OPEN HEAVENS DEVOTIONAL MONDAY 3RD FEBRUARY, 2014-TRAIN UP YOUR CHILD II

TRAIN UP YOUR CHILD II - 03/02/2014

Good morning dear brethren and welcome to the first working day of February. In yesterday’s message, titled “TRAIN UP YOUR CHILD, PART I”, we were made to understand the importance of giving the necessary foundation to our children, for the sake of tomorrow. Today’s message is a continuation of yesterday’s message and is titled “TRAIN UP YOUR CHILD, PART II” as given by Pastor E. A Adeboye in Open Heavens Devotional (Adeboye, 2014). In today’s message, we have been asked to memorise Proverbs 19:18:“chasten thy while there is hope, and let not  thy soul spare for his crying.” and read 2 Timothy 3:14-15. Our Bible in one year for today has been taken from Isaiah 1-3 and Psalm 31:9-18 (Adeboye, 2014).

The message is quoted below for our usual discussion. God bless you all for contributing to this forum.

“These days, even the children of pastors are not exempted from the degeneration prevalent among youths. You are expected to train up your children on the word of God. Some pastors could say one thing in church and another thing at home, hence the children become confused, leading to their rebellion against God.

Children, if your parents are pushing you aright, glory be to God. If they are not, you can chart a course in life that goes through God's principles. My own mother did her best on me. She pushed me; thank God I allowed her to push me. You must be hard working if you are not banking on bribing your way through life. Bribing your way through can only take you some distance. There is one thing that takes one to the top in life — hard work. God is not going to promote lazy fellows. ”There is no royal road to success” they say. The elders will tell you princes have become slaves before. Parents, some of your children spend too much time watching TV and playing video games. Life is no bed of roses; there is a lot of struggle going on in the world. Only the hardworking will reach the top, so sit up and work hard. Some Christians are believing God for breakthroughs, but let me tell you the truth; there is no breakthrough for a lazy man, because God knows if the breakthrough comes by laziness, the breakthrough would slip out of his hand.

Children, be aware that you must obtain blessings from your parents. Honour your father and mother so that they may bless you. I have said it over and over again that I am where I am today by the grace of God and by the blessings my mother pronounced on me. One blessing she used to pronounce then which I did not understand was: “Son, because you have done this, you would call one person but two hundred will answer.” Today, by the grace of God, if I call one pastor and I do not mention any name, more than two hundred would respond.

Finally, one cannot be in sin and expect to be a star for God. How can one in sin rise in God; how can God promote such? The Bible says we cannot continue in sin and expect grace to abound. Parents, if you are not ready to be a star for yourself, for the sake of your children, please surrender your life completely to Jesus so that the future of your children will be secure in glory. Do this, if you truly love them."

Our prayer point today is for children of ministers of God; that they would be true to the God of their parents and that they will be shining stars in this generation.

There is a common Yoruba adage that a child that we refuse to build today will end up selling off the house that we may build tomorrow. I pray that the Almighty God will give us the needed wisdom to bring up our children in the fear of God, and thereby secure our tomorrow in Jesus Name.