SONGS IN THE NIGHT
Suggested Reading: Job 34-35
Click scripture link to read online or HERE to listen online (then click the symbol of the audio speaker above the scripture portion).
A nighttime view of the Old City of Jerusalem.
GOOGLE MAPS – To see where the photo was taken, click HERE.
Key Verses: Job 35:7, 10
If you are righteous, what do you give Him? Or what does He receive from your hand?…But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker, Who gives songs in the night?…’
Many questions, but what about answers? Elihu picks up on some of the things Job has said. He points out Job’s statements and then leaves it up to Job to decide whether he is right or wrong. Perhaps we can learn from this. Rather than accusing others of wrong, we can point to God’s thoughts on the matter and the need to consider their actions and reactions toward God. Then we can pray fervently and leave it up to the Holy Spirit to do His work. Jesus said, “When He, the Spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13a). For a full description of the work of the Holy Spirit, we may want to take the time to read Jesus’ teaching found in John 16:1-15.
The second key verse speaks of “songs in the night.” God was there for Paul and Silas in jail: “But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them” (see Acts 16:25-34). We may have many questions that seem to be unanswered, but as we are faithful in reading God’s Word, His answers will be revealed.
PRAYER FOR TODAY:
Lord God, often I come to You in the night hours. I’ve been through what has been called “the dark night of the soul.” Every time You’ve been there to meet me. Sometimes I have had to learn to wait as You are accomplishing Your purposes in my life. I pray for continued grace to listen for Your words of comfort and guidance. In Jesus’ Name I ask this, Amen!!!
100 PERSONAL WORDS:
This past Monday, Norma-Jean and I received a call from Myles Neilson, our 5-year-old great-grandson. He said, “I’ve had a very serious talk with my Mom [Sheryl] and it’s important.” At that point Sheryl picked up the phone and said they would like to come over to our apartment. They arrived around 5 p.m. in time for dinner, and I heard the story. Myles had asked his Mom why he did so many bad things, and even though he tried to be good, it didn’t work. Sheryl asked Myles if he had ever asked Jesus to come and live in his heart. He said, “No, and I’d like to do that.” They prayed together and Myles received Jesus. He had a question for me. He asked his great-grand’pa (and he waited until I could write his question down), “When I pray at night, I ask God to help me to listen. I wake up in the morning, but I don’t think God heard me, because I mess up again. God annoys me because He doesn’t help me. What’s wrong?” I made an attempt at responding to Myles, but I want the help of my fellow bloggers. How would you respond to Myles? I’ll be checking your responses tonight and tomorrow. God willing, I’ll read your comments to Myles. Please help me and be as brief as possible. Remember a 5-year-old’s attention span.
Yours for “songs in the night,”
David
A lovely opportunity to establish ” Grace” in his little heart and mind. Prov.3:5 and 6, Lean not on “his own understanding !
If I were asked that question I would respond in saying
God sees all and knows all and yet even when I want to do right I end up doing wrong God wants us to lean on Him to get through our mistakes no matter how many times we do them around the bend another time But he loves us as many times we go around the mountain sometimes his answer is wait He wamts to build character in us , every prayer is answered yes no or wait
How wonderful to have this opportunity. Perhaps I would say…it is liking working on a jigsaw puzzle, we do not get it all finished at once but each piece will fit perfectly when we are all done and God likes to do things right, so, sometimes we just have to wait for the puzzle to be finished, and when God is in charge ….IT WILL BE THE BEST PUZZLE ever!!!! P.s. we must also tell the little ones they are loved and precious in God’s eyes.
I believe I am still missing a few pieces!!!! Blessings to you Pastor David and fellow bloggers.
Like a young puppy, teething and so full of energy and wanting to discover as much as he can, he does. His loving master guides him away from those chewey slippers he had chewn upon and towards the new chew toy. Puppy thinks it looks the same and helps my new teeth and my master is happy. But, I need to pee. I pee. My loving master tells me not to pee in here but over there. Now I do and my master is giving me hugs. Puppy is so happy he runs and runs around the house and bumps a candle holder and it breaks. Puppy barks and is scared for the moment. Master gives him a hug and takes him to the park where he can run and run and run. Puppy knows he is loved and will make more mistakes, but what is most important, puppy knows he is loved and help is always there by my loving master.
