CHAPTER ONE | BECOMING A PRAYING PARENT
Our children’s lives don’t ever have to be left to chance.
At every stage of their lives our children need and will greatly benefit from our prayers. The key is not trying to do it all by ourselves all at once, but rather turning to the expert parent of all time—our Father God—for help.
We must cover every detail of our child’s life in prayer. There is great power in doing that, far beyond what most people imagine. In fact, don’t ever underestimate the power of a praying parent.
If we are parenting without God, we are destined to repeat the mistakes of our past and to mimic what we’ve observed.
Keep the details of your child’s life covered in prayer. Identify every concern, fear, worry, or possible scenario that comes to mind as a prompting by the Holy Spirit to pray for that particular thing.
It’s better to pray more along the lines of “Lord, show me how to pray for this child. Help me to raise him Your way, and may Your will be done in his life.”
It’s the power of God that penetrates a child’s life when a parent prays.
What Is Prayer and How Does it Work?
Prayer is acknowledging and experiencing the presence of God and inviting His presence into our lives and circumstances. It’s seeking the presence of God and releasing the power of God which gives us the means to overcome any problem.
Because it’s God’s power and not ours, we become the vessel through which His power flows. When we pray, we bring that power to bear upon everything we are praying about, and we allow the power of God to work through our powerlessness.
Praying not only affects us, it also reaches out and touches those for whom we pray. When we pray for our children, we are asking God to make His presence a part of their lives and work powerfully in their behalf.
If we are praying, something is happening, whether we can see it or not.
It’s not enough to pray only for the concerns of the moment; we need to pray for the future, and we need to pray against the effects of past events.
God’s Word as Your Weapon
The battle for our children’s lives is waged on our knees. When we don’t pray, it’s like sitting on the sidelines watching our children in a war zone getting shot at from every angle. When we do pray, we’re in the battle alongside them, appropriating God’s power on their behalf. If we also declare the Word of God in our prayers, then we wield a powerful weapon against which no enemy can prevail.
When you are praying for your child, include an appropriate Scripture verse in your prayer.
You don’t have to have a different verse for each prayer. You may have one or two verses that you use repeatedly during a specific season of intercession for your child.
When we employ God’s Word in prayer, we are laying hold of the promises He gives us and appropriating them into the lives of our children. Through His Word, God guides us, speaks to us, and reminds us He is faithful. In that way, He builds faith in our hearts and enables us to understand His heart. This helps us to pray boldly in faith, knowing exactly what is His truth, His will, and our authority.
If we WATCH Him, WALK with Him, WAIT on Him, WORSHIP Him, and live in His word, WE WILL WIN this battle for our children.
Whenever you pray for your child, do it as if you are interceding for his or her life—because that is exactly what you are doing. Remember that while God has a perfect plan for our children’s lives, Satan has a plan for them too.
Binding Satan’s plans in prayer is part of resisting the devil. Resisting him on behalf of our children can free them to make godly choices.
Our children will stand accused until we break the stronghold of the accuser in prayer, using the Word of God as hard evidence against him.
When the Answers Don’t Come
If your child has made poor choices, don’t berate yourself and stop praying. Keep communication lines open with your child, continue interceding for him or her, and declare God’s Word. Instead of giving up, resolve to be even more committed to prayer.
Stand strong and say, “I’ve only begun to fight,” keeping in mind that your part of the fight is to pray. God actually fights the battle. Remember, too, that your fight is not with your child, it’s with the devil. He is your enemy, not your child. Stand strong in prayer until you see a breakthrough in your child’s life.
Weapons of Warfare
John 15:16, Proverbs 20:7, John 14:13-14, Ephesians 6:4 & Ephesians 6:17-18)
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