Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ethan (00:00):
Raising joyful children in an angry world, a podcast
dedicated to faithful parentsnavigating their families
through a stormy culture.
I came across a new term thismonth called tradwife.
The words traditional and wifeare fused.
And it's a nostalgic view ofroles in the family and
discussions about workingoutside the home or working
(00:23):
inside.
And a lot of talk aboutprovisions and who's providing
what.
Paul (00:29):
It is this rebranded discussion of the old stay at
home mom talk.
I was shocked at how muchinterest and how many posts and
people were involved with this.
But what I saw, and I lookedthrough some of these things,
was that the entire discussionaround family and about roles
and the visions people had fortheir families and their
(00:50):
individual, identification.
Really didn't seem to hit onspiritual provision and
especially the idea of prayingfor our kids and what to pray
for our kids.
And I think we have to becareful that we don't let our
vision or our individualityprevent us from realizing the
(01:12):
godly duties that our childrenneed from us.
Spiritual provision and prayerare not tied to a trad wife
versus a mod wife.
These provisions for the soulare eternal.
And what we need to ask God togive our kids is unrelated to.
(01:33):
How the family achieves temporalprovision.
This is raising joyful childrenin an angry world.
I'm your host, Paul Osborne.
J.
C.
Ryle said that the child of manyprayers is seldom cast away when
he was talking about the need topray for children.
And then Ryle takes us to Markchapter 9.
(01:56):
It's a section of text that Ithink helps us get a starting
point in prayer for kids.
You may recall this is a man whohas a son who has been possessed
by demons for a long time.
The demons have caused him to gointo convulsions and foaming at
the mouth and throwing himselfonto the ground.
And he has brought them to thedisciples and they are unable to
(02:20):
cast the demon out.
And they're having this argumentabout it and the crowds
gathering around the argument.
And then Jesus has the childbrought to him.
He asked a few questions abouthow the long this has been going
on, et cetera.
And then the father says to theLord, pleading with him, heal
him if you can.
(02:40):
And Jesus responds, what do youmean if I can?
You must believe and the manthen says, I do believe, but
help me with my unbelief.
This is, a desperate dad withthe reality of a difficult
situation.
And it really comes and helps usget a starting point for prayer
(03:04):
for our kids.
He understands who Jesus is, andhe's also.
Willing to admit that he'sdealing with a struggle to
believe and and the strugglehere is is the influence of the
circumstances that are aroundhim and even the circumstances
of the disciples, right?
It's really what has been bysight and any of us would would
(03:26):
be like the father.
We would really start tostruggle with doubts and it's
interesting.
the Jesus then, despite thedisciples not coming through,
despite the fathers, having somereservations, but will at least
willing to confess thosereservations.
He still heals the child.
(03:46):
And I like this starting pointthat, that Ryle takes us to,
because it does, it demonstratesthe desperation of the father.
It demonstrates the power ofChrist and, and our reality of
dealing with what's around usand what we see and our sight
influence more than our faithinfluence.
And I think this is particularlyimportant as we live in a
(04:08):
culture that seems to defineeverything Truth by anecdotal
experience.
And what I mean by that ispeople often say, well, you
know, I went to, the city of NewOrleans and boy, I was treated
great.
Those people are wonderful.
We make a universal truth out ofan experience where we might do
the flip side of that and say,Oh, I was treated poorly and
(04:29):
they're all rude down there, butthese, these experiences begin
to, in this culture, formulate.
Truth.
And we can't allow that.
We have to, we have to focus onwho Jesus is and beyond the
circumstances that we're put in.
Now, from this starting point, Iwant to look at two texts.
(04:50):
One is out of Ephesians, Ibelieve the first chapter and
the other is out of Colossians.
And I would suggest that we praythese things and insert our
children's names into thesetexts because these are really
the things.
