The Next Generation Knowing Christ (Leviticus 12:3)

And on the eighth day, the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.
-Leviticus 12:3

Now this verse might not be the first verse that pops off the page when think about what would drive our praying from Leviticus 12:3, but when you think about it on a deeper level, this is really a powerful picture, for in the Old Covenant, God had set out this picture of circumcision as a sign of His relationship with His people.

And a child, from the very beginning of it’s life in the world, the eighth day, this child would have this sign that was saying, this child belongs to the Lord and a parent saying we want this child to be holy, set a part for the Lord.

Now, there’s all kinds of debate when you get into the New Testament. I think about how Presbyterians and Baptists, for example, would approach the issue of infant baptism and the goal of this podcast episode is not to dive into that debate.

Christ did not avoid the leper but went to Him. Christ redeems us and makes vile sinners clean.

This Verse Calls Us to Nurture our Children With Christ

But it is to say, that when we as followers of Christ in the New Covenant, have children, boys and girls, we want them to be set a part, we want them to belong to the Lord, we want them to know God, we want them to walk in relationship with God.

And so, it is good and right to, from the very beginning of a child’s life, to pray for this. I think about my kids, my four kids, and ever since they were born, or two of them we adopted, ever since we first laid eyes on them, we have prayed that they would know God. They would walk with God. They would know His love for them and walk in love relationship with Him. We’ve prayed that they would belong to Him, that God would draw them to faith in Christ.

And so I want you to think about kids in your life. Kids in your church. Kids around you in your sphere of influence. Like it is good and right for us to pray, God, set them a part to know You.

Leviticus 12:3 Calls for Children to Walk towards Christ

God, set them a part to be saved from their sins by You. To walk in relationship with You. To be used for Your Holy purposes.

So, what I want to do is, I want to lead us to pray today, specifically for children around us. You think about any children that have been born recently all the way up to older children, just to pray.

God, we want to see the children in our homes, in our churches, families and the family of faith in the church, we want to see them walking with You.

God, we want them to know Your love for them. We want them to walk in relationship with You, we want to be faithful, to pass the gospel along to the next generation, so that the next generation might know You and love You and glorify You.

God, we want them to instruments in Your hands. For the spread of Your grace and Your glory in the world.

Leviticus 12:3 Prays for the Next Generation of Believers

So I pray in a fresh way today for my kids. I pray for the kids in the church that I’m apart of, we pray for kids, even who might be listening to this with us, now or kids in our churches or kids in our communities.

God, we want to see the next generation knowing Your goodness and Your grace and walking with You, so we pray, help us.

Help us to be the parents, the models of faith we need to be. Help us to be the men and women who show the next generation how to walk in obedience to Your commands.

God, we pray for the salvation of children around us. We pray that You would draw them into relationship with You and that, as they walk with You in the days to come, they would know You deeply, love You whole heartedly, and be used of You mightily, for Your name sake in the world.

God, we pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.