Lesson 1 Day 5

【DAY 5】Knowing the Meaning of Life

The topic “What shall this child be?” is very important. Today, whether you are newly pregnant, or have a child who is a toddler or in school, you must think about this question: what shall this child be in the future?  This question is related to the purpose of child’s   life and the goal of parents’ raising up of the child.

The purpose of each child’s life must be one with the purpose of God’s creation of man. Man was created by God for a purpose, and we must raise up your children for this purpose. The Bible shows us that human beings were created in the image of God with the purpose of containing God and expressing God, just as gloves are made in the image of hands for the purpose of containing hands.

To accomplish His purpose in creating man, God did two special things. First, He created a human spirit within man (Gen. 2:7), so that man can use his spirit to contact God, absorb God, and contain God. Second, God put man created by Him in front of the tree of life (8-9) which represented God as life, so that by choosing to eat of the tree of life, man could receive God as life and life supply to express God and represent God. However, when man was deceived and tempted by Satan, not only did he fail to eat the tree of life, but he also ate the tree of knowledge of good and evil instead (3:1-6), taking in the poison of sin and resulting in death. Consequently, not only does man have sinful deeds outwardly, but he also has a sinful nature inwardly, so that man can no longer eat of the tree of life, and the road to the tree of life was closed by God (22-24). When the Lord Jesus came, He opened a new and living way through His crucifixion (Heb. 10:20) for man to come to the tree of life again. Now, because of the Lord’s crucifixion and redemption, man can choose to eat the tree of life, receiving God to be his life and his inner substance again. In this way, man can fulfill God’s original purpose in creating man – to express God and to represent God.

As parents, we know the purpose of God’s creation of man and the meaning of our human life, we have the responsibility/obligation to help our children to know the meaning of their life. As Timothy’s mother and grandmother did with Timothy, we need to plant the unfeigned and living faith into our children from their youth (2 Tim.1:5). We also need to help our children to know the sacred writings from their infancy (2 Tim. 3:15). We must raise up, nurture, and educate our children according to the purpose of God. We must love our children with God’s love, discipline them with God’s discipline, and admonish them with God’s admonition.

If we as parents become numb or indifferent to God’s original intention for man, or do not realize that God has a purpose and our lives have meaning, they will not care for the spiritual welfare of their children before God. If they don’t realize God’s purpose, they would follow the trend of the world, be swallowed up and taken captive by the torrent of the world and live a life without God. Spontaneously, their children will also live a life without God. If this is your case, how pitiful it would be to see your child going away further and further, leaving you guarding an empty nest.

What our children will be? – whether they will live as God intended – is closely related to our relationship with them.  What we value and our outlook on life affect how we raise the up.  Our family life, church life and corporate Godman living play an important role in the development of our children.

We need to help our children build up a personal, intimate relationship with God and with us.  These need to be cultivated from their youth.  May the Lord bless us and our children.