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Judges 13 – Praying through the Bible #75 – A Prayer for Every Parent
“Please Lord, let the man of God you sent come again to us and teach us what we should do for the boy who will be born” (Judges 13.8). That is the prayer of Manoah, concerning his unborn son. That must be the prayer of all parents.
When the “man of God” comes again, Manoah asks his divine guest (13.21), “what will the boy’s responsibilities and mission be?” (13.12). Literally mission is “work.” I doubt the father is asking about occupations. The soon-to-be parents, who were previously unable to conceive, are told by the divine messenger, “the boy will be a Nazirite to God from birth, and he will begin to save Israel from the power of the Philistines” (13.4-5).
So wondrous is this experience that the theophany says that His name is “wonderful” (13.18); and to prove it “when the flame went up from the altar to the sky, the Angel of the LORD went up in its flame” (13.20). Wow! Who wouldn’t want to have such a breathtaking experience? But I have experiences very wonderful in their own, unique ways – the birth of two children, and the adoption of two others.
Go back to before Manoah’s prayer. They cannot conceive, and then God decides to bless them. Why God waited, no one knows. Children are blessings regardless of when born. When two people, unmarried to each other have sex and the woman gets pregnant, too often the reaction is sadness, fear, guilt, and even worse, abortion. Babies should be celebrated, not considered bad news. For those married, parents need to treat their children special; because God’s blessings are special, not just a result of biology. Treating them special is not spoiling them; treating them special is having, showing, and giving them an attitude of gratitude.
Go back to Manoah’s prayer. First, every parent must pray, dependent upon God. Parenting is not for independent contractors. Second, every parent must be taught, developed by God’s wisdom. Parenting does come with instructions, it’s called the Bible. Third, every parent must treat each child differently, as each child is designed by God. Parenting is a unique experience as unique as each child. As a parent and a preacher, I am not raising my sons to be preachers, nor not to be preachers. They must follow God, not me. One of my daughters married a preacher, although we never pointed her in or away from that direction. Parents do not get to decide how each child will serve God. Parents do not decide how each child is blessed from God. Each believer is given grace to serve and God decides which gracious gift that will be (1 Pt 4.10). Parents are not just parents; they are servants of God guiding their children to be servants of God, in the way God chooses them to serve.
Prayer Challenge: Pray we will guide our children to serve as God decides. The Bible does not teach us to look for our gifts, but rather to work. God will let us and our children know what gift of grace He chooses.
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