How can I help my children have a strong faith in God Part 2

Part 2: Seeing God working in their lives.

The second way in which we can strengthen our children's faith in God is to help them experience God, or see him at work in their lives. A survey of youth found that 95 percent of teens said that they believe in God or a universal spirit, 93 percent said that they believe that God loves them, but only 29 percent said that they've personally experienced the presence of God.

It's great that our kids believe in God and that they believe he loves them, but God wants to demonstrate that love in their lives. Our children should be able to see the results and the effects of God's love and his Fathering. We would think it unreasonable if someone continually told us that he or she loved us but never did anything about it. Contrary to the popular saying, it's not the thought that counts. Without corresponding action, there's no way to demonstrate the existence of the thought. The Bible teaches us that we must demonstrate our faith by showing our love for our fellow humans. God wants to do the same thing for us.

Often we distance ourselves from God, his active participation in our lives, and his very real answers to prayer by thinking either that our concerns are too small to bother him with or that we can handle things ourselves. But God wants to demonstrate his love in very real and wonderful ways. Nothing is too small or unimportant to bring to his attention. He wants us to talk with him and trust him about everything, big and small:

"Don't worry about anything. Instead, tell God about everything. Ask and pray. Give thanks to him. Then God's peace will watch over your hearts and your minds because you belong to Christ Jesus." Phil 4:6-7

"My God will meet all your needs. He will meet them in keeping with his wonderful riches that come to you because you belong to Chrsit Jesus" Phil 4:19

"God did not spare his own Son. He gave him up for us all. Then won't he also freely give us everything else?" (Rom 8:32)

It's important to believe that God exists, but God wants us to move on from there and believe that he rewards us as we look to him as our Father. God insists that we can trust him and should believe that he'll be incredibly good to us. We need to help our children understand who God is and make sure that they're confident that he'll express his love and care not just in theory but in reality, in the mundane details of their loves. God is not an absentee Father.

Talking to our children about all of the things that God has said he is willing to do in their lives, ans their Father, is a necessary foundation. Then, as life's stage provides the opportunities, we should gently remind them and guide them with all their needs, questions, and desires, toward God and his love. As God responds to their simple faith, sometimes boldly, sometimes subtly, we can help them see God in his answers.

At the heart of our children's simple faith is prayer, the essence of their relationship with God. Prayer isn't a science, it doesn't work like the shopping channel. Certainly the things they pray for and about shouldn't read like a list for Santa Claus. Their prayers should include petitions for others, for wisdom, and for growth. We need to teach our children to trust that God will always hear them and do what's best for them with regard to the things they talk with him about in prayer.

When we encourage our children to trust God and talk with him about anything and everything, his answers and the demonstration of his love will begin to show up in many different forms, in direct, obvious answers to prayer, in situations that work out better than we could have expected them to, and in many other ways that our children would miss if we weren't there pointing to God's love at work in their lives. Talk to your children about the times that you've seen God answer your prayers. These stories will be a great inspiration to your children and will motivate them to want to make a collection of similar stories in their own loves. (We'll talk about teaching our children how to pray later on) Being a Christian doesn't mean simply that we believe in God; it also means that we experience God and his love.

Another way in which we can help our children experience God is to assist them to see the results of doing things God's way and following his principles. When your children choose right over wrong, take the time to not only praise them for their wisdom but also point out the immediate and long-term benefits of their actions. The more evidence they see that doing things God's way works, the stronger their faith and their resolve to follow God will become.