Pray God’s will for your family! How did I develop this idea? First, I realized my need to pray God’s will for my family. While my wife and I do our best to experience a good marriage and parent our children well, we realize that there are deficiencies. Second, Scripture makes known many aspects of God’s will to us. There are many things that we do not have to wonder about because Scripture spells it out, and frankly, I need it spelled out at times!
PRAY GOD’S WILL FOR YOUR FAMILY!
This is Part 1 of my suggestions for praying God’s will, according to the Word of God, for your family. Please see Part 2 for the remaining suggestions. We do not have to ask, wonder, or worry over “if” these are God’s will because it says in the Bible that these are God’s will for you and your family.
Authority – Pray that your family would respect those in authority over them. The Apostle Paul says, ” 1 Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God” (Romans 13:1). When I pray this, I pray for two things. First, that the authorities over us would be respectable. Second, whether they are respectable or not, I pray that we would respect them. This does not mean that we cannot respectfully disagree, but we must ultimately submit to their authority unless they are in contradiction to God’s authority.
Boundaries – Pray that your family would be hedged in. By the Prophet Hosea, God says, ” Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way” (2:6). This sounds weird, but let me explain. It is a prayer that God would put a boundary around you and your family. This is both negative and positive. I pray that God would “wall in” my family against wrongdoing, wrong places, and wrong people, and move us to right doing, right places, and right people. A boundary keeps out as well as allows in. I pray for the rights things to be let in and the wrong things to be kept out.
Conviction – Pray for the convicting power of the Holy Spirit in your family’s life. Commenting on the Holy Spirit, Jesus says, ” When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8). I pray for the conviction of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We need to be convicted of sin, righteousness, and the judgment. Also, I realize that we need to constantly be aware of our lives before God.
Friends – Pray for your family members to desire good, solid Christian friends. Proverbs says, ” The righteous choose their friends carefully, but the way of the wicked leads them astray” (12:26). Friends make us or break us; build us up or tear us down. My wife and I used to get together with another Christian couple, but we started realizing that every time we would get together with them we wound end up in a fight. So, while I remained friends with the husband and Cindy remained friends with the wife, we stopped getting together with them as couples. We need to pray for the right friends.
Humility – Pray that your family would choose to be humble before God. Quoting the Old Testament, James says, ” God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble” (James 4:6). God favors the humble. Later, James comments, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up” (James 4:10). Humility requires trusting the Lord. We depend on the Lord to promote us.
Please see Part 2 for the remainder of the list.
Sources:
THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version.
MacArthur, John. “Taking the Mystery out of Knowing God’s Will,” retrieved from http://www.gty.org/Resources/Sermons/80-310_Taking-the-Mystery-Out-of-Knowing-Gods-Will on March 18, 2011.
