Have you ever thought how precious to a teenager is the Bible truth of the New Covenant? In accepting baptism, he begins to realize that he is a child of Abraham--provided of course that he has been correctly instructed about the New Covenant promises God made to "our father Abraham."
Teenagers generally are the most worried segment of humanity. They are just becoming aware that life stretches out before them; what to do, what to be, perplexes them. They often agonize about which way to go. It's impossible to overestimate the encouragement that a conscious awareness of God's New Covenant promises can give to them. First, of course, the youth must clearly see himself as the "heir" to all the promises God has made to Abraham and his "seed" (Gen. 12:2, 3; Rom. 4:13-16). Which are:
(1) "I will make you a great nation." In other words: I will make you to be a very important person. (Says the teen, "Wow!")
(2) "I will bless you," which means, I will make you to be a happy person all your life. (Girls, if you're thinking of marriage, grab that one, and hold on to it. Keep yourself until you know for sure that God, not selfish desire, has led you. Believing the New Covenant will save you from untold agony.)
(3) "And make your name great." In other words, you will not merely BE somebody great but you'll always be KNOWN as such (in the way you really want to be).
(4) "And you shall BE a blessing." Every healthy teen wants to become someone useful to society; not to live only for self. Here's the Good News about it; believe it and you've got purpose from now on.
(5) "I will bless those who bless you." You'll be surrounded by people who love and trust you, and they will realize that their happiness is bound up with yours.
(6) "I will curse him who curses you." The New Covenant-educated teen will fear no enemies. (That's a direct parallel to Psalm 23, "You prepare a [banquet] table before me in the presence of my enemies.") You walk through life as a prince or princess, head held high (and yet always gifted with appropriate common-sense humility; Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Oxford, Cambridge, can never give you that sense of poise).
(7) "In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." Not that you will be as famous as Abraham, "the father of the faithful," but when you come to the end of life you will know that wherever your steps have taken you, you have left behind a trail of happiness for people you've touched. In other words, "your cup runs over."
Warning: the Old Covenant can do none of this for you.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
------------------------------
