Praying the Scriptures: 10 Prayers For Your Child

Isn’t our God wonderful?

We have tasted and seen that He is good.

We have experienced the overwhelming fullness of joy in His presence.

We can testify that His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

One of the hallmarks of a Christ-follower is that we long for others to know Him, too. Especially those we love.

And I sort of think it might just be one of the prayers God loves most to hear and to answer. When we pray for those who don’t know Him yet, we exemplify God’s own heart; the grace of a God that who desires that not any should perish amazes me.

Praying for the lost also affirms the delight we experience as God’s children; after all, we only want the very best for those we love, right? How it must touch God’s heart to know that we realize the very best is Him.

My most fervent prayers are those I offer on behalf of my unsaved children, family members, and friends. Here are ten Scripture-based prayers I lift often on their behalf:

1.)Pray that the Holy Spirit would convict them of their own sin, and bring awareness of God’s righteousness and their coming judgment apart from salvation. (John 16:8)

2.)Pray that they wouldn’t ignore the truth. (Romans 1:18)

3.)Ask God to rescue them from the kingdom of darkness and bring them to the kingdom of His Son. (Colossians 1:13)

4.)Pray that God would open eyes that are blind to their sin and need for a Savior. (Acts 26:16-18)

5.)Mourn with God that they are separate from Christ, excluded from the family of God, without hope and without God in the world. Then ask that in Christ Jesus those who are far away would be brought near by the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:12-13)

6.)Pray that the truth would be united with faith in their hearts. (Hebrews 4:2)

7.)Ask God to lead them toward accepting the His gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:23)

8.)Recount back to God that He isn’t willing that any should perish; ask Him to lead them to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9, 1 Timothy 2:4)

9.)Acknowledge that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father except through Him. (John 14:6) Ask that they would confess their sins, claiming God’s promise of forgiveness and cleansing. (I John 1:9)

10.)Pray that the gospel would be unveiled to them. Ask that God would defeat Satan, who has blinded their minds to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:3-4)

Finally, here’s another prayer I offer up often on behalf of all my children — those who have made a profession of faith and those who haven’t:

I pray that they’ll never be deceived about the state of their hearts before God. (Matthew 7:21-23)

It’s not uncommon for children to profess faith with the best intentions, but without truly understanding the commitment involved. I could let myself become worried and anxious about this possibility…

but instead I turn those thoughts into prayers and entrust my children to the One who loves them even more than I do.