That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; That our daughters may be as pillars , Sculptured in palace style (Psalms 144:12) NKJVThen our sons in their youth will be like well-nurtured plants, and our daughters will be like pillars carved to adorn a palace (Psalms 144:12) NIV
The meaning of Psalms: a sacred song; a poetical composition for use in the praise or worship of God. David is a great musician and I always wondered why he was called as the man after God's own heart. I think that maybe it is because he loved to worship the Lord and sing unto him. David starts this Psalms by praising the Lord and thanking Him for what God means to him.
Look at the way he addresses His Lord in this passage in absolute worship and adoration to the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings.
This is the style of David's prayer:
1.Blessed the Lord: David starts the Psalm by saying "Blessed be the Lord and then uses the below words in worship to the great I am:
- The Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle
- My lovingkindness and my fortress
- My high tower and my deliverer
- My shield and the One in whom I take refuge
- Lord, what is man, that you take knowledge of him?
- I am just like a breath and my days are like a passing shadow
Today, while I was rocking our precious daughter Jordan to sleep, I love to play with her beautiful hair and as I held her close to me and moved her hair away from her forehead, just like the way my Mom did, tears just started rolling down my eyes looking at my sweet child.I did not know how to thank the Lord for His goodness in my life except to cry tears of joy.
As I was reading this Psalm today, the Lord not only taught me the style of King David's prayer but He also caught my eyes as I read Verse 12. A prayer for David's sons and daughters.
I wanted to share a little testimony about Jordan's birth.
Jordan is so precious to me firstly because she is my precious daughter, and secondly because I almost lost her when I was 8 weeks pregnant. Look at the picture this is how little Jordan was when she was just 8 weeks in my womb.
I can never forget the day when my husband rushed me to the ER as I almost miscarried her. Friends, in quietness there is strength. All I did that day was stay quiet and say nothing. Our God loves us more than we can imagine or fathom.
If God gives you the greater gift of life itself, dont you think he will give you the lesser gift of sustaining that life? -Quote from the book-Anxiety Attacked by John MaCarthur, Jr.
God sent that life to my womb and he proimised to sustain it. Why should I worry then?
My Doctor, Dr.Brent who is now a very dear friend of our family, prayed over me and said that I will carry the baby full-term and he scheduled an ultrasound for us to see the baby when I was 9 weeks. I am sure a lot of you remember the feeling that you had when you were going to see your first baby in the ultra sound.
I was excited and I thought I would see some little fingers and feet and head and nose and everything.. Do you know what I saw that day? I saw something like a little peanut with lips on it in a big ocean. Wow! I was so excited seeing these lips talk something to me. I asked the ultra sound technician what was that I was exactly seeing and she said "Ma'am it is the heart of your baby!"
The baby was still there in my womb. Praise be to the Lord who protected this precious baby from death. All I saw was that the baby had neither shape, nor form, just a heart beat.
God spoke to me that day. He said to me " Zion, my precious daughter that is how exactly you were when you were 8 weeks old in your mother's womb. No shape, no form but you had life, you were having a heart beat. I sent the soul into your womb first and then adorned the soul with a body and it took me 9 months to form a body around that soul.
Friends we all know that when we die, it is the soul that leaves your body and not the body that leaves the earth. What an awesome insight from the Lord as I saw this baby in me.
Everything amazed me about the womb, the soul in me, the little heartbeat and what an awesome architect we have!
Now Zion, please be aware that I have sent the soul of Jordan straight from my hands into yours and it is your responsibility to send that soul back to me.I was spell bound as I heard this from the Lord.
Friends, what is your response to this? How many of you believe that the soul that God has sent into your womb is straight from his hands to yours? He is the master orchestrator! When I think of the verse from Isaiah 49:16, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. I imagine this great architect, the creator of life, shaping me and forming me and then engraving me on the palms of his hands. He has engraved Jordan's name on the palms of his hands. He has yours, your children's and your husbands.
When he has created us, our children, our spouses and has engraved all of us on the palms of his hands, are we lifting up the palms of our hands in Blessing that Lord? Are we folding the palms of our hands in bowing down to the Lord and are we crossing the palms of our hands to beseech the Lord for our children, our spouses, and our parents?