So in Ephesians, Paul says, Ipray that the eyes of your heart
(05:11):
may be enlightened, in otherwords, opened in order that you
may know God's incomparablygreat power for us who believe
that power is like the workingof his mighty strength, which he
exerted in Christ when he raisedhim from the dead here, we're
asking God to open the eyes ofthe heart, The spiritual
(05:34):
condition of our kids is thattheir hearts are blind and that
those hearts need to be openedand that they also need the
power of God.
That is the resurrection powerto strengthen them.
So much of modern church todayin a lot of institutions has
sort of stripped away thismystery.
(05:55):
And it's replaced some of ourdesperate dependence on Christ
with.
I would say our own personalresponsibility.
Certainly we haveresponsibility, but we can't
accomplish thoseresponsibilities and duties
without first having our eyesopened and being given the
power.
but also when we go toColossians, and this is one that
(06:16):
I recommend and I think is mostimportant when we're asking God
and praying for them outside ofnormal things like.
You know, my son's or mydaughter's sick.
Can you bring healing, uh, bewith them today, protect them
from, you know, the evil one.
And then there's kind of normalprayers and normal life.
But Paul says in this prayer inColossians for this reason,
(06:37):
since the day we heard of it,and meaning since the day we
heard of you, we have not ceasedpraying for you and asking that
you might be filled with theknowledge of God's will.
In all spiritual wisdom andunderstanding so that you may
lead lives worthy of the Lord,fully pleasing to him that you
(07:01):
would bear fruit in every goodwork and grow in the knowledge
of God.
May you be made strong with allstrength that comes from his
glorious power.
May you be prepared to endureeverything with patience while
joyfully given thanks to thefather who has enabled you to
share in the inheritance of thesaints in the light, because he
(07:25):
has rescued us from the power ofdarkness and transferred us into
the kingdom of his beloved son.
That is a magnificent prayer.
to ask God for your children onbehalf of your children.
We can look at it in kind ofthree ways.
What is the ask?
What are we asking for?
(07:45):
Why are we asking it?
And how will we see it?
I don't know if you've ever hadto, uh, meet with people in
political power.
If you've ever done a lobbycall, where you go down to the
congressional offices inWashington, DC, or maybe your
state capital and generally yourlobbyist will tell you now, when
you meet with the member ofCongress or you meet with their
(08:07):
chief of staff, they're going tosay, what is the ask?
And this is what you say, Whatwe are asking for in these text
is that the eyes of the heart beopened and that they be filled
(08:32):
with knowledge of God's will,with spiritual wisdom and
understanding and of power.
That's what we're asking for.
It's the heart condition.
It's the wisdom and it's thepower.
Why are we asking it?
Well, we're asking it so thatthey can walk in a manner that
is worthy of God, that'spleasing to him and that they
(08:56):
would bear fruit in all the workthat they do and that their
knowledge of God would increase.
How will it happen?
How will they do it?
How will this all work?
Although being strengthened withall power, according to his
glorious might for all enduranceand patience with joy.
(09:17):
In other words, the power andthe glory comes from the same
resurrection power that we havespoken about.
I love how Jeremiah Burroughs,he's an old Puritan pastor
writes about this.
He says, when our naturalconscience places a duty on us,
it doesn't give us the strengthto perform it.
(09:38):
In fact, it often doesn't giveus the joy to perform it.
We might reluctantly do it, orwe might resist it.
We might do it a little bit andthen give up, he says.
But when the Spirit of God putsa duty on us, God gives us the
strength to do it, and He makesthe heart glad about the duty.
(09:59):
This is what we're really askingfor.
We're asking that the eyes ofthe heart be open, the captivity
of the soul be freed, thatwisdom come into that heart so
that the joy of have, ofperforming our duties and
performing our fruit and workingthings out with God and living
for God and the power to do thatis what we're asking for.
(10:22):
This past week, there was anarticle in the London Times
about prayer at school again,another one of these old
arguments.
And it's this very strict publicschool that has this
regimentation schedule to keepchildren extremely disciplined.
And one of the kids wanted topray during recess.
