What Would Jesus Say?

A former pastor of my church once told me the reason he didn’t preach about Satan. He didn’t want to scare children and he didn’t want them to know that there was anything other than God. My present pastor hasn’t mentioned anything about temptation either in the few months he’s been here. While much is preached and written about discerning the voice of God, isn’t it equally important to discern the voice of the enemy?

When a child or adult is convinced, for instance, that no one cares about them, where is that “voice” really coming from? The Life Application Study Bible states that “the devil fights with lies and sometimes his lies sound like the truth and he often attacks our hearts—the seat of our emotions, identity and trust”.

How we teach children about the enemy may look different from how we teach adults. No, we don’t want to scare them, but they need to know that there is good and evil in this world. They have a choice about what to believe about themselves and others because our actions are determined by our thoughts. Negative thinking can lead to negative actions and their consequences.

Equally important to discerning the voice of the enemy is a calling to recognize the voice of the Lord. If we teach children from an early age what we used to ask ourselves years ago, “What would Jesus do?” (WWJD), and extend that saying to “What would Jesus say?” it will be easy for them to discern the difference.

In the NIV version of the Bible, the word “children” is mentioned 453 times. They were never meant to be in the background of God’s world. One day they may have children of their own and by their example, God’s plan for humanity, including fighting against evil, must be taught to the next generation and generations to come for love and peace to prevail.

“Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old, they will not turn from it.”

Proverbs 22:6 NIV