concerning the children

Speaking of

John the Baptist

at his birth....

"And the hand of the Lord was with him."

Luke 1:66

I have prayed

for my children and my grandchildren

 since before any of them were ever born....

daily lifting them up

before the One who made them

and the One who knows the plans He has for them.....

Trusting always 

that no one else could care for them like

He could.

I am sure that the aged Elizabeth,

John the Baptist's mother,

prayed diligently for him as well.

There is no greater gift

a mother can give to her children 

than to pray that they

would come to love and trust

 God

and His son Jesus Christ.

"The hand of the Lord was with John the Baptist

to sanctify and renew his heart...

to teach and fit him for his office....

to strengthen him for all his work as the forerunner of Jesus Christ....

to encourage him in all his bold denunciation of men's sins.....

and to comfort him in his last hours when he was beheaded in prison."

"We know

that he was filled with the Holy Spirit

from his mother's womb.

We need not doubt that from his earliest years

 the grace of God's spirit appeared in his ways. 

In his boyhood

as well as in his manhood,

the constraining power of a mighty principle from above appeared in him. 

That power was

"the hand of the Lord."

"This is the portion that we ought to seek for our children. 

It is the best portion,

the happiest portion,

the only portion that can never be lost,

 and will endure beyond the grave."

"What God did for John the Baptist,

He can do for our boys and girls. 

But He waits to be entreated. 

If we would have the hand of the Lord on our children,

we must diligently seek it."

Amen & Amen!!!

JC Ryle

Expository Thoughts