Could be further edited and expanded, but the gist is there. Hope this helps. It’s my life story!
Be prepared for, “do all dogs go to heaven?:)
If I were to answer his question it would be what ever your mistake you made
ask God to forgive you and he does. God Loves YOU always just the way you
are.
God bless you
Lianne Hogg
What a charming story! What I hear from little Myles question is his exasperation at not being able to control himself despite asking God. I know he’s only 5, and his mom would know best, but could he be signalling a problem such as attention deficit or hyperactivity? It’s just that he sounds so earnest in his question, as though he really tries to do what he’s told but simply cannot concentrate …”Lord Jesus, help Myles and his parents understand what’s going on, and thank you Lord that there are loving grandparents nearby”.
I would tell my grandchild that, when Jesus lives in his heart, He (Jesus) can be hurt when we decide to run to something that we “know” is wrong. He wants the very best for us and disobaying hurts him. He lets us have our choices though. It’s much better to have Jesus close and take Him eveywhere we go. We don’t want Him to be hurt though. He LOVES children – the Bible tells us so.
I think I would say the same thing again. It is true.
We all feel this way and mess up all the time no matter how old we are. But Jesus continues to forgive us because he loves us and He knows we are trying and we are sorry. But we are all human beings created to make up our own mind. Satan knows our weaknesses and tries to make us believe that because we mess up we are not good enough for Jesus. Don’t believe him. The same way your mom loves you even when you mess up, even though she doesn’t like what you did – Jesus is like that but even better because He is your Friend and you can talk to him and ask for his help all the time, everywhere without even saying anything out loud.and He will listen and help you.
Myles Neilson, you are wise beyond your years!
This is a great question for we know that our Father God loves us and wants us to always do the right thing so we don
I would start by explaining to him that even Paul, the greatest missionary who ever lived, had the same problem. Then turn to Romans 7 and show him Paul’s words there in verses 21 to 25 only put them in a format he can understand such as “when I want to do good I do bad,” Paul concludes by saying that even though we serve God’s laws in our mind, we still have a body made of flesh and that sometimes takes us in the wrong direction. Tell him that this is called temptation and God will give us a way to turn away from it and we can see that in 1 Corinthians 10:13. I would also explain to him that we can also be protected if we look at all the ways that God has shown us in Ephesians – being saved by asking Jesus to forgive us and inviting Him into our hearts and praying each day before our day starts.
And a little child shall lead us—- Myles is in good company because many grown ups struggle with the same issue and it hard enough for us to understand, how much more a child. Once I heard a sermon and the speaker used an illustration that help me with that question in my life perhaps it will help a five year old too. I would say.
When a baby chick is born it has to fight it’s way out of the shell. No one can take him out of the shell to help him out, because if they do the baby chick will be very weak and might die. The baby chick only becomes strong and healthy by struggling out the its shell. You are a baby Christian and God wants you become strong and healthy in your faith. He can’t do the work for you. He can’t take away the things you are struggling with, like learning how to listen better, you have to do that all on your own. God heard your prayer, but He cannot answer it in the way you would like because He knows that isn’t what is best for you. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t care. He is so please you want to listen and behave. So keep being willing and keep praying and trust Him and mommy and daddy — the three of them will help you get you through when it is hard to listen like you want to. God loves you and he is happy you invited Jesus in your heart. Jesus will never leave you and with Jesus in your heart even when do mess up and don’t listen as well as you could you can say I’m sorry and God will forgive you.
I love this story Donna, how wonderful!
This is terrific!! I’m going to share this with my five year old at home!
I agee with the other people stating this is a wonderful story! It keeps the message clear and it is a story that Myles will remember for God-willing, throughout his life.
It also confirms and acknowledges that he is: loved; that Jesus lives inside him now; and that Jesus will always forgive him if he asks for forgiveness.
Thank you Donna for this beautiful illustration of our Father’s Heart.
