Most of the time, we walk around thinking that what we have belongs to us. We talk about my money, my house, and my family. But the Bible pulls the rug out from under that idea. Everything we have is actually a loan from God to us.
1 Corinthians 4:7, “…and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?”
Since it all belongs to Him, we are called to be good stewards: managers of someone else’s property. A steward’s job is to take what the Master gave him and use it for the Master’s benefit
1 Corinthians 4:2, “Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.”
A wise businessman knows exactly where to invest his time and energy to get the maximum return. As Christians, we should be just as intentional. We take what God has loaned to us and we “loan” it back to Him for a return that lasts forever. Over the next several weeks, we are going to look at the specific things we should be loaning back to God.
PART 1: OUR CHILDREN
In 1 Samuel, we find a woman named Hannah who was brokenhearted because she couldn’t have a child. She made a vow to God: if He would give her a son, she would give him back to the Lord all the days of his life. God answered that prayer, and Hannah kept her word.
1 Samuel 2:20, “And Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife, and said, The LORD give thee seed of this woman for the loan which is lent to the LORD. And they went unto their own home.”
Hannah understood that Samuel was a gift from God that she needed to gift back for His use. Today, every Christian parent should have that same mindset. Now, that doesn’t mean you drop your kids off at the church and leave them there like Hannah did with the tabernacle! But it does mean you manage their lives with the goal of God using them.
How do you know if you are truly loaning your children to God?
1. You Will Correct Them
If you have loaned your child to God, you care too much about their future to let them run wild. Correction is a sign of love; ignoring disobedience is a sign of apathy. I
Proverbs 13:24, “He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.”
t’s hard work to consistently and Biblically correct your children. It takes time, energy and repetition.
When you refuse to correct your child, you aren’t being “nice”, you are being selfish. You are choosing your own comfort over their character. Loanning them to God means preparing them to be useful to Him, and God cannot use a rebellious spirit.
2. You Will Choose God for Them
We live in a world that says, “Let the kids choose for themselves.” Joshua didn’t buy into that philosophy.
Joshua 24:15, “…but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
Notice Joshua didn’t give his children a vote. In a godly home, children shouldn’t be choosing whether or not the family goes to church, reads the Bible, or serves God. You make those choices for them because you are the steward of their soul.
3. You Will Bring Them Up Under the Lord
Ephesians 6:4, “And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”
To nurture means to provide the right environment for growth, like a gardener with a plant. Admonition means to put “mind in” them, to give them the right warnings and instructions. You aren’t just raising them to be “good citizens”; you are raising them under the authority of God.
4. You Will Teach Them the Bible
You cannot hand off the spiritual education of your children to a Sunday School teacher for one hour a week. It has to happen at home, in the rhythm of daily life.
Deuteronomy 6:6-7, “And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”
Pay attention to the order: the words have to be in your heart first. You can’t teach what you don’t know. If you want to loan your children to God, you have to be a student of the Book yourself.
5. You Will Direct Them to Follow God
The goal of parenting is not to train your children to follow you. The goal is to train them to follow God.
Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
Someday you won’t be there for them. They will face pain, doubt, sorrow, and persecution on their own. If you have only trained them to rely on you, they will fail. But if you have loaned them to God and trained them to call upon Him, they will have a foundation that can’t be shaken.
Your children are a heritage from the Lord. They aren’t your trophies to show off or your projects to complete. They are lives on loan. When you invest them back into God’s work, you are putting them in the only hands that can truly keep them.
