Do you have children? If not, I am sure there are some in your church or neighborhood you know. As parents, we teach our children right from wrong and we pour into them all we know to do and then we have to sit back and pray something sticks. We hope we don’t mess up. We want them to turn out to be a blessing to those around them.
This week the Lord blessed me by allowing me to see a glimpse of Proverbs 22:6 come to life. We were in our FCA leadership planning meeting and realized we needed to make plans for our intercessory prayer day coming up next week. The person in charge of Power Point said she needed a week lead time to be prepared. The students decided they would choose their prayer focuses in the meeting to give her a head start. Once they choose a prayer focus, then they are required to find a scripture to support it so they can demonstrate how the Word of God is relevant for today.
Last week a student was suspended for bringing drugs into the school. My daughter, Laura, raised her hand in the meeting and said we needed to pray about what goes into our bodies and what we wear on the outside. Then she asked for my Bible and she found and read 1 Corinthians 16:9 to the group “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;” and she shared how that would be a great scripture for the prayer focus.
She sparked a fire in the group and they began rattling off prayer focuses and asking her how she found the scripture so quickly. She told them it was a scripture she had learned but then shared how to use a concordance in the back of the Bible. Within 10 minutes they had planned the intercessory prayer meeting, Laura had stepped out as a leader like never before and other students started pulling their Bibles out of their backpacks. The next day, one of the leaders sent her a text message asking for a scripture reference. They were ministering to a friend but couldn’t find the verse they needed to make their point in the conversation.
I walked away so blessed by God that He would allow me to see the Word of God taking root in my daughter’s life and being used in her daily walk. She had listened to me when I told her the Bible was relevant to her life, it was a source of answers for life’s questions, and she would find what she needed if she was willing to do the digging.
I couldn’t help but wonder if that is how God feels when we “get it.” Does it bless Him when we listen to what He says and actually do it? You know it does. So, how do we know what He wants us to do? Read His love note to us. 1 Timothy 3:16 tells us scripture is a wonderful tool for all we need to do. 1 Peter 3:15 tells us to always be prepared to give an answer for what we believe. We need a source to back up what we say and there is no greater source than the Word of God.
Take some time today to bless your Father. Dive deep into His love note to you and find out what He’d like you to do today. It won’t just bless Him, it will bless you too!