PRIORITIZING MY STEWARDSHIP AS A PARENT
Selected Passages
I. INTRODUCTION:
A. Making my ultimate priority my ultimate delight:
“Parenting is the most important leadership position in the church. Parents lead
the family, the smallest and most important cell in the local church.” William
Farley (See I Tim. 3:4-5, 12-13)
- Focusing on the heart for my futuristic “joy”: (Mt.
22:37; III Jn. 4) - My two farming “accessories”: (Pro. 22:6a)
a. Cultivating a taste:
b. Shaping the will: - Three generic “bents” in every child:
a. Spiritual bents:
b. Sinful bents:
c. Family cultural bents:
B. Spending time with the “Landowner” for a fruitful
harvest: (Gal. 6:7-9)
“Prayer is simply talking with my Heavenly Father in His throne room and on His
terms. It includes confession, expressing praise and thanksgiving, and
interceding on behalf of others and myself, for a variety of issues. It is declaring
my dependence of him at the expense of depending on myself. I am asking for
His will to be accomplished at the expense of my own.
“Prayer forces me to address my self-centeredness on a systematic basis, that
manifests itself in my desire to live the Christian life, my way. Prayer becomes a
daily reality in my life only when I truly believe that God can do things faster,
bigger, better, and lasting longer, than anything I can do.”
“We sow our thoughts, and we reap our actions; we sow our actions, and we reap
our habits; we sow out habits, and we reap our characters; we sow our
characters, and we reap our destiny.”
II. FRAMING YOUR PARENTING WITH DAILY
CONVERSATIONS:
A. The “Landowner’s” immunity to busyness: (Mk. 1:32-33,
35-37; Lk. 8:14)
1. Prayerlessness, the by-product of busyness:
2. The counter to the effects of time:
B. The “landowner’s” plan for everything on earth:
(Phil. 4:6)
1. What Christ did in ministry without prayer – nothing:
2. The magnitude of what Christ does through prayer:
C. Prioritizing my time with the “Landowner”: (I Sam. 12:23;
Ps. 32:6; Jer. 33:3; Col. 4:2, 12)
1. Specifically: (Mt. 7:7-11)
2. Persistently: (Lk. 11:5-10)
3. In accordance with God’s will: (I Jn. 5:14-15)
D. Journaling my time with the “Landowner”: (Mt. 21:22;
Lk. 11:9-10; Jn. 15:7; Ja. 5:16)
1. Present effects: (See back)
2. Present needs:
3. Future unknowns:
III. PRINCIPLES TO PERSONALLY APPLY:
(Together becoming “people of the Word” in principle AND in practice)
A. Your daily prayer life dictates who your children belong
to.
“There will always be discouragement as stewarding parents, without
prayer. Discouragement follows prayerlessness like winter follows
fall.” D. Jeremiah
B. Knowing we should pray and learning how to pray
rarely translate into action.
C. Remember that when you pray, it is a personal
audience with God.
Sinners Prayer
Dear Heavenly Father, I was made by you and I was made for you, but
I have been living for myself. I am sorry for that self-rule you call sin.
I believe that Jesus Christ being my creator God, died, was buried,
and rose again to pay the insurmountable debt that my sin has
created since birth. So right now, I am turning from a life of going my
own way, to by faith, place my trust in Jesus Christ, to pay the debt of
all my sin, and to get me to heaven, when I breath my last breath.
Lord Jesus, from today on, I am yours. Thanks for saving me, this
very moment, in Jesus name, Amen.
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