Dedication- What’s it all about?

It was a great blessing to be able to conduct the dedication service of the son of good friends on Sunday.

Here's what dedication services are about:
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Direction

In a dedication service parents commit to lead, teach and train their children in God’s ways.

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Devotion

In a dedication service parents promise to ‘give their child’ to God. That is to say, they acknowledge that God is in charge, that His plans for their child’s life are better than their plans. Their desire is that his will be done and his name honoured through their child’s life.

I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD." And he worshiped the LORD there.

1 Samuel 1:27-28

Dependence

In a dedication service the parents acknowledge that they are insufficient for the task. They need the help of others and, most importantly, of God. Therefore the congregation commit to help and we pray for God’s Spirit to lead and strengthen and bless.

Unless the LORD builds the house,

    It’s builders labor in vain.

Psalm 127:1