Blessings and heaps of hugs for you, for David Mainse and all the other fellow blogger’s. xo
Wow what a spot you are in! Myles sounds a lot like me when I was his age. When I did something bad Mother would take me to my bed room. She would make me pray and ask God to forgive me and then She would and then I got spanked. That did no good. Later in my life a doctor told me that everything about me was screaming for love. I had been told about the Holy Spirit. I prayed for It. Suddenly I could not stop telling people about all the answers to prayer I had heard of.
“Myles, Jesus loves you and his mercy goes on forever”!
Shalom,
Graham.
2012 Holy Land Yellow Bus.
Is Myles to young too young to be prayed for to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said that He loved the little children, After I was prayed for to receive The Holy
Spirit I don’t think I sinned again. If I ever did I would know it an correct what I said right away.
I would let Myles know that God is indeed helping him….he doesn’t usually help us in the way we expect….but God is helping Myles know and understand when he does something wrong.
I would also add a bit of caution that the child will not be made to feel guilty but understand that it is all a part of growing up naturally and spiritually.
Wow what a great question, I wish we adults would ask ourselves these questions more often.
I guess I would say that our Great great great (add many greats) grandparents made a mistake, they decided that they didn’t want to have God as part of their lives. This caused a sickness (sin) and because of this sickness God had to separate people from the rest of his creation so the rest of creation wouldn’t get sick as well. Sometimes this sickness causes us to do things we don’t want to do, like tell lies, our fight with our friends. The good news is Jesus came to make us better, he cleaned our soul from this sickness, however as long as we live on this earth, the germs that cause us to fight and do bad things will always be here in our body, and so Jesus will help us fight these germs everyday. (you may want to add depending on his maturity) Unfortunately, we won’t be perfect until our germy bodies die and we go to be with Jesus, but we still need to fight everyday to be clean and Jesus will help us.
Hi Myles, l am so happy that you want to be a good boy. When your mommy asked you if you had ever asked Jesus into your heart and life, you said no you hadn’t. Now that you have asked him into your heart and life you will be much closer to Jesus because he lives in you now and he will help you to be a good boy. There might be times when you are still naughty, but you can quickly ask Jesus to forgive you and he will. Just keep being the good little boy, you so want to be, and remember to have fun, because Jesus wants little children to enjoy being kids!
Myles, maybe God wants you to be patient and when HE is sure that you are ready to not only listen but act on what He has to say to you, HE will answer your prayers my dear:) please keep on praying and keep this in mind, the ways of God are not the same as ours. God bless you Myles
Guess what Myles? I am a lot older than you and I have the same problem. Jesus is the only one who does not mess up. So like us fellow bloggers, we read the Bible, keep praying because He always hears us, especially to little boys who want to be good and try again. As you grow and learn more and more of the Bible and receive the Holy Spirit, He will help you to get better and better so don’t be discouraged as Jesus loves you, Myles and He’s rejoicing over your decision to ask Jesus in your heart. God bless you, Myles!
We are still people untill we see Jesus and are good like Jesus.
Myles, you did the best thing you could ever do…you asked Jesus into your heart. You are a baby Christian just like we were but you will grow up spiritually just like you are growing up physically. Do not worry about this because Jesus loves you and will help you when you ask Him.
Sometimes I don’t think GOD is listening to me either Myles, but I hang in there and keep praying that HE will answer my prayers too! I would just keep telling Myles that one has to keep praying and hoping that things will change soon. It all takes time and in GODS time things WILL change. Maybe knowing that will help Myles to.
It’s like building a Lego block house ,it takes a lot of tries before we get it rite! We will have to keep trying and never give up!!!! God will give us the strength!
Dear Myles
Bringing Jesus in your life is the best decision you could ever have made. Jesus loves you so much and the good news is that he will never leave you . He may be slow in answering you sometimes but His timings is always the best .
God bless you Myles.
xxxxCarole.
Wow what a precious event….I am hoping soon my little grandchildren will make their decision to follow Jesus too….Myles….you have started on the very important journey God has for you…He has called you and is there every step of the way with you …and put you in a loving family that follows Jesus too….just take one day at a time…learn something every day from His Word and put it to practice…..as He has many promises and The Holy Spirit to give you lots of help and keep on talking with those around you to help and guide you….God has a special purpose for you…and the angels are rejoicing at your commitment!!!
