The power of praying parents
Bienhome Muivah *
Becoming a praying parent: It's the best of Jobs. It's the most difficult of jobs. It can bring you the greatest joy. It can heal the greatest pain. There is nothing so fulfilling and exhilarating. There is nothing so depleting and exhausting. Sometimes we encounter tempest and tidal waves. Sometimes we get so tired that we just want to give up-let the storm take us where we will. But I have good news.
We don't have to be tossed and turned by these winds of change. Our children's lives don't ever have to be left to chance. Parents don't have to live in fear of what each new phase of development may bring, what dangers might be lurking behind every corner-this very minute, in fact-making a positive difference in our child future. It is never too early and never too late.
It doesn't matter if the child is three days old or 30 years old and going through a divorce because of an alcohol problem. At every stage of their lives, our children need and will greatly benefit from our prayers. We must cover every detail of our child's life in prayer. There is a great power in praying. Don't ever underestimate the power of a praying parent.
Without God we are destined to repeat the mistakes of our past and to mimic what we have observed. A scene from childhood can flash across the scene of your mind and play itself out on the stage of your life in a moment of weakness-before you even realize what has happened. It may occur so quickly that you feel powerless to control it, and it can make you do and say destructive things to your children.
Turn Your Focus On The Most Ever Expert Parent Of All Time-Our Father God-For help.
* Role model is very important for children. Every child needs positive parenting experience to imitate.
* Parents have to depend on God to enable to raise our child properly, and He would see to it that our child's life is blessed.
* Let's pray fervently to show how to pray for our children. To help us raise them God's way, and may His will be done in their life.
What Is Prayer And How Does It Work?
Prayer is much more than just giving a list of desires to God as if He were the great sugar daddy/Santa Clause in the sky. Prayer is acknowledging and experiencing the presence of God and inviting His presence into our lives and circumstances. It is seeking the presence of God and releasing the power of God which gives us the means to overcome any problem. When we pray God releases power to us from heaven. Because it is God's power and not ours, we become the vessel through His power flows. When we pray, we are humbling ourselves before God and saying, "I need your presence and we are laying hold of the promises He gives us and appropriating them into the lives of our children.
When Jesus spoke to the Devil, He rebuked him by quoting Scripture. For example, when Satan said to Jesus, "If you will worship me, all will be yours." Jesus replied "Get behind me Satan! For it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and Him only you shall serve" Luke 4:7-8).
Whenever we pray for our child, do it as if you are interceding for his or her life. Remember, while God has a perfect plan for our children's life, satan has a plan for them too, his plan is to destroy them and he will try to use any means possible to destroy them, and he will try to use any mean possible to do so, drugs, sex, alcohol, rebellion, accidents, diseases etc. But he won't be able to successfully use any of those things. If his power has been dissipated by prayer. The Bible says, "How can one enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man" (Matt. 12:29). In other words, we can't have any effect in the devils territory unless we bind him and forbid him any authority there.
Thus, we can also forbid him access to our children's lives. Of course, Satan can do a lot of damage in your power, so rely on the Lord by saying "Lord I can't do anything without you."
When we don't pray, it's like saying we have no need of anything outside of ourselves. (John 16:23). When we pray for our children, we are asking God to make His presence a part of their lives and work powerfully on their behalf. That doesn't mean there will always be an immediate response. Sometimes it takes days, months or even years. But our prayer are never lost or become meaningless. If we are praying, something is happening whether we can see it or not. The Bible says, "The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much in our lives and the lives of our children cannot happen without the presence and power of God."
God's Word As Your Weapon
The battle for your children's lives is waged on your knees. When parents don't pray, it's like sitting on the sidelines watching your children in a war zone getting shot at from every angle. "God's word is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword (Heb.4:12) and it pierces everything it touches."
God says, His words shall not return to me void but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the things for which I sent it. In other words, His word is never ineffectual or without fruit. When we employ God's word in prayer, we don't teach our children God's way and God's word, and help them to respect God's laws, and if we don't discipline them, guide them and help them learn to make godly choices.
When The Answers Don't Come
Possibly, the hardest part of praying for our children is waiting for our prayers to be answered. Sometimes the answer comes quickly, but many times they do not. When they don't, we can become discouraged, despairing or angry at God. Everything seems hopeless and we want to give up. Sometimes, in spite of all we have done for them and all our prayers for them, children make poor choices and then reap the consequences.
Even then, don't stop praying. Keep communication lines open with your child, continue interceding for him/her, and declare God's word. Instead of giving up, resolve to be even more committed to prayer. Pray with other believers. Stand strong and say, "I have only begun to fight".
Keeping in mind that your part of the fight is to pray to God continually, remember too, that your fight is not with your child, it's with the devil. He is your enemy, not your child. Stand strong in prayer until you see a breakthrough in your child's life.
Pray ceaselessly!
* Bienhome Muivah wrote this article for Hueiyen Lanpao (English Edition)
The writer is a Church Ministry Promoter at MBC Centre Church, Imphal
This article was posted on October 06 2013.
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