Children And Scripture

By Andrew Murray

    It is one of the highest honors God has for the believing parent, that He has made him/her the minister of His holy Word to his/her children.

    Teach your child to believe the Word of God. Of old God sought above everything to train His saints to be men of faith. There is nothing more pleasing to Him than faith. Faith is the soul’s surrender to God, to hear what He says, to take what He gives, to receive what He works, to be entirely at His disposal. Faith in God begins with faith in His Word, and there is no habit a parent can cultivate in a child of deeper importance than that of a trustful acceptance of all that God has said.

    Teach your child to know the Word of God. Faith depends upon knowledge. Timothy had known the sacred writings as able to make him wise unto salvation (2 Tim. 3:14-15). If the grace of God is to save us, it must teach us; it is a wisdom from above; we must love God with the mind as well as the heart. Let the parent seek to give the child a clear and intelligent apprehension of the great truths of salvation God has revealed. He may not entrust this work to school or church; it is astonishing how vague the knowledge thus obtained often is.

    Teach your child to love God’s Word. This is more difficult than to teach your child to believe and to know it. There is often the assent of faith, and an interest in the knowledge of Scripture, with very little of real love to it. To teach this is no easy task. Its first requisite is, of course, that we love it ourselves.

    And then, teach your child to obey the Word of God. God connects all believing, knowing, loving, with doing; obedience is God’s test of uprightness and reality. Teach the child to make what the Father has said the standard of conduct. Let him see and hear that you do so.

    Parents! God’s Word is your child’s heritage from the Father in heaven. And you are commissioned to lead him into the knowledge and the love and the possession of its treasures. Make it a matter of earnest prayer that you may wisely and rightly do it. Let that Word dwell richly in you in all wisdom. In giving His promises, Jesus said, "If ye abide in My word...; If...My words abide in you..." (John 8:31; 15:7).

    Let your life be one of unfeigned faith, that lives and delights in doing God’s Word, such faith will pass on into your children. The quiet confidence that comes from God’s Word is a power that makes itself felt with our children. And if you often feel that you know not how to bring the Word aright to them, or see in them things that hinder its reception, be still of good cheer, you have God to do the work, to make the Word effectual. Pray and believe for the Holy Spirit’s working; He will make the Word, which you speak and live in unfeigned faith, the seed of faith to your children too.