An invitation to pray

I have a few great loves my heart returns to over and over, and I would like to invite you along as I join two of them in this blog.

I love my children, and I love reading the bible in order to know God and be transformed into his image.

Years ago, I realized my prayers for my children were often highjacked by daily struggles and worries.  Yes, I want to offer these everyday concerns to God.  But I also want my children to seek God to know him, and to experience his transformative power.  So I started adding prayers inspired by scripture reading, and it has become one of my favorite things to do.

Let me pause here for a minute.  Maybe I’ll tell you more in a future post, but I want to make sure I say this at least once.  That last paragraph- about daily struggles and kids being transformed- I’ve seen some tough things come up since I began this prayer journey.  I’m not talking about sweet Sunday-school issues- I’m talking about our kids dealing with betrayal, failure, sexting, alcohol, cocaine, self-harm, and more. We live in a hard world, and our kids face it every day.  They need a powerful, fierce faith.  Thank God that’s what they get in Jesus.  And I believe we have an awe-inspiring opportunity to   invite our heavenly Father into our daily struggles and also to ask for our kids to grow in godliness as revealed in scripture.

Would you like to join in? Twice I week I will post prayers inspired by scripture I am reading at the time.  I would love to hear your response to the same scripture, your prayers inspired by any scripture, or prayers that you come across written by other people.

Let’s jump in with a few prayers for our children to grow like Jesus based on Luke 2:52.

 But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. James 3:17

Father, guide our children so that they would seek your wisdom, and not the false wisdom of this world.  Keep them pure, and grow in them a deep love for peace, gentleness, willingness to yield, mercy, lack of favoritism and sincerity.  I pray their lives would be full of the fruit of good deeds.