Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Encouragement from Mr B.

A Word of Encouragement to Parents who are trusting God for the Salvation of their children. James 5:16b "the prayer of a righteous man/woman is powerful and effective", continue to trust God and His Word and DON'T give up!

Is the Arm of the Lord Too Short?


There is nothing more difficult to trust God for than the salvation of our children because only the Lord can save.  Trusting God for our children’s salvation is kind of like a young lady trusting God for a husband.  If she marries early in life, it wasn’t too hard.  But, real worry threatens when she crosses 25 with no hope of a man on the horizon.  Similarly for parents, it is not so difficult if God rescues our children from their sin at a young age.  But once they hit their teens and start sinning like adults, our faith and trust in God is really tested.
After God lead Israel out of Egypt, across the Red Sea, you would think trusting God would be easy.  That wasn’t Israel’s experience.  God lead them through a desert to teach them to trust in him and it didn’t take long to see just how wise God was.  Israel started complaining right away.  God provided manna for them to eat, but they wanted meat.  God’s anger burned against their sin and Moses despaired.  In Numbers 11:14 Moses cries out to God saying, “I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me.”  Wonderfully God replies to Moses, he gives him help by appointing seventy elders to stand with him and encourages him with these words,  “Is the LORD’s hand shortened?”  In other words, God tells Moses, “You can trust me, for I can do with my mighty hand what you can not do.”
Isaiah used the same words to describe God in rebuking the people of Israel, “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save” (Isaiah 59:1).  God’s hand is not too short to provide meat for the Jews wandering in the desert, not too short to rescue his people Israel from their rebellion, and not too short to save our children from their sins.
My wife was well on her way to thirty when God brought us together and we were married.  She, like most over twenty-five-year-old women, had to trust God for what she could not see, yet was around the corner.  We too as parents need to trust God for the salvation of our children, something that is hard to see when they cross the threshold into adulthood as unbelievers or when their sin is causing us profound despair.  When doubt, discouragement, and despair threaten to engulf you, remember God’s encouragement – his arm is not too short that he can’t save your son or daughter from their most terrible sin.
There is a saying based upon this truth, “It’s never too late to pray.”  It is never too late to pray because God’s arm is not too short to save. It is never too late to pray because God is a saving God who delights to bring salvation to his children.  Often, he allows circumstances to grow grim before he saves, like being hemmed in by the red sea.   The problem is, like Israel complaining for lack of meat on the other side, we are too quick to forget the amazing salvation God brought us through.  After all, if his arm was not too short to save us, we should trust it is not too short to save our kids.