"How to pray for the next generation"
Suggested Message for Mother’s or Father’s Day
By Pastor Bob & Cambria Hunter
EASY TO P.P.T. OUTLINE:
What should I say when I pray for my children?
Three prayerful suggestions:
* A hand of protection to cover them
* A sense of purpose to guide them
* A portion of joy to sustain them
MESSAGE TEXT:
We’ve been talking about prayer here at Springwater Church. Our songs, our messages, our materials, our energy this month is all put into prayer. And I can’t think of a more appropriate topic for Mother’s day, than that of prayer. Perhaps one of the most important things a Mom (or Dad, if occasion) can do is pray. Pray for her children.
There was once a Mom who gave birth to 17 children. Her name was Susanna Wesley. Susanna prayed for all of her children 1 hr. a day. How do you even find an hour a day with 17 children? Then every week she set up an appointment with each one of her children to inquire about their spiritual well being. She did this consistently until she died. Two of her 17 children impacted the world. Their names were John and Charles Wesley. Together in the 1700’s they spawned a spiritual movement in Great Britian that is said to have saved English people from moral and social decay. John and Charles pay great tribute to their praying Mom. Susanna’s prayers influenced a whole generation, even a whole soceity for God.
Needless to say, prayer and motherhood (fatherhood) should go hand and hand! And folks, if ever there was a time to pray for our children it’s now. Our kids need our daily prayers like never before. This next generation is going to face challenges the world has never known. And we need to prepare them for it. Tis morning I’m going to talk to you about praying effectively for the children of the world. Now let me give some insight into what’s going on out there. I want to take some time to describe to you what our children face, and where they are at spiritually.
According to the Barna research, the Bible remains a respected text among most young adults. Three out of five teenagers said they believe the Bible is totally accurate in all that it teachers. Protestant teens were twice as likely as Catholic teens to strongly affirm the accuracy of the Bible. But each had very distorted views of what the Bible teaches. For example, 2/3 of young people believe that Satan is not a living and active being, but merely a symbol of evil. 6/10 young people argued that a good person can earn eternal salvation on the basis of good deeds. And a majority of them as in 53% of them said that Jesus Christ, when He walked here on earth, committed sins. That’s scary!
Now let me just sum up what this means. That while 3/5 respect the Bible as a document, at the same time they hold beliefs that are dramatically inconsistent with it. The regard for it’s actual content is eroding.
Even scarier is the fact, that 85% of youth believe that moral truth depends on an individual and their circumstances. In other words, truth is relative, not absolute. That it’s all dependent upon the situation you’re in and how you feel about right and wrong.
Now let me break the situation down into gender categories. The average teenage girl is more likely to be able to name all the characters on her favorite sit-com. Than any of the twelve disciples of Jesus. For teenage girls the average of age of their first sexual experience is now 15 years old.
The findings about teenage boys are even more disturbing. Boys younger than fifteen years of age are twice as likely to be admitted to psychiatric hospitals, and five times more likely than girls to kill themselves. Fully 80% of suicides involve males under 25 years of age. Suicide among black adolescent boys has increased 165% just in the past twelve years. Boys comprise 90% of those in drug treatment programs and 95% of kids involved in juvenile court.
Dr. James Dobson summed it all up His book Bringing up Boys, by saying this: "….boys are experiencing a crisis of confidence that reaches deep within the soul. Many of them are growing up believing they are unloved by their parents and are hated or disrespected by their peers. This results in a form of self-loathing that often serves as a prelude to violence, drug abuse, promiscuity, and suicide. It helps explain why both boys and girls do things that would otherwise make no sense, such as cutting their flesh, piercing sensitive body parts, tattooing themselves from head to toe, taking dangerous drugs, and or identifying themselves with death, as the pipe bomber did that was caught this week, how old was he? 21 yrs. of age. And some of them, Dobson said, cry with bullets. And we’ve seen that played out. "
Suffice it to say, our kids need us now more than ever. And more importantly they need our prayers. And that’s our business here today. Learning how to pray effectively and lifting up our children up spiritually. Bring them before the Father in heaven. And tis morning I have three prayerful suggestions I’d like for you to consider. Each of them have strong biblical basis. And they are all three very specific. You know what we are finding out prayer, that the more specific and targeted our prayers are, the better results we get. So tis morning I submit to you three very specific prayers that target specific needs in the lives of our children. The first one is this, pray for…
1. A hand of protection to cover them.
What I mean by that is this: God’s hand of protection. The hand of the Lord is
Spoken of frequently in scripture. It represents God’s involvement and interaction in the activities of the world. The Lord’s hand was present at the time of creation, it was when Moses parted the red seas, and when Joshua conquered the promiseland. You see, the hand of Lord is powerful.
The most popular book on prayer in recent years is Bruce Wilkinson’s Prayer of Jabez. The prayer Jabez prayed is but a single verse. In it Jabez prays for the hand of the Lord to accompany Him and be present with Him. You can find this prayer spelled out in I Chronicles 4:10. Jabez was clearly interested in the presence of God’s hand in His life.
The hand of the Lord also offers us protection. And that’s what I pray for on daily basis for each one of my children. That God’s hand would protect them, in same way King David was protected when he faced Saul’s murderous threats. Or in a similar way that of Daniel when He was protected from a hungry den of lions. When the hand of Lord is with us I believe there is a protective covering that surrounds us. I really believe that. We may never know the things we’ve been spared because of God’s hand of intervention.