God looks on the heart and in his heart Myles wants what is good so I would say God did hear you Myles and is helping you to grow stronger. Now that you and Jesus are one watch and see how much better it goes. In Christ, Diane R.
Even Paul could not do right all the time – Romans 7:14 – 22. God loves us anyway, and if we keep trying to be good, eventually, with His help, we will do better more often.
This is what Nehemiah wrote in chapter 9:10 “And you, a forgiving God,gracious and compassionate, incredibly patient, with tons of love” Is that not amazing?
Dear Mr. Mainse and Myles,
God loves you and accepts you as who you are. Even when you thought you have made a boo boo.
We all make boo boo’s.
We are not perfect like His son Jesus who got it right. Not one boo boo ever!
I think God is pleased with you that you have asked Jesus to be with you and live in your heart.
And when you make another boo boo and Mommy knows your sorry, Mommy can help you let God know you are sorry. And he won’t think of the boo boo’s you made any more 🙂
Thank you Mr. Mainse for your blog, I always enjoy it 🙂
Diane 🙂
All have sinned (Rom.3:23) and fall short. Teach new mercies every morning!
“A change has been wrought since Jesus came into my heart” – how we turn from our wicked ways (born into sin) and become “new” beings!!!
Myles ask great grandpa what he does when he wakes up and does something bad. I am older than your great grandpa and I have Jesus inside me who is perfect and HE knows I’m not and your not. So now we have Grace from God and if you don’t know what that is ask Great grandpa. Happy to know you have Jesus with you and will never leave you.
As I asked the Lord what would be a good way to respond to Myles, the story of Samuel came to mind. Samuel, as a little boy, didn’t understand that God was speaking to him. He ran to Eli who gave him some good advice. There are several layers to this story. Perhaps Myles needs to listen to God (as we all do!!!) and understand that he is getting help but maybe not in the way he expects.
Dearest Myles:
God bless you! When you pray to God, ask for His help, in Jesus’ name. Ask that God’s will be done in your life, then trust and have faith in him. Put your worries and fears aside and know that God will make it right. With your faith and trust in God, and His will being done in your life, you never need worry about anything because you have placed it in His hands. Before you know it, you will listen and act so well at all times, without ever messing up. It will all be because of the glory God has in your life! Amen, amen, and amen!
Myles Jesus Loves you just as you are. yes we some times are not in tune
with Jesus this is the time we go into our place of quietness and ask him to
for giveness and He will He loves us so much that He’ll answer you in His
time , God bless you Dear one…..R…
I would tell Myles that God loves him so much but his intention is not to make Myles perfect.He needs to know Jesus, Jesus gets us through life. Jesus Loves even Me. If we spent all our all time thinking about what we said or did wrong we will miss out on getting to know what he did right. We are brought had a cost, paid for. Free to be Loved.
Dear Myles.
Just think about how good Jesus was and is. He took all your bad things on the cross and made them good. He loves you even when you do bad.
Now that Myles has asked Jesus to come live in his heart, he can pray that the Holy Spirit would guide him each day in his prayers. Then he will think double or triple before he does anything!! It will give him great comfort too!! It does me!!!
Nancy
Myles, when you were learning to walk, you would often fall down. Your parents comforted you and helped you, but you were allowed to keep “falling down.” Because that is how you learn to walk properly. Now, I think, God wants you to learn to walk without “messing up.” Instead of a bruise He lets you have a “bad” or guilty feeling. Just remember that you don’t want to have those bad feelings and it will help you to walk straight, and without falling. May God bless you!
Peter (a grandfather too!)
Dear Myles: It’s because we all still have a sinful nature. Even Peter denied knowing Jesus after he had said he would be faithful. Jesus loved Peter so much, he forgave him. Your life too, will be going sort of like that. Even when you do bad things, Jesus loves you so much He will forgive you if you tell Him whatever you were doing wrong. God bless you and keep praying. You will do well.
