Promises of Divine Guidance
How Sweet the Consciousness of a Divine Friend. -- Your compassionate
Redeemer is watching you with love and sympathy, ready to hear your prayers and
to render you the assistance which you need. He knows the burdens of every
mother's heart and is her best friend in every emergency. His everlasting arms
support the God-fearing, faithful mother. When upon earth, He had a mother that
struggled with poverty, having many anxious cares and perplexities, and He
sympathizes with every Christian mother in her cares and anxieties. That Saviour
who took a long journey for the purpose of relieving the anxious heart of a
woman whose daughter was possessed by an evil spirit will hear the mother's
prayers and will bless her children.
He who gave back to the widow her only son as he was carried to the burial is
touched today by the woe of the bereaved mother. He who wept tears of sympathy
at the grave of Lazarus and gave back to Martha and Mary their buried brother;
who pardoned Mary Magdalene; who remembered His mother when He was hanging in
agony upon the cross; who appeared to the weeping women and made them His
messengers to spread the first glad tidings of a risen Saviour--He is woman's
best friend today and is ready to aid her in all the relations of life.
No work can equal that of the Christian mother. She takes up her work with a
sense of what it is to bring up her children in the nurture and admonition of
the Lord. How often will she feel her burden's weight heavier than she can bear; and then how precious the privilege of taking it all to her
sympathizing Saviour in prayer! She may lay her burden at His feet and find in
His presence a strength that will sustain her and give her cheerfulness, hope,
courage, and wisdom in the most trying hours. How sweet to the careworn mother
is the consciousness of such a friend in all her difficulties! If mothers would
go to Christ more frequently and trust Him more fully, their burdens would be
easier, and they would find rest to their souls.
The God of Heaven Hears Your Prayers. --You cannot bring up your children as
you should without divine help; for the fallen nature of Adam always strives for
the mastery. The heart must be prepared for the principles of truth, that they
may root in the soul and find nourishment in the life.
Parents may understand that as they follow God's directions in the training
of their children, they will receive help from on high. They receive much
benefit; for as they teach, they learn. Their children will achieve victories
through the knowledge that they have acquired in keeping the way of the Lord.
They are enabled to overcome natural and hereditary tendencies to evil.
Parents, are you working with unflagging energy in behalf of your children?
The God of heaven marks your solicitude, your earnest work, your constant
watchfulness. He hears your prayers. With patience and tenderness train your
children for the Lord. All heaven is interested in your work. . . . God will
unite with you, crowning your efforts with success.
As you try to make plain the truths of salvation, and point the children to
Christ as a personal Saviour, angels will be by your side. The Lord will give to
fathers and mothers grace to interest their little ones in the precious story of the Babe
of Bethlehem, who is indeed the hope of the world.
Ask and Receive. --In their important work parents must ask and receive
divine aid. Even if the character, habits, and practices of parents have been
cast in an inferior mould, if the lessons given them in childhood and youth have
led to an unhappy development of character, they need not despair. The
converting power of God can transform inherited and cultivated tendencies; for
the religion of Jesus is uplifting. "Born again" means a
transformation, a new birth in Christ Jesus.
Let us instruct our children in the teachings of the word. If you will call,
the Lord will answer you. He will say, Here I am; what would you have Me do for
you? Heaven is linked with earth that every soul may be enabled to fulfill his
mission. The Lord loves these children. He wants them brought up with an
understanding of their high calling.
The Holy Spirit Will Guide. --The mother should feel her need of the Holy
Spirit's guidance, that she herself may have a genuine experience in submission
to the way and will of God. Then, through the grace of Christ, she can be a
wise, gentle, loving teacher.
Christ has made every provision that every parent who will be controlled by
the Holy Spirit will be given strength and grace to be a teacher in the home.
This education and discipline in the home will have a moulding and fashioning
influence.
Divine Power Will Unite With Human Effort. -- Without human effort divine
effort is in vain. God will work with power when in trustful dependence upon Him parents will awake to
the sacred responsibility resting upon them and seek to train their children
aright. He will co-operate with those parents who carefully and prayerfully
educate their children, working out their own and their children's salvation. He
will work in them to will and to do of His own good pleasure.
Human effort alone will not result in helping your children to perfect a
character for heaven; but with divine help a grand and holy work may be
accomplished.
When you take up your duties as a parent in the strength of God, with a firm
determination never to relax your efforts nor to leave your post of duty in
striving to make your children what God would have them, then God looks down
upon you with approbation. He knows that you are doing the best you can, and He
will increase your power. He will Himself do the part of the work that the
mother or father cannot do; He will work with the wise, patient, well-directed
efforts of the God-fearing mother. Parents, God does not propose to do the work
that He has left for you to do in your home. You must not give up to indolence
and be slothful servants, if you would have your children saved from the perils
that surround them in the world.
Cling to Jesus When Trials Come. --Parents, gather the rays of divine light
which are shining upon your pathway. Walk in the light as Christ is in the
light. As you take up the work of saving your children and maintaining your
position on the highway of holiness, the most provoking trials will come. But do
not lose your hold. Cling to Jesus. He says, "Let him take hold of My
strength, that he may make peace with Me; and he shall make peace with Me." Difficulties will arise. You will meet with
obstacles. Look constantly to Jesus. When an emergency arises, ask, Lord, what
shall I do now?
The harder the battle, the greater their [parents] need of help from their
heavenly Father, and the more marked will be the victory gained.
Then Work in Faith.--Patiently, lovingly, as faithful stewards of the
manifold grace of Christ, parents are to do their appointed work. It is expected
of them that they will be found faithful. Everything is to be done in faith.
Constantly they must pray that God will impart His grace to their children.
Never must they become weary, impatient, or fretful in their work. They must
cling closely to their children and to God. If parents work in patience and
love, earnestly endeavouring to help their children to reach the highest
standard of purity and modesty, they will succeed.