Preparation for God’s Building

Train up a child according to the way he should go; Even when he is old, he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6, RecVer)

God has blessed me with the heavenly and spiritual blessings. He also blessed me with children of whom I am His custodian. He has been gracing me to cherish and nourish the children He blessed me with for His purpose. Therefore, trusting in His grace and wisdom, I do my best to prepare the children God blessed me with, for the building up of His house. This is on my personal level as a Christian and as a biological father to my children. This is also my responsibility as a father for which I must be faithful in taking care of what God has bestowed upon my shoulders. In addition to consecration and prayers for my children, I must also train them up in the way they should go according to the wisdom and knowledge God gave me with. There may be many things and many areas that I may not be able to render any help but within my capacity and what in all that I can do, I must be faithful and do my best. Yes, doing my best to train up my children, in giving them the best education, both spiritual and academic, and even character training. David is a good example of one who prepared materials for God’s building. He prepared his son and also all the physical items needed for the building of God’s house.

And David the king rose to his feet and said, Hear me, my brothers and my people: I had it in my heart to build a house of rest for the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah and for the footstool of our God, and I prepared materials for building it. (1 Chronicles 28:2, RecVer)

And as much as was in my power I have prepared for the house of my God the gold for the things of gold and the silver for the things of silver and the bronze for the things of bronze and the iron for the things of iron and the wood for the things of wood, onyx stones and inlaid stones, stones of antimony and variegated stones, and every kind of precious stone and marble stones in abundance. Furthermore, because I set my affection on the house of my God, and since I have a private treasure of gold and silver, I give it for the house of my God over and above all that I have prepared for this holy house: (1 Chronicles 29:2-3, RecVer)

O Jehovah our God, as for all this abundance that we have prepared for building You a house for Your holy name, it is from Your hand, and all is Yours. (1 Chronicles 29:16, RecVer)

And to Solomon my son give a wholeness of heart to keep Your commandments, Your testimonies, and Your statutes, and to do all and build the palace for which I have prepared these things. (1 Chronicles 29:19, RecVer)

On the one hand God blesses and provides, and on the other hand, we must be one with God to prepare whatever is needed within our capacity. In picking up this burden, these days, I paid more attention to the spiritual well being of my children. Everyday, we all have been praying together as a family, pursuing the Life-study messages, reading the Bible personally according to the one year read through the Bible, attending the church meetings, having home meetings, and now more importantly, setting up daily time for personal prayer.

My son and I have been going out in the  evenings in the nearby parks to pray personally and also to pray corporately. We both have been enjoying this time together in prayer. All my burdens for prayer that are common to the family, we pray together day by day. Only on the evenings whenever we went out for group meetings or gospel preaching we skipped our going out together. Otherthan that, the Lord has been faithfully granting us His grace to enjoy time with Him together as father and son.

Similarly, my wife has been going out with my daughters for a time of prayer in the morning. In addition, they both also prays with their vital groups almost daily. In fact, we have also been encouraging them to attend all kinds of meetings for the young people, teenagers, locally or nationally. As a father, I have been doing my best to spend and be spent on them. If I could go with them for the national level training, I did. Otherwise, I still send them, paying whatever price it may be. 

My prayer is that the Lord must gain them fully from their young age and be prepared as useful materials in the Body of Christ for the building work of God.This is the best we can do to prepare our children to be useful vessels to God.