READING: Psalm 78, Romans 16
Psalm 78 focuses on telling the next generations of God’s goodness. Indeed, one generation was to teach the next generation, who would then in turn teach the following one: “He established a testimony in Jacob and set up a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children so that a future generation—children yet to be born—might know” (Psa 78:5-6). The goal was to keep teaching next generations so they would not become like a previous generation: “stubborn and rebellious . . . , a generation whose heart was not loyal and whose spirit was not faithful to God” (Psa 78:8).
All of us have failed in our walk with God, but many of us don’t help others learn from our mistakes. We’ve also received God’s blessings, but we often fail to speak to others about His goodness. On top of all of that, I fear that we haven’t taught the stories of the Bible so well that our children and our grandchildren recognize the blessings of obedience and the judgments of disobedience. We don’t take advantage of our opportunities to teach next generations, but we nevertheless get frustrated with them when they don’t follow God well.
To change this pattern, we must choose to teach those who follow behind us. May God help each of us to invest in at least one young person today.
PRAYER: “God, help me to teach Your Word to the next generations. I pray I’ll be a faithful follower who teaches others to do the same.”
TOMORROW’S READING: Psalms 79-83, 1 Corinthians 1