And the headmaster got into adebate about it and banned
(10:45):
prayer at that particularschool.
I assume the UK doesn't have anational banning.
And the Times writer wasdescribing the challenges these
days in which Their culture istrying to embrace so many
religions and they're all tryingto coexist.
And the Church of England hasreally faded from the culture.
And so they're back to this,another one of these old debates
(11:07):
that can distract us from theduty at hand.
I share this because I thinkit's important to understand
that out there we can't expectmuch in the issue of prayer.
The evangelist, GeorgeWhitfield, who was an evangelist
in England, as well as inAmerica, in the 18th century, he
(11:28):
describes the duty of parents inthree offices, prophet that is
to teach, priest that is to prayfor, and king that is to govern
and direct or queen to governand direct.
And he reminds us, he remindshis church that if the Apostle
(11:48):
Paul says that those who do notprovide for their own house in
temporal things have denied thefaith.
He says, what, to what greaterdegree are those who do not
teach and pray?
He really lays on.
Not so much the roles, but he'sgiving us a different set.
(12:09):
He calls them offices.
And with those offices comeduty.
That is the duty to teach, theduty to pray, and the duty to
direct.
And he tries to encourage hispeople to see their home as a
parish, a small church, and thateveryone that is in that house
(12:29):
has a duty to the family, whichis the flock.
What I want to help youunderstand is these the things
that we need to ask for for ourkids.
And we need to grasp it's moreabout our duty than what is our
role.
It's more about what we areobligated to do as a Christian
(12:49):
family than how we provide orwhose, whose roles are in
provision and all these sort ofmodern arguments that no one
back in the times when duty wasmore emphasized, gave much
thought to.
Our homes are a parish of ourkids, and we are the prophets,
priests, and kings.
(13:11):
The ultimate battle for theheart and soul is a fight for
identity.
Our king invites our kids toknow who they are, what to
believe, and where they belong.
Until next time, let's rememberthe words for theirs is the
Kingdom of Heaven.
Raising joyful children in an angry world, a podcast
dedicated to faithful parentsnavigating their families
through a stormy culture.
I came across a new term thismonth called tradwife.
The words traditional and wifeare fused.
And it's a nostalgic view ofroles in the family and
discussions about workingoutside the home or working
(00:23):
inside.
And a lot of talk aboutprovisions and who's providing
what.
Paul (00:29):
It is this rebranded discussion of the old stay at
home mom talk.
I was shocked at how muchinterest and how many posts and
people were involved with this.
But what I saw, and I lookedthrough some of these things,
was that the entire discussionaround family and about roles
and the visions people had fortheir families and their
(00:50):
individual, identification.
Really didn't seem to hit onspiritual provision and
especially the idea of prayingfor our kids and what to pray
for our kids.
And I think we have to becareful that we don't let our
vision or our individualityprevent us from realizing the
(01:12):
godly duties that our childrenneed from us.
Spiritual provision and prayerare not tied to a trad wife
versus a mod wife.
These provisions for the soulare eternal.
And what we need to ask God togive our kids is unrelated to.
(01:33):
How the family achieves temporalprovision.
This is raising joyful childrenin an angry world.
I'm your host, Paul Osborne.
J.
C.
Ryle said that the child of manyprayers is seldom cast away when
he was talking about the need topray for children.
And then Ryle takes us to Markchapter 9.
(01:56):
It's a section of text that Ithink helps us get a starting
point in prayer for kids.
You may recall this is a man whohas a son who has been possessed
by demons for a long time.
The demons have caused him to gointo convulsions and foaming at
the mouth and throwing himselfonto the ground.
And he has brought them to thedisciples and they are unable to
(02:20):
cast the demon out.
And they're having this argumentabout it and the crowds
gathering around the argument.
And then Jesus has the childbrought to him.
He asked a few questions abouthow the long this has been going
on, et cetera.
And then the father says to theLord, pleading with him, heal
him if you can.
