Starting the day of our birth we experience varying degrees of pain, and physical pain might be the easiest to bear. Emotional, spiritual, and psychological pain can be far worse. Throughout the years of my ministry, perhaps the greatest pain I’ve witnessed is that of parents or grandparents whose youngsters have followed the pathway of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15 and gone into the “far country.”

The number one prayer request we receive at Turning Point Ministries is, “How can I know Jesus?” The second is, “Would you please pray that my children and grandchildren come to the Lord. They are lost or have strayed from their walk with Him.” Every day we receive burdened messages at Turning Point through emails, letters, and phone calls coming from you or people just like you. The pain of burdened dads, moms, and grandparents is heartbreaking.

Before plunging further into this article, I want to encourage you to keep praying for your loved one. Luke 18:1 says we “should always pray and not give up” (NIV). The Lord is even more concerned about your child than you are, and He can do things you cannot. While every situation is different, I would encourage you, if possible, to continue to love your youngster (whatever his or her age), to pray consistently, to try to keep the channels of communication as open as you can, to live a consistent and joyful Christian experience around them, and to place them fully in the Lord’s hands. Your joy in life isn’t based on how a child may be doing at any particular moment. Your joy is in your ever-faithful Father who has all things under control.

Now, let me speak in a broader sense. Let’s spread the burden out. We’re all living in a prodigal world. When all of us are united in our concern for our own generation and the ones following us, we will reach many troubled children. You and I, shouldering the burden, can impact young people in a way that shields them from the wrong paths.

To bridge the generations, we must believe God’s Word is timeless and that our work is timely. God has something for you to do right now for all of those who are members of these variously labeled generations. How can you and I shoulder the burden of reaching them?

Family Influence—Start at Home

The obvious starting place is at home. Sometimes we overcomplicate what it means to disciple our children and grandchildren. The Bible’s simplest advice is in Deuteronomy 6:4-9. I’ll let you look it up in your preferred translation, but here is my paraphrase of it: “Keep your love for the Lord burning strong each day, and immerse yourself daily in His Word. Then when you are with your youngsters, mention to them a verse or passage you’ve recently found helpful. Tell them about it. Let this kind of conversation happen in the morning when you get up and at night when you go to bed. Sprinkle your conversation with Scripture when you’re sitting at home or driving in the car. Use some special verses as wall hangings. Let your life, your conversation, and even the walls of your house be adorned with the specific Bible verses God uses to nourish your own soul each day.”

Once we learn and practice this simple habit, we’ll find it has great advantages, even outside our families. Oh, to be walking, talking Bibles of encouragement to all we meet! Note that I’m not exactly telling you to quote a Bible verse to everyone you see. Rather, it’s a matter of doing as Colossians 4:6 suggests: “Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone” (NLT).

Community Influence—Reach Out Through Your Church

The great news is that the job of reaching the generations isn’t just on your shoulders or mine. We’re all shouldering the burden together. One of the most encouraging aspects of last season’s college football headlines involved the number of young athletes openly sharing their faith. It began with baptisms on the football team at Ohio State, but it spread from there. I sense a revival among young people bubbling just beneath the surface of our culture.

Let’s pray for it! And think through your own options for encouraging younger adults, teens, and children. Can you volunteer at your church, teach a young adult group in your home, or join a group that takes the Gospel into local schools?

There’s also a lot we can do financially. First and foremost, support the outreach of your church’s youth and children’s programs. Send a youngster to Vacation Bible School, to camp, or on a retreat or short-term mission trip. Marion Yarber was an English teacher in Lawrence County, Tennessee, who became the faculty sponsor for Fellowship of Christian Athletes in her school. She raised money for FCA through bake sales and personal appeals, and she helped fund scholarships for students who couldn’t afford to go to summer camp.

One of those students was a multi-sport athlete Shari O’Rear who was about to enter high school. On the second night of camp, Shari embraced Christ as her Savior. Returning home, Shari found rides to church, learned how to have her daily devotions, and introduced her family to the Lord. Later in a coffee house ministry, Shari met Charley Cain, and they were married and engaged in ministry. Shari’s mother came to the Lord ten years after Shari witnessed to her.

And what about Marion Yarber who raised the scholarship funds for Shari? Years later, she said, “The Lord works in mysterious ways, and He has worked many mysteries in my life. That was one, but that wasn’t a coincidence.”

In giving tribute to her sponsor, Shari said, “The legacy that I’m passing on to my children and that they’ll pass to their children, it’s all because of one woman’s yes to give.”¹

Kingdom Influence—Reach Out Through Global Ministries

Many valid and valuable ministries focus on children, youth, and college-aged ministries across America, but the greatest expansion of the Gospel is occurring around the world. Here at Turning Point, we’re amazed at reports from around the globe. God is working, and many young people are responding on the earth. Only in heaven will we learn how our prayerful financial support for the Lord’s work has returned one-hundred-fold dividends. That’s why I’m so thankful for those who support this work.

The generation we need to reach is mostly outside America. A quarter of the world’s population is under the age of fifteen. I want us to reach them!

After His resurrection, the Lord Jesus went back to His small, rural district of Galilee—where He had hiked the trails from town to town—to give His disciples a global task. He met them on a mountain where, perhaps, they could see the small localities where they’d worked and the roads leading to the regions beyond. He told them, and us, to go into all the world making disciples. It wasn’t a task for a year, a lifetime, or a generation. With His omniscient eye, He saw the advancing centuries, and He saw you and me in A.D. 2025.

The task is unfinished until He comes. Ephesians 3:21 says, “To Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” The psalmist said, “I will make Your name to be remembered in all generations; therefore the people shall praise you forever and ever” (Psalm 45:17).

Look around and see if you can spot someone younger than you. You might say, “Oh, that’s a member of Gen X!” Or, “That’s a millennial!” Or, “What a sweet Generation Beta baby!” The truth is that is a person for whom Jesus died and who will be growing up in a “crooked and perverse generation,” among whom we are to shine as lights in the world (Philippians 2:15).

This is a blessing to enjoy and a burden to shoulder. Ask the Lord to renew your burden for bridging the generation map. Let’s pray and actively reach the coming generations. Keep praying for this prodigal world and for any individual prodigal on your heart. Remember Oswald Chambers’ words: “By intercessory prayer we can hold off Satan from other lives and give the Holy Ghost a chance with them. No wonder Jesus put such tremendous emphasis on prayer!”

The burden of each new generation compels us to act. We should actively reach the next generations with what God has given us. Let’s not stop. Not now, not ever!

Annotations:

¹Sarah Freymuth, “The Best Yes,” Fellowship of Christian Athletes.