Understanding Each Other (50)

Rev. P. Van Ruitenburg, Chilliwack, BC

Known unto God

How wonderful it is when children can spend a long time talking to their mother after school. When their mother has the desire to talk with them, she keeps herself free for the children. Children do better if they can share their joys and sorrows. Let me ask you a question. Do you, as mother and children, make everything known unto God, also? There is the danger that your family becomes your idol and that all your energy goes into your relationships with each other while you have no “hidden dealings” with the Lord. Then that is very unfortunate.

Hectic

We live in a hectic time. Our time, however, is what we make of it. If you really desire it, there can be much more time for the family, and there can also be more time for prayer and the reading of God’s Word. Do we want this, however, or are sports and games, money and material goods, more important to us? In Psalm 25 we read about “God’s hidden dealings.” That is such a beautiful expression. Do we have a place for prayer, to be alone with God? If we do not know God, we may honestly confess that and seek Him. If we are not strangers to God, we must not let our prayer life slide, and our dealings with God must be more important than our dealings with each other. The Lord wants to hear everything, our cares and our joys.

“Seek the Lord and His strength, seek His face continually” (1 Chronicles 16:11).

A powerful prayer

My thoughts go to a father who was clearly sad when his son, along with his future wife, told him that he was turning his back on the church. His future wife had no desire to go to church with him. “Oh, son,” said his father, nothing more. The father did not get into a discussion, nor did he become terribly angry, but he was certainly very disappointed. He did not dislike the young lady but felt no desire to argue with his son. What should he have said? Could he say something that his son did not already know?

He felt that it would be better to speak with the Lord than with his son and future daughter-in-law. To become involved in a heated argument with them would give the impression that he did not approve of the marriage, and he would permanently damage the good relationship with his future daughter-in-law. Five years later they were in church. Not his son, but his daughter-in-law wanted to serve the God of her father-in-law. The Lord had heard his prayer.

“Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full” (John 16:24).

Of course, we should speak with our children concerning such choices, especially when we doubt whether they know what they are doing, or if there are things in God’s Word that they do not understand. Nevertheless, it is also important to speak to the Lord about it. The powerful prayer of the righteous means much. Can that be said of us? Then our children would stand to benefit more than if we, with hostility, chase them to another church. How is it with our prayers? Do we pray, and do we pray constantly with conviction? (Let us pray for such prayers.) Do we wrestle with God as Jacob did, or do we not believe that God is a hearer of prayer?

Perhaps there will come a time later, possibly after your death, when there will be a change in the situation. Of course, you can try to reach your children by giving them a list of things to read, by placing a book in their hands, or by inviting them over for special occasions. After they are married for a few years and if you enjoy a good relationship with them, you could possibly say more. Only God can persuade and change the heart, though; He, the God of the Covenant, is not yet finished with His work.

“Thou hast seen it: for Thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with Thy hand” (Psalm 10:14a).

Look upon those who mourn in Zion; put their tears into Thy bottle; listen to their sighs and groans.

— William Tiptaft

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