The Ripple Effects of Your Actions.

It’s been a few days since my last post, about 5 days to be precise and I must say that I miss writing on my blog. But I had some network issues with my internet and was also held down preparing a daily devotional guide for my children, but I am really glad to be back. 

As the Lord will help me pen down today’s post, I want to call our attention to the ripple effects of our actions or in-actions on our children and our descendants after us. In one of my previous post I wrote about the covenant of God, and one truth of the covenant of God is that it does not start and end with the particular person whom the Lord actually made the covenant with. Their descendants and further generations after them, people they will never know will also benefit from that covenant. Deuteronomy 7:9 speaks of God as the faithful God Who keeps His covenant of love to a thousand generation of those who love Him and keep His commands. So we see God not just limiting His love to those who love Him alone, but also their children and children’s children after them.

David in Psalm 37:25 says “He was young  and now old, yet he has not seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging for bread.” What I want us to focus on in this post is the fact that whatever we do good or bad has an effect or impact on our children. The realization of this is sort of a wake up call for all parents. And the thought I want us to hold dear is this: “Is it really right to put the future of our children at risk due to what we are doing wrong and the things we are not doing right?”   

One fact about God that really calls for caution in the lives of we the Christians is what I found in the story of David and Uriah’s wife Bathsheba. David committed a sin by sending a man to an early grave and taking his wife for himself. He committed a grievous sin before the Lord for which we all know he should be punished. But in 2 Samuel 12:13, we see David realizing his mistakes, and immediately Nathan the prophet told him the Lord has taken away his sin and he was not going to die. But because by what he did he had caused the enemies of God to show utter contempt, the son born to him will die.

This son that was been punished for the sins of his father never knew anything about the sin. He was not even in existence when the sin took place yet he died for the sin of his father. And still in this judgement we cannot say God is unjust. If we continue to read through to 2 Samuel 13, we will see the children of David operating under the curse brought about by the sin of their father doing very wrong things that eventually led to their death. God didn’t punish David directly; David never stopped to be a man after God’s heart, but the punishment of his sins were borne by his children. The knowledge of this truth calls for parents to be on the alert with their lives and the things they do, your sins may seem to go unnoticed or unpunished yet your children will have to reap the punishment of a sin they didn’t commit. 

Numbers 14:18 reads, “The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet He does not leave the guilty unpunished; He punishes the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and forth generation.”  When we know the God that is merciful, loving, forgiving, gracious and caring, we should also be mindful of the fact that this same loving God is the God that punishes the children for the sins of the father. This is exactly the God we see in the story of David in 2 Samuel 11-13. The God that punishes the children for the sins of the father. But the truth is that this has not made God unjust, it has not made Him unfair, unloving, ungracious, uncaring, or unmerciful. It has only called for caution on our own part to live right not just for our own sake, but also for the sake of the children He has given into our lives and that we love and care for.

You and I who are true children of God, born of God through our faith in Jesus Christ are also called the seed of Abraham, heirs to the promise of God to Abraham just because Abraham kept the laws, commands and requirements of God (Genesis 26:5). One thought I want us to bear at the back of our minds is that “What if Abraham didn’t not keep the requirements, commands, decrees and laws of God?” I am sure you will agree with me that their will be no promise for you and I to inherit and enjoy. Now, such is the case when you refuse or fail to keep the requirements, commands, decrees and laws of the Lord. You not only forfeit the benefit of a promise for your life, you leave your children and descendants after with no promise from God to inherit. 

We all know that in order to inherit and retain the promises of God for our lives we need to walk before the Lord and be blameless (Genesis 17:1) But our blameless walk also guarantees for our children a promise from God that will not go unfulfilled. 

Numbers 25:12  reads “Therefore tell him I am making a covenant of peace with him. He and his descendants will have a covenant of a lasting priesthood, because he was zealous for the honour of his God and made atonement for the Israelites.”  This is the promise of God to Phinehas the grandchild of Aaron for appeasing God on behalf of the Israelites and removing the accursed one from the camp of the Israelites. But the content of the covenant is what caught my attention. God did not just make a covenant of priesthood with Phinehas, He made an everlasting covenant with Phinehas and his descendants after him. Those he never will know will benefit from the actions of Phinehas that pleased God to the point of making a covenant with him. 

The Lord is still in the business of making covenants with men in our generation who have distinguished themselves in righteousness before Him. This attribute of God is not limited to Bible days. What are the things you are doing that pleases God? In what way have you been able to make a mark of excellence in your walk with the Lord that will move Him not just to enter a covenant with you but also with your descendants after you? Now is the time to start to build lasting treasures in heaven for your descendants to inherit. A covenant that guarantees God’s grace for your descendants as an everlasting covenant. 

Proverbs 13:22 says “A righteous man leaves and inheritance for his children’s children, but a sinner’s wealth is stored up for the righteous.” If you have not been able to build mansions and buy luxurious cars or get impressive share certificates  as inheritance for your children’s children. Please ensure you leave a covenant of God for them to inherit. That is a better guarantee than all the worldly stuff I have just highlighted. The Lord will help us as we walk with Him.  

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