The Children For Christ by Andrew Murray

that he could do it. And so every believing parent has, in the very fact of
his being taken into this relation with God, the guarantee that God will
give the grace of faithfulness to prepare for the blessing, as well as the
reward upon it. In the covenant we have not to trust our God for every
other blessing, but look to ourselves for the faithfulness that receives it;
no, as for every other, so for this, most of all, we may count upon Him:
`I have known Abraham, to the end that he may command his
household and his children.’
It is part of God’s covenant that He will first teach man to keep it, and
then reward that keeping (Jer. 32: 40). A covenant-keeping God and a
covenant-keeping parent — in these the children must be blessed. `The
mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that
fear, and His righteousness to children’s children, to such as keep His
covenant, and to those that remember His precepts to do them.’
Believing parent! see here the two sides of a parent’s calling. Be very
full of faith, be very faithful. Very full of faith: let faith in the living
God, in His covenant with you and your seed, in His promises for your
children, in His faithfulness, fill your soul. Take God’s word as the only
measure of your faith. And then, be very faithful: take God’s word as
the only measure of your life, especially in the family. Be a parent such
as God would have you be. Let it be your one desire so to live yourself, so
to rule your home, so to command your household and your children,
that they may walk in the ways of the Lord, that so the Lord may bring
upon you that which He has spoken concerning you. You may depend
upon it that the blessing will be large and full. In the blessing for your
own Christian life, which comes from that self-discipline and exercise
of faith which parental faithfulness involve, in the blessing on your
home life and your children, in the influence which will come to you on
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