February 4
“As a child, Jesus manifested a peculiar loveliness of disposition. His willing hands were ever ready to serve others. He manifested a patience that nothing could disturb, and a truthfulness that would never sacrifice integrity. In principle firm as a rock, His life revealed the grace of unselfish courtesy.
With deep earnestness the mother of Jesus watched the unfolding of His powers, and beheld the impress of perfection upon His character. With delight she sought to encourage that bright, receptive mind. Through the Holy Spirit she received wisdom to co-operate with the heavenly agencies in the development of this child, who could claim only God as His Father.”
Desire of Ages, page 68 from the chapter, 'As a child'
The emphasis in the blog today is on the last few lines of the reading. Can I take out the essence of those words? Mary sought to encourage Jesus as she received wisdom to help develop her child.
Have you thought that having a child takes planning? A child doesn’t just grow like a weed. Take Jesus’ parable about the sower and the seed. The best seed grows in the best ground. How do you get the best ground? You aim for that ground when you scatter the seed, you prepare the ground in advance by making sure that enough nutrients are added – and that the drainage is good, with the right amount of sunlight and shade.
Without going too deeply into the possible teachings in the passage how on earth will you make sure that the soil is prepared for your child?
The first issue is that we are to receive wisdom. That word ‘receive’ is interesting. Just take the English at face value. The way you ‘receive’ is to be given something. If you want wisdom from God you need to receive it – from God.
If you have children (your own, borrowed as grand-children or loaned as a blessing at church) then you need to ask God for wisdom, then plan, with God’s help, to encourage the bright receptive minds around you.
Encourage? Don’t assume that your child is the church of the future. Those children are the church of the present. With the gifts that God gives please assume that as you present children with opportunities, and as you ask, then God will use those children as wonderful ministers who may well,
“… manifest a patience that nothing can disturb, and a truthfulness that will never sacrifice integrity. In principle firm as a rock, their lives revealing the grace of unselfish courtesy.” – just as Jesus did.
That takes planning. Start today.
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Housekeeping details for you
The point of this short blog will become clear if you decide to use this reading in the way we intend it. Netherfield Seventh-day Adventist Church believes in healthy churches. You can see what that means if you head to the relevant Healthy Churches page of the website. We also want other churches to be healthy. That means you can join in our campaign to create healthy churches, with healthy people serving the people in those churches.
A healthy church is one where Jesus comes first. A healthy church is one where the people work together to put Jesus first. One thing we are doing is to join people together to spread that news. I would like you to look at our prayer partners page. This will explain how we want you to use this short devotional. Very basically we want you to find a like-minded Christian friend who you will join with to : choose to pray together every day, decide together on a way to serve other people together, to help them grow as Christians - and to invite the Holy Spirit into your life every day. This blog that you will receive every day simply gives a common spiritual purpose. If you are a newcomer and want to join the blog with this object in mind click here
