This Word Continues To Work In You - The One Year Praying through the Bible for Your Kids

We never stop thanking God that when you received his message from us, you didn’t think of our words as mere human ideas. You accepted what we said as the very word of God —which, of course, it is. And this word continues to work in you who believe. 1 Thessalonians 2:13

PAUL, SILAS, AND TIMOTHY had come to Thessalonica and brought the Good News. “It was not only with words but also with power, for the Holy Spirit gave you full assurance that what we said was true,” Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 1:5. Now, everywhere they went, they kept running into people who told them about the Thessalonians’ faith in God. And for that, Paul, Silas, and Timothy just couldn’t stop thanking God. They thanked him that when they brought the gospel to Thessalonica, the people there received it. They didn’t think of it as just another human idea; instead, they heard it and received it as the very Word of the One True God. And what made Paul so very grateful was that the reports he heard confirmed that the Word of God was continuing to work in those who believed. The Word itself was living and active in them. It was producing joyful endurance even as they were persecuted by the people around them.

Clearly Paul really believed that the Word of God is powerful. When people receive the words of Scripture as the Word of God, when they come under its authority and welcome its cleansing, empowering work, they begin to change.

What does it mean to believe the Word of God is what accomplishes the work of God in the lives of our children? Certainly it means that we do our part to expose our children to the Word of God. But it also means that we trust the Word of God to do its work in them. We trust the Word to convict, convince, and challenge them. It may not happen in our preferred time frame or in our preferred way, but we trust it to work. We let up on our reminding and manipulating and cajoling and instead lean in to praying and trusting and waiting for God to work in our children’s lives through his Word.

Lord, forgive me for operating in ________’s life as if my words are what he needs most and as if my words have the power to bring the deep growth and change that is needed. It’s your Word that is needed most, your Word that has the power to bring real and lasting change.