Psalm 145:4 “One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.”
Psalm 145: 13 “Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.”
Psalm 127: 1 (KJV) “Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.”
Psalm 150: 9 – 10 “Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac; and confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant”
- Each generation has a responsibility in the continuum of time.
- Each generation building upon the framework that has been established by the previous generation – as much as we see surveyors doing their thing on the land, architects putting forth the drawings (plans for the infrastructure) Another group rising up to build (put infrastructure) and then another generation rising up to occupy what has been built already. (Hence God can say to one generation I will give you houses that you did not build and vineyards you did not plant)
- Psalm 78: 3 – 8 “3 Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. 4 We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done. 5 For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: 6 That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: 7 That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments: 8 And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.
How are you raising up your children? Is it in reaction to the things that are happening in the world? Are you teaching them how to cope with things in this world? Are you teaching them how to deal with changes that are coming in the future? Are you teaching your children to conform to this world or to be moved by things of this world? Are you raising them up to be people who know God at all.
“Train up a child in the way he should go”
Every generation has a purpose. This purpose is to carry out the one thing that God has desired for that generation. It is our responsibility to prepare the next generation for this purpose. We may or may not know exactly what their purpose is, but we are still required to prepare them to fulfill it.
How do you prepare them?
Instill the word of God. Teach them to fear God, give them wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom. You do not know what the future holds because moral standards, accepted conducts, and laws are relative due to majority preferences. Teach them the one person that will never change. God is the same yesterday today and forever. No matter what will be encountered as they grow up, God and his godly principles will never change.
Establish God centered traditions
Teach by example. Do not just talk about prayer but teach them how to pray, acknowledge God, reverence HIS PRESENCE in their presence, his statutes and show godly conduct. Let them see you worship and pray. Let your everyday life be an example of walking and living according to the statutes of God.
Indeed Solomon was the wisest man to have ever walked this earth but David and Bathsheba had a lot to do with that. Read Proverbs and see. They taught him the true source of wisdom and knowledge, which is why Solomon did not ask for riches or material things but wisdom. I Chronicles 22: 12 – 13, 19
At times you have an opportunity to know or see what God has purposed for the next generation (your children) e.g I Chronicles 17:1-27. Sometimes the vision that you have might not be for your generation but for the generations that are coming after you “lo I dwell in a house of cedars, but the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord remaineth under curtains. …Nathan said unto David, ‘do all that is in thine heart, for God is with thee‘” David could have started plans to build a house for the Lord but God said unto him “thou shalt not build me a house to dwell in”
to be continued…
