“Your children, the very ones that you said would be taken for plunder, I’ll bring in to enjoy the land you rejected while your corpses will be rotting in the wilderness. These children of yours will live as shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, living with the fallout of your whoring unfaithfulness until the last of your generation lies a corpse in the wilderness. You scouted out the land for forty days; your punishment will be a year for each day, a forty-year sentence to serve for your sins—a long schooling in my displeasure.” (Numbers 14:31-34 The Message Bible)
Yesterday, we looked at how the older generation that was stuck, found themselves in a “Can’t Move Forward” position. I went back a few verses today, moved to stay with the same passage, and I took a look at the verses that preceded the focal verse used yesterday.
I am sure you have already opened your spiritual eyes to see what this meditation is all about. However, to be sure, let me share some thoughts, to guarantee that you are seeing what I see. What do I see? I see that the younger generation would not get stuck and were able to move further, move forward, move into a land full of blessings; a land filled with milk and honey. They would face their challenges, but I see that they would be blessed to enter a land filled with bountiful blessings.
My seeing went from the text to our time. I see that today, there is hope for the next generation. Yes, violent behavior is up, and many young people are victims of the vicious behavior of a voluminous number of violent prone, very immoral people, many being their peers, who were not brought up in the fear and admonition of the Lord. Nevertheless, there is hope for the next generation! They can approach the days ahead in victory over self, Satan, and the secular world. They can beat bullying. They can hurdle over tendencies to hurt others and/or themselves. They can abort abnormal behavior, and assent to normal behavior; normal behavior being behavior that Christians see as a way of life as expressed by the inspired word of God. How can this be done? The younger generation just needs to be taught and they need to see good examples, need to see some contemporary Calebs and Joshuas. They need to see the church being the church and influencing the world and not the other way around for the sake of numbers in the pews. For instance, I love dressing casual at church, but have we gone too far with our relaxed dress codes in the pulpit that we are messaging a theme that contributes to a confusion in regard to how to live a Christian life without being too casual with our standards? Call me old school if you want but think about what we are seeing in our local churches today.
As a side note, getting back to the hope for the next generation, I am pleased to report that at my church I see grandparents bringing their grandsons and granddaughters to church, in the absence of the children’s parents. God bless them! I see aunts and uncles making sure their children get to church if their mothers and fathers do not bring them. I have witnessed members of the faithful, older generation, continuing to put forth the effort to get their adult children, young adults who have been lured by societal norms and have consequently strayed from the church to return to the church, to develop a close relationship with the Lord, and to receive instruction that will help in the continuing journey to be better. A lot of this happens behind the scenes, but please recognize that God and His faithful saints have not given up on their younger generation. There is hope for the next generation. Don’t become apathetic about helping young adults and younger ones of all ages grow in Christ! Don’t attack with criticism, but rather correct with love. Certainly, do not accept that it is too late to bring someone to the place where they can experience abundant life and victory. Regarding victory, add the closing verse to your witnessing toolkit that you can use to win the younger generation and to help them realize their hope. God is giving them a chance. Share this meditation with them if you choose to do so. Let’s have a tremendous impact and make this day a turnaround Thursday. By that I mean impact someone in the next generation to stop drifting and to decisively turn to the One who is our strength. Be blessed!
“But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Corinthians 15:57 NLT)
Still committed to the climb,
Mark L. King