(02:40):
And Jesus responds, what do youmean if I can?
You must believe and the manthen says, I do believe, but
help me with my unbelief.
This is, a desperate dad withthe reality of a difficult
situation.
And it really comes and helps usget a starting point for prayer
(03:04):
for our kids.
He understands who Jesus is, andhe's also.
Willing to admit that he'sdealing with a struggle to
believe and and the strugglehere is is the influence of the
circumstances that are aroundhim and even the circumstances
of the disciples, right?
It's really what has been bysight and any of us would would
(03:26):
be like the father.
We would really start tostruggle with doubts and it's
interesting.
the Jesus then, despite thedisciples not coming through,
despite the fathers, having somereservations, but will at least
willing to confess thosereservations.
He still heals the child.
(03:46):
And I like this starting pointthat, that Ryle takes us to,
because it does, it demonstratesthe desperation of the father.
It demonstrates the power ofChrist and, and our reality of
dealing with what's around usand what we see and our sight
influence more than our faithinfluence.
And I think this is particularlyimportant as we live in a
(04:08):
culture that seems to defineeverything Truth by anecdotal
experience.
And what I mean by that ispeople often say, well, you
know, I went to, the city of NewOrleans and boy, I was treated
great.
Those people are wonderful.
We make a universal truth out ofan experience where we might do
the flip side of that and say,Oh, I was treated poorly and
(04:29):
they're all rude down there, butthese, these experiences begin
to, in this culture, formulate.
Truth.
And we can't allow that.
We have to, we have to focus onwho Jesus is and beyond the
circumstances that we're put in.
Now, from this starting point, Iwant to look at two texts.
(04:50):
One is out of Ephesians, Ibelieve the first chapter and
the other is out of Colossians.
And I would suggest that we praythese things and insert our
children's names into thesetexts because these are really
the things.
So in Ephesians, Paul says, Ipray that the eyes of your heart
(05:11):
may be enlightened, in otherwords, opened in order that you
may know God's incomparablygreat power for us who believe
that power is like the workingof his mighty strength, which he
exerted in Christ when he raisedhim from the dead here, we're
asking God to open the eyes ofthe heart, The spiritual
(05:34):
condition of our kids is thattheir hearts are blind and that
those hearts need to be openedand that they also need the
power of God.
That is the resurrection powerto strengthen them.
So much of modern church todayin a lot of institutions has
sort of stripped away thismystery.
(05:55):
And it's replaced some of ourdesperate dependence on Christ
with.
I would say our own personalresponsibility.
Certainly we haveresponsibility, but we can't
accomplish thoseresponsibilities and duties
without first having our eyesopened and being given the
power.
but also when we go toColossians, and this is one that
(06:16):
I recommend and I think is mostimportant when we're asking God
and praying for them outside ofnormal things like.
You know, my son's or mydaughter's sick.
Can you bring healing, uh, bewith them today, protect them
from, you know, the evil one.
And then there's kind of normalprayers and normal life.
But Paul says in this prayer inColossians for this reason,
(06:37):
since the day we heard of it,and meaning since the day we
heard of you, we have not ceasedpraying for you and asking that
you might be filled with theknowledge of God's will.
In all spiritual wisdom andunderstanding so that you may
lead lives worthy of the Lord,fully pleasing to him that you
(07:01):
would bear fruit in every goodwork and grow in the knowledge
of God.
May you be made strong with allstrength that comes from his
glorious power.
May you be prepared to endureeverything with patience while
joyfully given thanks to thefather who has enabled you to
share in the inheritance of thesaints in the light, because he
(07:25):
has rescued us from the power ofdarkness and transferred us into
the kingdom of his beloved son.
That is a magnificent prayer.
to ask God for your children onbehalf of your children.
We can look at it in kind ofthree ways.
What is the ask?
What are we asking for?
(07:45):
Why are we asking it?
And how will we see it?
I don't know if you've ever hadto, uh, meet with people in
political power.
