Equipping Our Children with God's Word

This entry is inspired from our church's Monday Night Women's Meeting. For the first hour of our meeting, we have a time of prayer, reading the bible, praise, whatever you feel led to do. Well I brought my Children's Church material to pray over and study. I started praying, "God, what is your heart for the kids this Wednesday?" As I was looking through my material, I felt a pull toward a particular Children's Sermon titled "Hiding God's Word in Your Heart." So then I said "Lord what are you trying to tell me?" Then He said "My Word is going to be an important weapon against the warfare the children will encounter this year." I was also led to this scripture: 10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Ephesians 6:10-18
We need to equip our children with the tools they need to be bold in the Lord. I believe God was saying that one of the most important tools we can give them is The Word of God. Here is a link to a website on how to teach your children The Armor of God, which is what I believe God is saying is going to be crucial in their daily lives this year. http://www.crossroad.to/text/articles/armorofgod.html
We also need to show and teach our children how to hide God's word in their heart by helping them learn scripture that will combat the things they will be faced with, not only just in school but throughout their lives. Wednesday night part of my lesson is a scripture card game. You take a scripture verse, write each word of the scripture and where it is in the bible on separate index cards, as they start to memorize the verse you start taking out a card that they have to fill in the blank of the word on the card you took out, you do this until they know the whole verse. Very easy to do and fun for the kids!
One of my discussion points for Wednesday is to ask them, "Would it help us at school if we hide God's word in our heart?" How? Let me give you an example: Someone says,"You can't play basketball, you can't even dribble the ball!" God's word says: "I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. Philippians 4:13" (there is many more scenarios which this verse is good for) Another example: "What if something frightens you?" God's Word says: "For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7"
I encourage you to pray for direction on some scripture verses to help your child/children memorize. My prayer is "Lord, You are all knowing. I pray that you would give me wisdom and revelation on scriptures that will help the children in Children's Church and my son combat things they will be faced with. You know their coming and going, the beginning and end. Please help me to help them."
I believe all scripture is important, please don't think I am making any scripture more important. But I do believe God has spoke a word to us and He will equip us with the tools we need for this time.
Also during the last hour or so of our Women's meeting we come together and share things we've heard from the Lord and just what is on our heart. At the end we prayed for "Boldness". Boldness for ourselves, not to be afraid to witness to people and to be bold enough to be obedient to the things God tells us to do, and for boldness in our children as well. I hope you will join us in that prayer, we all need God to strengthen us and to give us boldness in the things He calls us to do. I am going to post some prayers you can pray over your children from different books I have tomorrow. Together, through God's guidance, I just know we can make a difference!
If you would like to come to one of our Monday night Women's meetings it starts at 6p.m. and usually ends at 8p.m. We meet in the sanctuary at Warrior Assembly of God, across the street from Jack's in Warrior. We would love to have you!