{"id":9413,"date":"2014-09-16T01:00:19","date_gmt":"2014-09-16T08:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.doorposts.com\/blog\/?p=9413"},"modified":"2014-09-15T23:56:26","modified_gmt":"2014-09-16T06:56:26","slug":"a-prayer-for-our-children-and-ourselves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.doorposts.com\/blog\/2014\/09\/16\/a-prayer-for-our-children-and-ourselves\/","title":{"rendered":"A Prayer for Our Children — and Ourselves"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wish I had noticed more fully a prayer of Paul’s while we were raising our six children. I would have memorized it. I would have prayed it — every day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I can still pray it — for my adult children, for myself and my husband, for my grandchildren, and for my fellow believers in Christ.<\/p>\n

Paul is writing to the believers in Philippi, his\u00a0beloved,<\/em>\u00a0his\u00a0joy\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0crown.\u00a0<\/em>He prays for them as a father might pray for his children:<\/p>\n

\"PrayerForOurChildren\"And it is my prayer that\u00a0your love may abound more and more,\u00a0with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent,\u00a0and so be pure and blameless\u00a0for the day of Christ, filled\u00a0with the fruit of righteousness that comes\u00a0through Jesus Christ,\u00a0to the glory and praise of God\u00a0<\/em>(Philippians 1:9-11, ESV).<\/p>\n

<\/em>Let’s take this prayer and claim it for our children.<\/p>\n

Lord, we pray that our children’s love for God and for each other would grow and increase<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

We pray that this ever-growing love would be rooted in a vigorous knowledge of God and His truth<\/strong> as it is revealed in their study of His Word.<\/p>\n

We pray that they will understand God’s love for them<\/strong> and that His love will inspire, motivate, and drive them to share that love with others<\/strong>. Give them insight into loving others in a godly Christ-like way.<\/p>\n

We pray that they will test and approve the things that are excellent, that they will know what is best and what is true. Please give them wisdom to choose rightly<\/strong> between morality and grace, between the teachings of men and the teachings of God, between the earthly and the heavenly, between the temporal and the eternal.<\/p>\n

We pray that their faith will be sincere and without hypocrisy or pretense<\/strong>. May their repentance be accompanied by the fruits of true<\/em> repentance, and may they live with consciences that are free from offenses against you and others as they confess and forsake their sins.<\/p>\n

We pray that their lives will be filled with good works<\/strong> — the fruits of Christ’s righteousness in them. Help them to live lives of fruitfulness and obedience, not to earn your favor or to gain the approval of men, but to glorify You as they live and serve in Your strength.<\/p>\n

In Your precious Son’s name,<\/p>\n

Amen<\/p>\n

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