Nothing is wrong Myles. You are beginning your walk with God. He is right beside you all the way. I believe the song “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so” I believe it with all my heart and God is there with me also each time I slip and that could be just 1 minute after I get up in the morning but I smile and I say “Sorry Lord, forgive me!” and He does and I continue walking and I will slip again but I do believe with my heart of hearts that “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” Myles you are living with and in the Lord, smile and be happy.
Even though the little fellow is saved now he’ll still needs the H.S to come and live in him and be born again. Then it’s like a micro-wave oven, the Lord will work in his heart from the inside out. And it’s like a school, he now is a baby in the Lord but he will grow as time goes on. But maybe he’s still too young to understand all this.
Our grandchildren gave their hearts to the Lord and went to Bible camps as very young children but drifted away as adults.We can only pray that the Lord will get a serious hold of them in the near future!
I think I would say to Myles “You are such a good boy in God’s eyes. It is so good that you keep trying to listen but there is a bad spirit out there that wants you to not listen. Don’t let that bad guy Satan win! You just choose to listen and do what you are told so God wins and you go with God’s ways. And you’ll be happy, your Mom will be happy and God will be happy!!
What a precious opportunity for Great-Granddad!
PS My husband, Dave and I have just sent in our deposit to join you, Norma-Jean and the others for the trip to Isreal. I’m very excited to be around you and your family for 2 weeks. We have been partners for 32 years now and just love your family and you and Norma-Jean ….and all the others.
Hello Myles … You know how much your Mommy & Daddy love you even though you make mistakes or do wrong things sometimes? Jesus is just like that, He loves you even when you feel you’ve done something wrong. Yes you can make Mommy and Daddy upset but they will always love you with wide open arms ready for lots of hugs and kisses. Jesus knows you very well Myles and He always listens to you even though you can’t see Him or hear Him. But you can learn about Him through Bible stories, which I’m sure you’re great-grandpa would love to share with you! We are so proud of you Myles for letting Jesus live in your heart! Your family will definitely teach you all about Jesus. God Bless!
Thank you Scott! I really like what you wrote to Myles. It is very age appropriate but what I truly appreciate is the empahsis on: how much Jesus loves Myles; that God is ready to listen (anytime and anywhere); and the icing on the cake was when you stated, “Jesus knows you very well Myles and He always listens to you even though you can
Thank you David, for the reminder of ‘songs in the night’.
My mother was a wonderful woman of God. When she returned to Jesus her absence in my life often left me longing. She loved daisies. I was going through a ‘dark night of the soul’, when one restless night into the darkness came the vision of a perfect daisy. Oh, how I love Jesus! I love Myles’ honesty about being annoyed. And it is wonderful that he knows right from wrong. But all he needs to know is that Jesus is always with him, and is proud that Myles knows what is good and right, he is not alone in doing wrong things, even grown ups know what is right and still do wrong things but Jesus understands our hearts and when we ask He forgives us. I love the Book of Job, and especially Elihu, my compassion is with teenagers. I’ve always been able to look past Job’s struggles and see that GOD used this young man to awaken Job’s spirit. Perhaps it was the reason He gave Job over to Satin. Oh how wonderful it is after the darkness to be able to say, ‘I heard but now I see’!
maybe he can’t live up to what he feels is expected of him…perhaps too much is expected of him…sometimes as adults we forget to affirm the good and dwell too much on the bad…I like the first comment “a lovely opportunity to establish “Grace”
We are just supposed to try. The apostle Paul said, the things that he does not want to do, he does. Paul was an excellent apostle and few are as righteous as him but he said that as hard as he tries, he still has sin. God wants to see us try. If we don’t try, but then say we could not help it, we are lying, and we can’t fool God. However, if we try, God will see it. A man said to me that God is like a good parent. They teach us good. If we try to do what they say, even when they are not watching, we will honour them. Same with God and he knows when we try to do what he says. We should try to do what Jesus told us to do. This is probably too much for a five year old to listen to altogether but you can edit it for him as you think is best.
perhaps too much is expected of him…sometimes we dwell too much on the bad/mistakes and too little on the good/things well done.
