CAC Living Water Daily Devotional For June 4, 2022 : Topic – ARE YOU A PERMISSIVE PARENT?
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Christ Apostolic Church Living Water Daily Devotional Guide
Day 155/365
Saturday, June 4, 2022
International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression
ARE YOU A PERMISSIVE PARENT?
READ 1 SAMUEL 2V22-36
22ESV:Now Eli was very old, and he kept hearing all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who were serving at the entrance to the tent of meeting.
23ESV:And he said to them, “Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all these people.
24 ESV:No, my sons; it is no good report that I hear the people of the Lord spreading abroad.
25 ESV:If someone sins against a man, God will mediate for him, but if someone sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him?” But they would not listen to the voice of their father, for it was the will of the Lord to put them to death.
26 ESV:Now the boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the Lord and also with man.
27 ESV:And there came a man of God to Eli and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Did I indeed reveal myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt subject to the house of Pharaoh?
28 ESV:Did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? I gave to the house of your father all my offerings by fire from the people of Israel.
29 ESV:Why then do you scorn my sacrifices and my offerings that I commanded for my dwelling, and honor your sons above me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel?’
30 ESV:Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I promised that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me forever,’ but now the Lord declares: ‘Far be it from me, for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed.
31 ESV:Behold, the days are coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father’s house, so that there will not be an old man in your house.
32 ESV:Then in distress you will look with envious eye on all the prosperity that shall be bestowed on Israel, and there shall not be an old man in your house forever.
33
ESV:The only one of you whom I shall not cut off from my altar shall be spared to weep his eyes out to grieve his heart, and all the descendants of your house shall die by the sword of men.
34 ESV:And this that shall come upon your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, shall be the sign to you: both of them shall die on the same day.
35 ESV:And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind. And I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before my anointed forever.
36 ESV:And everyone who is left in your house shall come to implore him for a piece of silver or a loaf of bread and shall say, “Please put me in one of the priests’ places, that I may eat a morsel of bread.”’”
Memorise: ESV:Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.
(Proverb 22v6)
Exposition
Parenting is undoubtedly very tasking. In fact, it is a ministry on its own, i.e. service to God, and service to the children who God expects to be brought up in His ways, and u to His immediate and ultimate glory (cf. Gen.18v18,19). Every would-be minister of the Gospel usually should be trained in order to be successful on the filed. The same is applicable to parenting. Would-be parents must, whether directly or indirectly, explicitly or implicitly, formally or informally, learn the art of parenting, in order to become successful parents.
Meanwhile, today’s does of the Living Water focuses on permissive parents. The word permissive describes, being indecisive about what a person does or not. It is giving freedom to someone/something to do what you don’t approve of. Therefore, permissive parents are parents who allow their children too much freedom, i.e. they allow the children to excessively do things their own ways. Will these parents be able to raise spiritually, socially and emotionally healthy children? It is doubtful?
High priest Eli was a permissive parent. His children’s brazen corruption and perversion were obvious. Yet, papa merely cautioned them just verbally, and when it was late, too! There was obviously no action to stop them malady in the children! One would have thought Eli should have relived them of their priestly roles. May be that would have corrected their mal-adjusted behaviour!
Lesson for today’s parents: Stop being permissive. Things that don’t have biblical approval should be frowned at and vehemently condemned, though with lovely rebuke, correction and instruction in the Lord (c.f. 2Tim.3v16,17). Stop the indulgence and uncared attitude. If you give children an inch, they would go a mile. May God teach us to be perfect and not permissive parents, even as today commemorates International Day of Innocent Children Victimes of Aggression, in Jesus name. Do you love your children? Correct then (Heb.12v6-11).
Prayer points
1. Lord, assist me to be a parent after Your own Heart.
2. Holy Spirit, teach me how to handle my children, so that they don’t become disaster to their generation.
3. Lord, remove from our children, the spirit of rebellion and disobedience.
Extra Reading for Today: Job 16-19