What is our style of prayer unto the Lord for our children today? Are you responsible for the souls that the Lord has entrusted to the palms of your hands? Look at the way King David prays for his sons and daughters:
That our sons should be like well-nurtured plants grown up in their youth and that our daughters like pillars carved to adorn a palace and as pillars sculptured in Palace styles?
Are you nurturing your children? I did not mean just physically. I meant spiritually. How many of us are giving a daily spiritual multivitamin to our children or do you think that they will grow on their own? Are you watering the life of your sons and daughters with the living waters everyday or are you allowing them to just adapt themselves to fulfill Darwin's theory : Survival of the fittest?
What a beautiful prayer my friends! I have never seen such a beautiful prayer like the way David prayed for his children. I would love my daughter Jordan to be like beautiful pillar that is carved to adorn a palace. The pillars in a palace are so different from the pillars in a normal home. We are a royal priesthood, a chosen generation of the Lord.
If we do not raise our children well, then can they adorn the homes they go into? Can they adorn the heavenly mansions and the palaces that the Lord is building for them?
Are your children like olive plants around your table? (Psalms 128:3) Where are your children wandering when you and your husband are having a meal? Are they at your table? or are they elsewhere at someone else's table? Are your children present at the time of your family prayer? A family that prays together, stays together. As for me and my family, we will serve the Lord (Joshua 24:15) Do you as parents bring your children to the altar everyday to pray as a family?
Friends, where is your family today? Where are your sons, where are your daughters?
God will not question anyone else in regards to your offspring. He will question you.
Do you pray for your children everyday? If you want your children to flourish like the palm tree and grown like the cedars in Lebanon, then you need to start praying for them, start sowing seeds of the love of Jesus in them.
Only the righteous will flourish like the palm trees and the cedars in Lebanon (Psalms 92:12)
those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.The Palm tree is known for its longevity and erectness, the cedar for its might and strength.
What is the legacy you are leaving behind on this earth? God did not have to create you but He chose to create you for his own glory.
What is your role as a mother? How much time do you invest in these precious lives that the Lord has given you? Are you busy with your routine? Are you busy taking care of things that will soon perish or are you investing your time into the lives of your children to bring godly legacies into this world?
Proverbs 31:28 Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her. Many daughters have done virtuously but thou excelleth them all. (Proverbs 31:29)
Vent your frustrations and your anxities and your worries to the Lord who loves to hear from you everyday. Don't vent it on your children. I made a vow today to pray for Jordan everyday that she will be like a graceful pillar that I will have to carve everyday with the help of my Lord God so that one day she will beautify a palace.
Let us therefore intimately introspect our lives today: Are you praying for your children? If so what is your prayer like? Are you praying for success in career, success in marriage, success in all walks of life or are you praying that they will flourish and be like well-nurtured plants and graceful pillars to beautify a palace someday?
How many days have passed by that you did not talk to your child? How many weeks have passed by that you did not care to call them or nurture them or pray for them? Call your children and let them know what they mean to you and how much you love them.
Hold them close to your heart and love them like the way Jesus loves you. He loved you and I so much that He stretched his two hands and died for you and I and for our children and grand children.
Do you want to know what my little Jordan does when you ask her to pray? She lays her hands on our heads and says" dee father...tu tu tu tu..mumma..baaba(her dad)..amen.! We dont know what he means when she prays but I am sure the heavenly father knows what she is saying to Him in absolute love and adoration to the one who has engraved her on the palms of His hands.
Just see the picture I have attached in this devotional and ponder on God's love for you today and see how much you can love on your sweet children. Don't abort these precious lives even before they are born. They are souls crying out to the Lord when parents want to kill them for their own selfish gains.
I request a prayer today for all those mothers who are on the Hospital beds on abortion clinics who want to abort those precious souls- who they dont know may one day be the Billy Graham's or Amy Carmichael's or who knows who!
Be Blessed and Be a Blessing.
Children are a heritage from the Lord
It was a miracle that God protected Jordan until I delivered her when I was 37 weeks.
