My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up. Psalm 5:3.
If ever there was a time when every house should be a house of prayer, it is now.
In every Christian home God should be honored by the morning and evening sacrifices of prayer and praise. Children should be taught to respect and reverence the hour of prayer. It is the duty of Christian parents, morning and evening, by earnest prayer and persevering faith, to make a hedge about their children.
The hours of morning and evening worship should be sweetest and most helpful of the day. Let it be understood that into these hours no troubled, unkind thoughts are to intrude; that parents and children assemble to meet with Jesus, and to invite into the home the presence of holy angels. Let the services be brief and full of life, adapted to the occasion, and varied from time to time. Let all join in the Bible reading, and learn and often repeat God’s law.
In the church at home the children are to learn to pray and to trust in God…. Come in humility, with a heart full of tenderness, and with a sense of the temptations and dangers before yourselves and your children; by faith bind them to the altar, entreating for them the care of the Lord. Train the children to offer their simple words of prayer. Tell them that God delights to have them call upon Him.
Will the Lord of heaven pass by such homes, and leave no blessing there? Nay, verily. Ministering angels will guard the children who are thus dedicated to God. They hear the offering of praise and the prayer of faith, and they bear the petitions to Him who ministers in the sanctuary for His people, and offers His merits in their behalf.
The beautiful lessons of the Bible stories and parables, the pure, simple instruction of God’s Holy Word, is the spiritual food for you and your children. Oh, what a work is before you! Will you take hold of it in the love and fear of God?
The Faith I Live By p. 272
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Prayer Requests
—-Update: My friend has agreed to take the treatment and to stay in the hospital for it. Thank you for the prayers brothers and sisters. Please continue to pray for her. Laura
—-please pray for my friend and a sister of ours Carol.
she has a cancer and brain tumor. J
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Dear Friends,
As does any child, I looked forward to Christmas and birthdays. Those were the days when I got presents and I loved getting presents. As soon as Thanksgiving was over, I began asking how many days until Christmas. Everyone soon tired of my constant asking. Finally, my mother thought of a solution that became a yearly tradition for us before the age of ten.
With curiosity, I watched while she tore a long strip from one of the worn-out bed sheets that my grandmother kept for rags and began to tie knots in it. She explained as she tied this knot-filled strip to my bed’s footboard, that every knot represented one day between then and Christmas. Each morning I was to untie one knot and when there were no more knots left for me to untie, it would be Christmas! That stopped the questioning. I had something concrete that helped me to understand the time.
Today, we look forward to an event that far surpasses the celebration of Jesus’ first coming—the grand and glorious event of His Second Coming when He will take us to His Heavenly Home. Our Soon-Coming King has promised, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” John 14:1-3
Just as those knots heralded my childhood’s favorite holiday, so our Dear Saviour gave us signs to watch for so that we may know that His coming is near “even at the doors.” Mark 13:29 The great time prophecies of Daniel and Revelation (each day representing a year just as those knots in that strip of cloth each represented a day) have already been fulfilled. (Dan 8:14; 9:23-27, 12:4-12; Rev 12:6; 13:1-11; etc.) Much of those events prophesied by the King of the Ages while He was upon this earth, have come to pass. (Matt 24; Luke 21; etc.) As we look at these passages, we realize that very few “knots” are left to be untied!
Jesus is coming soon!!! With every passing day, we are one day nearer to that great event. “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we [first] believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. [Let us] put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” that we may soon joyously exclaim, “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” Rom 13:11-14; Isa 25:9
Rose
Sweetest Hour of the Day