Not Just What You Say...

And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Matthew 16:19

Bold confessions of intention are not binding. Binding and loosing are action words; verbs of the most active sort. Jesus gave this as a promise to His Church, that their actions of allowance and forbiddance are part of a fierce spiritual battle, between Satan and Himself.

We are taught to pray the binding and loosing of principalities and powers, especially when we feel subdued by that power. We pray prayers of confession, requests for deliverance. But, especially in the activity of corporate prayer requests for divine intervention and wisdom in binding and loosing are in order. It is our privilege and our inheritance as the Church. We must pray for wisdom and grace not to descend into the abyss of idolatry that was our previous inheritance as the heathen. We must pray to use all of the means that our elders have employed and passed down to hammer out the activities that will bind evil and loose good.

I see my mothering activity as a major role in the earliest stages of importance of such manners. When we are not taking the little souls in our care and needlepointing care and wholesomeness into their characters, we are loosing what was bound on our behalf. This leads to a slippery slope of heathenism and snatches some of the common graces from our culture.

I call it "Pray-doing". Binding and loosing real kindness is not an act of play, from playmates of different ages. It is learning early that Honor Your Father and Mother is the most important commandment to children. That is the tiny thread that weaves a knot of huge proportions, if skillfully embraced.

We hit the ball that the thread is attached to back and forth as families and we either keep the authority in the adult's hands or we become trained by our children to give the thread to the children and let them make the knot for themselves. An afghan is not crocheted by untaught hands. I don't believe that their hearts should be self-taught on any of the issues.

Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction will drive it far from him.

God will come as near to us in His parenting presence, as we come to embrace His tools for binding and loosing. Truly, God has a spanking machine and it works out in the activity of our culture and government. He waits and is patient and merciful. Still, we have tools to work with that no other generations have had.

God give us grace to emphasize and embrace the action of binding and loosing for our benefits upon the earth, in Jesus' strong name, Amen.