but we can come
alongside them and help them learn from these circumstances and to move past
them, not to become a victim of them.
We Have A Father in Heaven Who Passionately Loves Our
Children
It is crazy to think of someone loving our kids more than we do. It doesn’t seem possible, yet God loves them so much more than we can ever imagine.
It is crazy to think of someone loving our kids more than we do. It doesn’t seem possible, yet God loves them so much more than we can ever imagine.
The Lord sees and knows when we grieve for our children. He knows the sorrow of mother’s heart for her
lost child. He does hear the prayers,
even when it seems He isn’t listening. He
hears us reading scripture and claiming His promises, in the midst of painful
waiting. Jeremiah 31:16-17 says Thus says the Lord: "keep your voice from weeping,
and your eyes from tears, for there is a reward for your work, declares the
Lord, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy. There is hope for
your future, declares the Lord, and your children shall come back to their own
country. In this passage of Scripture, God was calling on exiled
Jews to have hope during a time when all hope seemed lost; to have faith for a
return to their homeland that they didn’t think was possible. We must come to the place where we trade weeping
for trusting and tears for hope as we wait for our kids to “come back” where
they belong. The battle for our kids can
only be fought by prayer and faith in an all-powerful God who loves them more
than we do. It is time to take all the
energy you spend worrying and put it in interceding, trusting in God, and praying
in faith that he or she will come back. It
is time to put it in the hands of the one who can make it happen.