If you've ever done a lobbycall, where you go down to the
congressional offices inWashington, DC, or maybe your
state capital and generally yourlobbyist will tell you now, when
you meet with the member ofCongress or you meet with their
(08:07):
chief of staff, they're going tosay, what is the ask?
And this is what you say, Whatwe are asking for in these text
is that the eyes of the heart beopened and that they be filled
(08:32):
with knowledge of God's will,with spiritual wisdom and
understanding and of power.
That's what we're asking for.
It's the heart condition.
It's the wisdom and it's thepower.
Why are we asking it?
Well, we're asking it so thatthey can walk in a manner that
is worthy of God, that'spleasing to him and that they
(08:56):
would bear fruit in all the workthat they do and that their
knowledge of God would increase.
How will it happen?
How will they do it?
How will this all work?
Although being strengthened withall power, according to his
glorious might for all enduranceand patience with joy.
(09:17):
In other words, the power andthe glory comes from the same
resurrection power that we havespoken about.
I love how Jeremiah Burroughs,he's an old Puritan pastor
writes about this.
He says, when our naturalconscience places a duty on us,
it doesn't give us the strengthto perform it.
(09:38):
In fact, it often doesn't giveus the joy to perform it.
We might reluctantly do it, orwe might resist it.
We might do it a little bit andthen give up, he says.
But when the Spirit of God putsa duty on us, God gives us the
strength to do it, and He makesthe heart glad about the duty.
(09:59):
This is what we're really askingfor.
We're asking that the eyes ofthe heart be open, the captivity
of the soul be freed, thatwisdom come into that heart so
that the joy of have, ofperforming our duties and
performing our fruit and workingthings out with God and living
for God and the power to do thatis what we're asking for.
(10:22):
This past week, there was anarticle in the London Times
about prayer at school again,another one of these old
arguments.
And it's this very strict publicschool that has this
regimentation schedule to keepchildren extremely disciplined.
And one of the kids wanted topray during recess.
And the headmaster got into adebate about it and banned
(10:45):
prayer at that particularschool.
I assume the UK doesn't have anational banning.
And the Times writer wasdescribing the challenges these
days in which Their culture istrying to embrace so many
religions and they're all tryingto coexist.
And the Church of England hasreally faded from the culture.
And so they're back to this,another one of these old debates
(11:07):
that can distract us from theduty at hand.
I share this because I thinkit's important to understand
that out there we can't expectmuch in the issue of prayer.
The evangelist, GeorgeWhitfield, who was an evangelist
in England, as well as inAmerica, in the 18th century, he
(11:28):
describes the duty of parents inthree offices, prophet that is
to teach, priest that is to prayfor, and king that is to govern
and direct or queen to governand direct.
And he reminds us, he remindshis church that if the Apostle
(11:48):
Paul says that those who do notprovide for their own house in
temporal things have denied thefaith.
He says, what, to what greaterdegree are those who do not
teach and pray?
He really lays on.
Not so much the roles, but he'sgiving us a different set.
(12:09):
He calls them offices.
And with those offices comeduty.
That is the duty to teach, theduty to pray, and the duty to
direct.
And he tries to encourage hispeople to see their home as a
parish, a small church, and thateveryone that is in that house
(12:29):
has a duty to the family, whichis the flock.
What I want to help youunderstand is these the things
that we need to ask for for ourkids.
And we need to grasp it's moreabout our duty than what is our
role.
It's more about what we areobligated to do as a Christian
(12:49):
family than how we provide orwhose, whose roles are in
provision and all these sort ofmodern arguments that no one
back in the times when duty wasmore emphasized, gave much
thought to.
Our homes are a parish of ourkids, and we are the prophets,
priests, and kings.
(13:11):
The ultimate battle for theheart and soul is a fight for
identity.
Our king invites our kids toknow who they are, what to
believe, and where they belong.
Until next time, let's rememberthe words for theirs is the
Kingdom of Heaven.
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