Praying WITH and FOR our Families

As Christians, we know prayer is important. We tell others that prayer is important in our lives. But how good are we at actually PRAYING?

Do you agree that prayer is powerful and effective? If you are uncertain, here are the words of James 5:16: "…The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working."

Are we taking advantage of this tremendous power? Are we daily praying FOR the members of our family? Are we taking time to pray WITH our wives and children?

May I share some personal experiences?

*For too long I was timid about asking my wife if we could pray together. Wise friends of ours reminded us of the need to pray together daily. Since then we have been much better about praying together almost every night. In doing this, our hearts have been drawn together and God's power has been unleashed in our marriage and our family. We pray together for our work, our children, our finances, our extended family members, and so much more. We miss some nights here and there, and when we do, we feel it, and we quickly return to praying together again.

*My children will often share stories from the day, including challenges or problems they are facing. I always take time to listen and to help them think through the issue. Sometimes (I wish it were all the time) I am good about leading them to the Lord in prayer, committing the issue to Him and seeking His solution. The times I have prayed with them have turned out much better than the times I haven't. And my children are beginning to learn to go to God with their problems, which is a lifetime pattern I want them to follow.

*Every morning before school our family gathers for 10-15 minutes to read a few verses of Scripture and pray together for our day. We have a notebook of pictures: one part has pictures of our relatives; the other has pictures of missionaries for whom we've committed to pray. Every day, in addition to praying for ourselves, we pray for one person or family from this notebook. We don't succeed in doing this every day, but I'm very happy if we make four out of five. We have seen some great blessings out of this daily time together.

Men, our prayers don't have to be long to be effective. Even a prayer of "Please help me, Lord!" is something our Heavenly Father loves to hear from His children. We don't have to pray the "right" words to "get God to do what we want Him to do." All we have to do is lay our hearts before God. Sometimes I have prayed, "Lord, I'm not even sure how to pray for this, but I ask you to work in this situation and bring about what is best in Your eyes." And God answers these prayers.

Will you join me in committing to pray regularly WITH and FOR our wives and children?