Pray for the Children

Bible Reading: (Mark 9:19) He answereth him, and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him unto me.

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Have you noticed that every hospital has a chapel? Nothing drives a person to his knees in prayer to the Lord than his children when they are sick and near death. The injury or illness of a child is a heartbreaking event, and works on the soul like nothing else to reveal how very helpless even the best of scientists and doctors are and how powerful God is.

Jesus tells us to "bring him unto me." Jesus can do what no one else can do. Jesus will draw us to Him one way or another. The parent who will not give the Lord an hour a week will spend hours praying in such a situation. Deaf to the words and ways of Christ, the parent of a severely ill child will hear the words "bring Him unto me." While the child breathes, hope lives that Christ will save him.

It would be better, perhaps, if we were to pray as earnestly BEFORE this child is born. How different that child's life would be. Taking the child to the Lord is not something that should wait for such an emergency. It is something we should do always. The dangers that lurk in this world waiting to pounce upon child-prey are many. There are those who would kill him before birth. There are those who would use him for perverted practices. The dangers of childhood alone bring injury and disease. But it is not simply their bodies that lie in peril. Vain philosophies abound that convince children that God is evil, or that He does not even exist. Whom will the child learn to trust? The death of the body is not necessarily the end. Jesus warns us:

(Matthew 10:28) And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Until breath stops, hope lives - for then we may still bring them unto Christ. Let us make it a point to pray for the young in our world while we may.

Bro. Greg