Your influence with the next generation confers on you a responsibility to train young people for spiritual warfare. Don't send them into battle defenseless and unprepared.

Satan is fighting, cruelly and relentlessly, for the souls of our children. And that's why we must teach our children the art of spiritual warfare. As parents, we are their role models, and we must allow them to watch us and learn from us as we do spiritual battle.

I fear that we who are called to shepherd God's flock have blood on our hands. We have failed to call people to repentance. We have failed to call sin "sin." We have failed to declare the whole counsel of God, and we have allowed an entire generation to grow up not knowing what sin and repentance are or what God expects of us. And we have sent that generation into the battle without armor, without weapons, without even informing them about the enemy they face.

You have a responsibility. You are called to pass a living testimony of God's grace to the next generation. Your influence with the next generation confers on you a responsibility to train these young people for spiritual warfare. Don't send them into battle defenseless and unprepared.

The apostle Paul tells us as parents to train our children and "bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:4b). Then, a few verses later, Paul writes about the nature of the battle that we and our children face. He urges us to "be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:10-12).

This is how we equip our children and prepare them for battle. We equip them with the authority of the Word of God. We are committed to seeing our children win the only battle that truly matters -- the battle for their eternal souls.

Prayer: Lord, help me to stand firm and pray intensely for the next generation. Prepare us for spiritual battle by Your Word and by Your Holy Spirit. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

"Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord" (Psalm 127:3a ESV).