16 Things to Pray for Our Children

~from Kim~

Over the years I have been blessed to hear many speakers who have studied to bring messages on biblical parenting. I am so grateful for these messages that inspire me to love my children, pray for my children and teach my children biblical truths. God has used messages like this to build my security in Him and His ways. I recently heard Tom Harmon speak in Nashville, Tennessee. What a great message! This message was called 16 Things to Pray for Your Children.
Tom began by talking about problems in our prayer life; some of us are prone to daydreaming during prayer times. He recommends structuring our prayers, making lists, and having specific times when we pray. Here is a list that he recommends using or starting with for our prayers for our children. I think it would be even better to pray these WITH our children. I have not yet done this.

1. Pray for their Salvation. Pray that they really believe, that they know God loves them, that they can pray and believe that God hears them and responds. Pray that they know they are sinners, that they be broken and know they need Christ. Share your testimony with your children; share your brokenness with them. Share some things that God has delivered you from. Share your faith in Christ with them daily and often. Make it clear that your own salvation and relationship with God is the most important thing in your life. Pray that they be partakers of the Divine Nature, not spectators.

2. Pray for their future mate. Marriage is a fellowship of the Spirit; pray that the Holy Spirit is working now on his or future mate. Pray that their future mate would be presently growing spiritually and finding his or her purpose in serving Christ. Pray for contentment with waiting for their future spouse to experience romantic love and attraction. Help them prepare for marriage through loving their families, serving, working, sacrificing, speaking gently and lovingly.

3. Pray that they would fall in love with God’s Word. Model daily Bible reading. Have lots of good, simple materials around for Bible study. You may not need commentaries and “fill in the blank” workbooks for study but I have needed them to fall in love with the Bible. I am making a new commitment this year to make Bible study more important than math, science, literature. Children and young people need to be taught with study helps HOW to study the Bible.

4. That God would keep them from the evil one. Pray that God will teach them to “hate every vain thought.” We are born with a nature that is inclined to evil and Satan seeks to entrap our children. They need to be born again and taught what God’s goodness is.

5. That they would have a conscience void of offence before God and man. Pray that their conscience be sensitive and tender. The conscience is our thought life, our motives, our knowledge of good and evil. We can look pretty good on the outside and still have thoughts that are not good. Pray that your children pray silently, inwardly and that part of their thought life is Prayer. Memorizing and meditating on Scripture verses, praying Scripture verses will help with this.

6. That their character would be more valuable to them than their credentials.

7. That they would stand up for what is right even if it means standing alone. Alone……….no young person wants to be alone. Pray that IF they are “alone” in terms of human friendship, that God will give you the Grace and Desire to be their close friend.

8. That they would be kept from the love of money.

9. That they would be kept morally pure, that they would delight in being modest and helping others to be modest in dress, speech and actions. This is such a huge subject, the area where Satan seems to ensnare most of the world. I would love to have conversations with Christian parents about this.

10. That they would have the heart of a servant. That I would model servanthood in such a grateful and loving way. God does help me in this area when I really think about the beauty of servanthood He has laid out for us. That God would cultivate gratefulness in me and them for the ability and desire to be a servant.

11. That eternity would BURN in their hearts! This is a great one. If eternity will burn in their hearts, the short term pleasures of this world will become less appealing.

12. That sin would always be distasteful to them and that they would be broken easily over sin. That God would clearly reveal to them what sin is, that they would have great discernment.

13. That they would love each other. That we would encourage them to be best friends, that we would encourage them to seek to help their brothers and sisters fulfill their goals.

14. That they would trust God with their parents and not allow rebellion to set in. That we as parents would trust God and not have low expectations for our kids. That we as parents would expect them to run past us in their spiritual walk! That we would have the grace to correct them graciously and not wound their spirits.

15. Regardless of the hardship, that they may never become bitter against God.

16. That our boys would be glad to be boys and our girls would be glad to be girls.

This message really made me want to pray. God put urgency into Tom Harmon’s message. Tom was very honest; he told about disappointments and problems in his family. He said that he needed structure in his prayers and admitted he doesn’t always FEEL like praying. He said, “But the devil was after my children; there were several times the smell of his breath was all over them.” A bit graphic, but it sure helped me to see the URGENCY of prayer with and for our children.

He talked about memorizing Scripture and has been able to memorize whole books of the Bible. He said “There is only so much room inside of you, stuff it with the good stuff and it will clean out the bad stuff.” This was very meaningful to me.
He said, “Teach your kids theology, they understand it!”

Tom Harmon has a website at TDHarmon.com. This message is also available on DVD.

I am so grateful to be able to ponder this again and to share it with others.