I like the first comment “a lovely opportunity to establish Grace…”
God loves you Myles just even when you mess up..especially when you say you are sorry
Dear David;
I’d be very candid with Myles but keep things fairly simple since he is only 5. I’d also make it very clear that he is not the only one struggling with this issue. You need to put your own spin on this but here’s the kind of thing I would say to Myles…
I’d tell him that he’d asked a really good question. Lots of people have the same question. I would then re-assure Myles that God does love him and that He always listens to him. Tell Myles that God has very special plans for all of us, including him, but sometimes it’s really hard to wait and see what those plans are. If we mess up while we’re waiting for God to share His plans for us, God will still love us.
I’d try the pencil & eraser analogy; Do you know why God puts erasers on the end of pencils? So we can rub out any mistakes we make. So, when we make mistakes or mess up by not listening or behaving etc., we need to pray to God and ask Him help us do better the next time. (I’d equate prayer to the eraser).
Myles needs to know that God knows we’re not perfect and that we are going to mess up. God just wants us to try really hard and do our very best, each and every day.
Finally, I’d tell Myles that the most important thing for to remember is that we all need to keep praying for God’s help, and that we need to thank God when He does help us.
As an aside…Sometimes, I think it’s ok to tell a child, “I don’t know.” If Myles persists with his questioning, I might tell say, ‘I don’t know” and then tell him that it would be a good idea for the whole family to pray about it and see if anybody can come up with a good answer. This would be a very easy way to leave the door open for future discussions about God and other topics/lessons regarding faith.
David, thank you for sharing this story about your great grandson. Myles has given me a wonderful gift through his questions. I have thought about him all day and, thought about my own struggles with these questions. Sometimes breaking things down to basics and looking at things in their simplest form is what we all need to do to remind us of the only thing that really matters; God’s love for us.
God Bless you David and, God Bless Myles.
Well the angels were dancing & singing in celebration of Myles’ eternal decision today! What a joy!
God hears our prayers but he chooses not control our impulses. So we must continue to pray for guidance and then we must practice! Practice! Practice! Play a game of “Simon Says” or Red Light, Green Light. And overtime make the words “Red light” be Moms code word for “remember to practice listening”. (play those games often to practice/gain impulse control)
Myles, Jesus loves you very much and He wants you to love Him too. And if you love Him you will want to make Him happy and then it won’t be so hard to be good.
Dear Myles and David,
What a wonderful thing you did to ask Jesus to come live in your heart!
I’m sure Jesus is so happy with you and all of heaven is happy too! WOW!
We all mess up dear Myles and feel badly about it.
Jesus loves us so much and wants to help us. We have to keep on asking Jesus to help us each day.
Each day we can ask Jesus to help us to do and say what pleases Him.
Even Paul in the Bible wanted to do right but seemed to “mess” up many times and said that he was the chief of sinners.
Jesus loves us and He will change us little by little…
Jesus will change us little by little…each day we can ask Him to help us to do and say what will please Him
Good morning Myles! I am a day late in sending you this, but still wanted to send it anyway.
You are five years old, right? That means you are just starting Kindergarten this year! I am excited for you! I know that your teacher will teach you a lot of fun and important things in Kindergarten.
Even more important and exciting than Kindergarten, you have started following Jesus! That means your teacher will be the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will teach you everything you need to learn to follow Jesus. You will learn how to hear His voice and know Him as your very best friend.
In Kindergarten, you might wonder why your teacher does things a certain way. You might even ask your teacher questions, because you don’t understand. That is okay, because your teacher is there to help you. The same is true with the Holy Spirit. You can ask Him questions and He will help you.
Myles, I can see that you are a good thinker. That is how God made you! Your questions are a way of finding out more about God, who created you and loves you very much!
God bless you. Myles!
Hi Myles
It’s about “choosing” what is good. If I gave you two peaches, one good and sweet and the other bad and rotten, which would you choose? In the same way you can choose between good behaviour and bad. If God just made us take the good, then we would not be good by choice. Just as you chose Jesus as your Saviour, God wants us to choose to obey His voice when He speaks to us. God will always encourage us to do what is good, but, like the peaches, the choice is yours.
God bless you sweetheart.
Thank you David for your blog today and for your explanation of Eilhu. Oh how great it is to have these insights from you.
