MY HOME
A house of prayer
CHILDREN
When We Rise Up ~ When We Lie Down
ALARM
As the alarm goes off each morning,
Father, help me to equip these children You’ve given me
to be all You designed and desire them to be,
and to stir them to accomplish great exploits for Your glory….
May they be children of great discernment and great influence...
May Your Presence serve to protect them
spiritually, physically, and emotionally…
BIBLE
I place this here because it's the first thing we do every morning. Before we talk to God beyond thanksgiving and praise, we want to hear His Words and His Will before advancing in prayer.
When Jesus was tempted by satan in the wilderness, He responded with three quotes from Deuteronomy, two of them from Deuteronomy 6. This chapter gives us an important directive.
“And these words which I command you today
shall be in your heart.
You shall teach them diligently to your children,
and shall talk of them when you sit in your house,
when you walk by the way, when you lie down,
and when you rise up.
You shall bind them as a sign on your hand,
and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
You shall write them on the doorposts of your house
and on your gates."
Deuteronomy 6:6-9 NKJV
And this passage must have special significance as God repeated His instructions,
“You shall teach them to your children,
speaking of them when you sit in your house,
when you walk by the way, when you lie down,
and when you rise up.”
Deuteronomy 11:19 NKJV
Father,
I cry out to You –
I long for You to show me great and amazing things
that I do not know.
Teach me Your Wisdom so that
I may share it with Your children in our home
and with Your children throughout the world.
Open the eyes of my understanding so that I may have
a dynamic influence
on my children’s hearts and minds.
I long for us all to passionately desire
to know You and to live a surrendered life
as Your faithful, faith-filled friends.
AWAKENING
As you awaken your children, ask God to Awaken their hearts. Ask Him to Awaken the hearts of His children throughout the world. And,
Father,
I pray that my family will never
be conformed to this world
but be daily transformed
by the renewing of their minds
so that they’re able to test and approve
Your good, pleasing,
and perfect Will (Rom. 12:2)…
Any time you touch them, verbally or in your heart, speak blessings over them. Love and encourage them always – calling out the best in them. They belong to our Father, and He is watching…
Some children may not be receptive to your speaking prayers or blessings openly; others will embrace this willingly. If they’re not receptive, irritating them will only drive them further from you and God.
~
The main thing is that when you speak to God, even silently, the words from your heart touch His Heart, which then touch your children’s hearts. It may take time, but continue steadfastly in prayer – never giving up on the gift God has given you. Exercise your special parental, spiritual authority. Enter their rooms and pray while they’re sleeping and while they’re away. Pray fiercely and faithfully. Don’t allow yourself to grow weary – keep planting prayerful and faith-filled seed, and you will reap a harvest of blessing, if you do not give up (Gal 6:9-10).
~~~
When the grandchildren have a birthday party, before singing “Happy Birthday”, my son-in-love, Matthew, places his hand on the birthday child’s head and pronounces a blessing before all of their friends. It’s very moving – a powerful and beautiful family tradition.
BREAKFAST
Father,
I pray that my children will hunger and thirst
for You and for righteousness…
That their favorite food will be to do Your holy Will.
BLANKETS
Tim and I have been awakened at night with a strong sense of a dark spiritual presence. We walked through the house praying, praying over the kids, until we felt peace. Interesting, this hasn’t happened since we got rid of satellite television access. As you tuck them in, make their beds, fold their blankets:
Father God,
please embrace these children with Your tender Presence,
hiding them in the shadow of Your wings (Ps. 91:4)…
Father, please cover and protect these
from every strategy of the enemy of all souls.
May they forever enjoy the comfort of the Holy Spirit…
PILLOWS
No matter what my children are facing,
may they lie down and sleep in peace
because in Your Love and Presence
they are safe and saved (Ps. 4:8).
TUCKING CHILDREN IN
I love softly stroking the heads of my children or grandchildren as they sleep.
Father,
I pray that my family will not be conformed to this world
but be transformed by the renewing of their minds
so that they’re able to test and approve
Your good, pleasing, and perfect Will (Rom. 12:2)…
Beyond loving and praying with or for our children, let's remember the children that have been devastated by the destruction of the family and moral breakdown of the culture. They are starving for authentic love and for God.
Please be near children who have no fathers in their homes
teaching them to be men,
or mothers in their homes teaching them to be women…
Those who do not have praying parents or grandparents –
Father, we adopt these in our hearts
because it’s Your will (2 Pet. 3:9)…
You are a Father to the fatherless (Ps. 68:5)…
Please hover over these hearts day and night,
wiping their tears,
speaking Light and Love into their minds at all times and in all places…
As You draw them, let it be persistent and powerful –
these need Your Love, and You desire and deserve their praise.
“Rise during the night and cry out.
Pour out your hearts like water to the LORD.
Lift up your hands to him in prayer, pleading for your children,
for in every street they are faint with hunger.”
Lamentations 2:19 NLT
SLEEPING ~ DREAMING
Samuel was young and didn’t yet know the LORD or how to recognize His Voice, but God appeared to him during the night to share one of His secrets. As you fall asleep each night,
Father,
speak to my children when they rise up each morning,
throughout each day,
and in the stillness of each night (1 Sam. 3)…
Father, let it be among my children, your servants…
"’In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.’”
Acts 2:17-18 NIV
These are the days; so let it be.
Grant all quiet, listening, and obedient hearts.
SHEEP
I sleep with a sheep. Whenever I get up during the night or change positions, I can feel my sheep and am moved to pray,
Father,
please help my family to recognize Your Voice
and follow wherever You lead us.
Speak to us day and night even as we sleep.
May we not recognize the voice of those bearing dark doctrines (John 10)…
We are Your sheep and the people of Your pasture.
We enter into Your gates with thanksgiving
and into Your courts with praise (Ps. 23:3-4)…
After Bible study each morning, I put him on my Bible next to my chair, a visual reminder that prompts me to this prayer each time I see him throughout the day. Share the sheep project with your children.
Click on the sheep to read my article about this in Just 18 Summers.
At night, after my girls were asleep, I placed my hands on their heads, asking God to put a holy fear upon any young man who wasn’t a part of His Plan for their lives. Kristina was a homecoming queen, Peach Queen, Alabama’s High School Homecoming Queen, and third runner up at the America’s Homecoming Queen pageant at Disneyland in California – beautiful inside and out. But few would ask her for a date. She’d leave a pageant with flowers and crown, come home and spend the night eating cookie dough, playing cards, and watching chick flicks with baby sister and me. She sometimes said, “Mom, what’s wrong with me?” I had to remind her that GOD had a plan for her life.
~
When she married her prince, Matthew was the answer to twenty-three years of prayer. He was handsome and holy – both saving their hearts and bodies for each other. We fell in love with him, his family, their friends, and now enjoy four grandchildren and the blessing of God that attends their relationship. Matthew’s name means “Gift of God.” Feel free to use this dangerously effective prayer.
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