Boy-Prayers

 

Dimple cheeked Eli peered down over Asher to help tuck him in.  “Do you care if I pray for him tonight?” Eli asked with a grin.  “Of course not” was all my heart could sputter out.  Eli proudly knelt over his baby brother and uttered simple, yet powerful words, “Dear Jesus, keep Asher safe and help him rest well.  Let him know You love him.  Amen.” 

Some sort of shift occurs when you start to see your boys taking ownership of talking to the Most High God. 

There have been boy-prayers that I have prayed over those four young Christian-soldiers through the years. Various specific prayers come and go, depending on the need, but these prayers have become my mainstays, my anchors in our tumultuous world. 

{Lord, let my boys love You and Your Word more than anything.  Create a craving in them to know You and study Your Word.  Jesus, be their first love. Give them a hunger for You, and then satisfy it! Let them hear Your voice. 

Father, make Cade, Eli, Sam, and Asher oaks of righteousness.  In a world where truth is either gray or shunned, I pray wisdom would rule their lives.  I pray, Jehovah Tsedkenu (our righteousness!) that You would strengthen them and allow them to stand strong when culture threatens to sway their branches or knock them flat over.  In You, they will stand. I rest in the fact that You have planted them; allow them to display Your glory alone. Let them reject passivity and lead with courage. 

Sweet Jesus, entrusting these boys to the private and public school systems takes faith.  Lord, I pray Cade, Eli, and Sam will be blessed as they walk into their school doors and blessed as they walk out.  I pray they would be a blessing to all they encounter each day.  I pray they would love the downtrodden, respect authority, and stand for truth.  I pray your favor over each one of them.  Give them the ability to learn.  Develop each one of their gifts in the educational realm and start to give them exceeding joy in the areas where you want them to excel and make a difference. 

God, I go into convulsions when I think about the evil culture my boys are growing up in.  Sin seems to be crouching at every door, begging to be let in.  I pray You would put a hedge of protection around them.  If faced with temptation, I pray You would make the evil distasteful and that they would spew it out.  I pray that Satan would not be able to touch them. 

God, develop each of the boy’s gifts that you have so richly and freely given.  Gifts of joy, worship, discernment, wisdom, prophecy, and mercy have been splattered like hues of paint on our family canvas.  Take each one and anoint it for your splendor.  Keep each child humble as they proclaim that every good gift is from above. 

Creator-God, I lift up the four precious brides of my four precious sons.  Save each one of them at a young age.  I pray these girls would be protected from the enemy all their days.  Keep them from abuse and let them rest in their earthly and Heavenly Father’s loves.  Give them strong family ties, a strong love for Jesus, and a strong desire to be caretakers of their homes.  I lift up my future grandchildren and claim them all for the Kingdom of God, so the legacy of your sacrificial love story might continue.} 

 

Most of these prayers have been dumbed down to simple phrases that I repeat over and over throughout the day…oaks of righteousness, blessed going in and out and be a blessing, protect their future wives, develop their gifts, make sin distasteful, etc.  I believe Jesus, my intercessor, takes these simple phrases and turns them into beautiful prayers before our Father. 

I love what John Piper says: “Until you know that life is war, you cannot know what prayer is for.”  As a mother, I am on the frontlines in this spiritual battle for my sons.  Just because the three oldest have accepted Jesus as their Savior and follow him as Lord doesn’t mean that Satan has given up on his agenda of kill-steal-destroy.  Alongside of Eric, I have authority over those boys.  Authority in Greek is “exousia” and means to have the legal right to use power.  It means to exercise one’s privilege over the jurisdiction given to him or her.  As mothers, we have this right…this privilege… to pray over our children.  If the righteous are bold as lions, then Satan will tremble when he hears the mighty roar of Yahweh coming out of our lips. Never give up on your children and never underestimate the power of the Holy God that resides within you!