Praying for Families In Our Nation

God established families at the foundation of the world, creating Eve from Adam’s bone, and growing children from their union.

Later in scripture, we see the formation of tribes along kinship lines. Family sets the foundation for understanding our experiences and the world around us.

WHY to Pray

Scripture even records God using the term ‘father’ to help our finite human minds begin to understand the relational nature of our omnipotent and all-powerful God. (Exodus 4:22)

The family is first place we learn about God and create expectations for how to form relationships. Healthy families provide a strong foundation for children to grow into mature adults and model the love of Christ by sacrificially serving one another.

When the foundation of family is shaken through tragedy, trauma or broken trust, the foundation for life is shaken right along with it. Divorces, work/life imbalance and lack of loving support can profoundly shape the rest of a person’s life, even if the painful event occurred decades prior/ Christ shared in the sufferings of family troubles while He walked on Earth: the leaders of Nazareth rejected Him as the Son of God, refusing to see Him as more than “Joseph’s son.”

There are timeless challenges such as joining lives as a married couple and raising children, and there are the new challenges of navigating family dynamics in an age of the social media barrage of opinions and connections.

Families need our prayers!

HOW to Pray

Pray the Father’s heart. To do this, seek scripture for the divine design for families and wisdom on cultivating a healthy family life. Meditating on scripture before beginning prayer puts our hearts into a position of submission to the will of God. These verses are good starting places to see God’s design and purpose for families:

Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. -Exodus 20:12 NIV

Listen to counsel and receive instruction so that you may be wise later in life. -Proverbs 19:20 HCSB

And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ. Ephesians 4:32 HCSB

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord. Ephesians 6:4 NLT

WHAT to Pray

• Wisdom in choosing a spouse; to be equally yoked together in faith
• Grant us humility, and with that humility bring stability and peace to families
• Give husbands and wives the grace to consider each other before self
• Endurance for single parents or grandparents stepping in as parents
• Comfort for families moving forward through grief
• Strengthen families who also serve as caretakers for medically fragile family members
• Give empty-nest parents comfort in transition and the vision to grasp their new role as full-time intercessors for adult kids
• Harmony in blended families
• Create a means of escape and healing from harmful family dynamics