Wow! So many wonderful sujestions and so much love and caring for this little soul Myles. It touches my heart to witness the call of God on such a young persons life. Myles you are truely blessed. I can only imagine where God is going to lead you Myles. May you grow in Gods love and wisdom as you live and grow
in the years to come. Love and prayers. May you walk in Gods light your entire life hear on earth only to continue in your eternal home in Heaven.
In Jesus name Amen!
xxoo Myles 🙂
Marla
Dear Myles, Jesus loves you and as the mom of university age twin boys as well as being a teacher for 30 years, I. Know that God made boys to wiggle and move and bug their brothers and sisters. Jesus will always love you and always forgive your sins and your “boy” behavior. Sometimes us grownups just need to let boys be how God made you.
David,
I think most people, no matter how young or how old they are, struggle with the same issues Mile’s has. God knows the mistakes we’ve made. He knows all of the mistakes we’re going to make. Despite that, he’s always been there for us.
I’ve done some awful things in my life. Issues arose. Despite the fact that I’d done wrong, God came to my rescue anyway. He never held it, or anything else I’d ever done, against me. I don’t intentionally do wrong. However, there are times when I am so awed and so deeply moved at just how much God loves me. How many people could love us so much that they’d be there for us no matter what what do?
Like Miles, many people ask God to help them stop doing or thinking things that they know are bad. I don’t think its important to focus on whether or not those prayers are answered, but to focus on the incredible amount of love God has for us. God has always loved us so much so that approximately 2000 years ago he decided to show us the depth of that love when he went to the cross for us. Despite knowing about all the good and bad things we would do in our lives, he still thought we were worth suffering rejection, pain, and ultimately worth dying for.
You can let Miles know that even though he does things that he knows displease God, God still loves him very, very much. Just like his Mommy, Daddy, Grandma, Grandpa, Great-Grandma, and Great-Grandpa, will never stop loving him, no matter what he does, God will also never stop loving him all the days of his life on this earth.
That said, you mentioned that you would like to put some of the answers given on this blog into a little booklet for Miles. I would like to know if you would also consider turning this entire blog into a book as well. When our two year trek through the Bible is over, I’d like to start reading it again, and I’d like to use this blog as a study guide. If the dates were removed from your post and terms like day one, day two, day three, etc., were used instead, I could follow your guidelines. I’d also like to be able to read your prayers and the stories of your life over again. I don’t think I will ever tire of them. Would you consider printing a Biblical study guide for your followers?
I’m sorry for appropriating the comments area of a blog intended to be for giving to be answers for your great-grandson Mile’s questions. I was just hoping that you would read what I’ve written, and perhaps consider what I mentioned.
Laura
I believe God is giving him room to correct himself as he is aware of his error.A healthy conscience can save God’s interference at this tender age,an age of innocence.However,Satan will try to influence anyone.This poem was written for the unfortunate members of a grieving site,which the Lord ‘led’ me to.I write them but He is the true authour.Blessings:
Control
Satan blends his thoughts with yours,
You think they came from you,
For his goal is to close all doors,
To control everything you do.
He starts this at an early age,
His lies make you the liar
And when you are in a rage,
Is when you fuel his hellfire.
But just like Satan who sneaks in,
There is Another who is true,
For He knows well about sin
And what Satan wants with you.
He will only enter if invited,
A slave is not His goal,
He seeks a fire be ignited
From within to make you whole.
G W(Bill) Marshall / 13 June, 2013
When Myles said “No, I’d like to do that”, to your question and if he truly meant what he said, then he should find it easier to control himself especially after praying with him to receive Jesus into his wee life.
God bless you all:-)
Lynda
God never gives us an “F” or failing grade when we mess up, He just says retake as many times as we need to get it right.
Myles, it is so precious that you have given your heart to Jesus! He is delighted that you are now His very own. He is Love, and He wants to share His love with you ? and enjoy your love for Him. That is what He really wants ? an on-going sharing of your heart with His heart.
He is glad that you want to be good, but you see, there is no real goodness except His; real goodness is only found in God Himself. Were you hoping that God would make you so good that you could be good all by yourself? That, just maybe, you could run off and be good — without Him? But think how lonesome you would both be then! What you really want, and what He wants, is that you live so close to Him that your heart will draw from His heart, and His love will hold you close to Himself so that you will not want to do anything that would hurt Him.
Good news: there is coming a day when we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is! He is coming soon!
The first two question marks that appear above were not in my note; they mysteriously took the place of a couple of dashes I had used!
Excellent response.God acts in mysterious ways so maybe He wanted those question marks there.God bless
(I doubt you’ll even see this 4 years on,lol.)
“maybe ?”
Myles is just 5. He is being a normal five year. He understands the difference between doing good and acting badly. He is to be affirmed for understanding this and wants helps. He spoke to his mom and she had his grandpa talk to him and love and asked him if he wanted Jesus in his heart. Which He did – so his five year old heart is open to God. He is to be affirmed, loved and encouraged. He is praying for help and wants God to help. But as a five year old, he doesn’t know how this will happen. He is to be affirmed about him actually talking to God about this for himself. God is listening and is answering his prayer everyday. His prayer is being answered through his parent, grandparents. God works through people Since he is only five, he is learning ‘how to’ and ‘how not to do certain things. That’s why he has parents, grandparents, teachers, pastors.. God uses people to answer our questions and guide us. It is important that this five year old doesn’t get spooked, thinks is not normal and other fears grows in his life. “It so wonderful, Myles, that you know you do ‘some’ things wrong, but I am so happy you want to be good. And Jesus will help. You are only five so it takes time to learn. But Jesus is in your heart and he will help you understand more and more as you grow. While this is happening, you are our son and Jesus gave us to you for us to share in loving you and helping you know what is right and wrong. That’s why he made parents, to help him love his children. Ans we love you so much. So just as you pray to God for help, you can come to us anytime with your questions or fears and we are hear to help you. That is how God planned it. So, if you make mistakes, tell God you are sorry and he forgives you, then tell and we also will forgive you. This is so important Myles, this is the way God planned. EVEN when you are my age – and I AM 70 – and I still make mistakes and I really feel bad when that happens. But I also have to ask God to forgive me and help me. And sometimes, God gives me other people I can talk to and this is how God answers my prayer”.
I love the stories about “the puppy”…just helping children with what comes naturally.. “the chicks” … all chicks near a mommy hen to love, protect and guide them.
Sam
I am a grandpa (70) have 4 grown children and 3 grandchildren.
This is the first time I ever wrote on a blog. So I hope you get this. Because “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world” including you and me – even when we mess up.
Samuel, I love what you wrote! Affirmation along with godly guidance is a win-win combination and is great for a 5 year old as it is for a 95 year old person. Thank you for your words and for your gentle, compassionate heart. May you be blessed today and every day from the heart and love of our heavenly Father. (Hugs!)
thanks for the opportunity of contribute…..I was away on retreat with no internet during the last week of August!
Dear Miles, I am so thankful that Jesus loves you and me and he knows that we make mistakes and chose to do wrong things sometimes. I am also thankful that he understands us and wants us to do the best we can but when we do mess up he is still with us and he wants to forgive us as much as we want to be forgiven. Miles, God loves you very much and that’s why He has given you Jesus to live with you all the days of your life. He has also given you a mom and dad and other family members to help you live a life that pleases God, so try your best to listen and obey.
I just know you are going to do your best because that’s what you want to do and wanting to do good is half the battle. x
can I start to get the ‘Blog’ again. It is a wonderful walk through the Bible and I share with my family and friends, God bless, Beatrice Parks
Good morning… Now that Myles is a whole 7 years old, perhaps he should be asked if he’s learned anything from the past 2 years…. It would be interesting to see if he has an answer. I can only think of what Psul has said in scripture…. (Paraphrasing) “for I do the things I shouldn’t and don’t do things I should”…. Blessings
If we ask the Holy Spirit each morning to bless us and be our helper to do what God
wants us to do, everything will go much better!! Not perfect but better.
Blessings
Excellent response.God acts in mysterious ways so maybe He wanted those question marks there.God bless
(I doubt you’ll even see this 4 years on,lol.)