Now, I know for a fact I just struck a chord with almost every parent. We all want this, we want our children to be safe and free of hurt, harm and danger. But oftentimes instead of praying about it, we worry about don’t we? If we don’t see the car pull up at curfew, or hear the phone ring when we expect it, we start pacing the floor and wringing our hands. And sometimes our worry gives way panic, because we fear something terrible might happen. And terrible things unfortunately do happen. But for those Moms and Dads that trust God, the privilege of prayer can be exercised. All of that energy can be channeled into effective prayer on their behalf.
Let’s face it, we need to do this, because our kids are going to do some pretty dangerous and careless things. I know I did. And it’s still appropriate to pray for them and their protection even if their not walking with the Lord and looking after themselves. Dr. Dobson cites this careless tendency in his writings about boys. He devotes a whole chapter to it in his book. He calls it living on the ragged edge of nothing. It’s a trait that’s especially dominate in young boys. Let me give you a couple humorous examples… quote excerts from Bring up Boys. pg. 3.
(I) Pastor Bob tells of His own story jumping the railroad tracks….We did some really dumb and careless things, praise God we survived them all. Somebody must have been praying! And someday I’ll experience what my parents did, which was a lot of grief because of us boys. But rather than worry or fret about what might happen. I’ll need to take my own advice and pray. Just as those have gone before me have done.
With boldness, Jabez prayed for God’s hand to be with Him. And so did Joshua when ventured into the city of Jericho. And so did the disciples when they charged into Antioch to build a Church there. And you can pray that way too on behalf of all of your children, all the days of their life. That the Lord’s hand would be with them and protect them everywhere they go in every way. So prayer #1 is for protection. Prayer number #2 is for direction.
2. A sense of purpose to drive them.
In a recent survey 77% percent of our young people expressed a desire to have a clear sense of purpose in life. 50% percent of them said they spend time thinking about the future everyday. Sadly, those numbers start to diminish as time and reality set in. While many express a desire for a clear sense of purpose, few are the ones that actually achieve it. Many of our children are driven along in life by something other than God.
Perhaps by guilt, anger or resentment. Others maybe by success, materialism or promotion in the work place. The fundamental question that all of us must ask of ourselves is: "Why on earth am I here." "Where is my life going in life." And the good news tis morning is this: God has the answers to those questions. (See Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life. Pgs 17-36). Everything He has created has a purpose. And that includes human beings. Proverbs 16:4 says, "The Lord has made everything for His own purpose." God doesn’t do anything on accident. He has a very intentional and deliberate plan. He made us for a purpose. So if you’re a living, breathing human being , take this message to heart, God has a purpose for you, and if He has a purpose for you, then He also does for your children. And when a person discovers what that purpose is, and begins taking action to pursue it, a sense of wonder and fulfillment is sure to follow. It’s a pretty radical way to live, because it just means that we live life on purpose and not on accident. I mean think of it. If we drove our cars the way some people live their lives, we would never get out of the garage! Because, for a lot of people life is characterized by an unending pattern of circles. The cycles of up and down, continue endlessly with no real purpose or intent.
I was 19 years old when those circles began to straighten out for me. At the time I was a student at Kent State University. I thought for sure I knew where I was headed in life. But God had a different plan. When I was called to the ministry, to do what I do now, those circles of endless confusion started to flatten out. With the help and support of other people, God showed me what I was created for and what I’m supposed to do. My God called purpose in life is be a local Church pastor. I’m not called to be a politician or work in the professional world, or be a contractor. God made me to do this one thing. And I can honestly say, I am probably more fulfilled than most people. My level of career satisfaction is extremely high. So every thing I do is with this purpose in mind.
Many of you have experienced the same thing. You discovered early in life what God was calling you to do. You discovered your gifts and talents and put them to work in the secular workplace.
Everybody is driven by something! And I believe that God want’s us to be purpose driven people as Rick Warren has so eloquently stated in his book that all of you have read. And we need to specifically pray that our children will discover their Godly purpose in life and pursue it. Because that’s where meaning and significance come from. Knowing that your doing exactly what God has called you to do.
Just as I was developing my thoughts on this subject. My 5 year old son, Grant, told me the other night he wanted to be construction man. Right now, he’s not very good at building things. In fact, right now he’s a demolition expert! But think of it. Maybe someday, he’ll build Churches or homes for people that have low incomes, and maybe someday God will use those talents to do work and witness projects in third world countries. Now that’s what we call purpose. So my prayer is this: That early in life Grant will discover his God given purpose, and pursue it. (Some insights drawn from Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life)
Thirdly and finally we need to pray that our children will have joy.
3. A portion of Joy to sustain them.
Isn’t this what we all want in life? We want to be happy. If you were to ask any Mom and Dad what they most want for their children; when they graduate, get married or when they go to work professionally, they would tell you they just want their children to be happy.
But there’s something about happiness and joy that’s need to be clarified. It’s not some mystical, elusive thing; that some have and others don’t. You see, happiness just doesn’t happen in a vacuum somewhere. It’s not like winning the lottery; you’re surprised when it happens. Not at all… happiness is choice. You have to choose it. And when you intentionally choose it, you realize it’s no longer just a feeling, but it’s an actual state of being.
And I believe that God’s wants us to be happy in this life. I love what Paul said to Timothy , he said, "God richly provides us with everything we need for our enjoyment."(I Tim.6:17).
The real happiness we’re looking for is found in the Lord. There’s never a time that you can’t find joy in the Lord.
Let us pray this prayer on behalf of our children: That a portion of Joy would sustain them. And may we as parents set the example for this kind of living. Mom’s and Dad’s if you want your children to be happy in the Lord and enjoy life. Then starting showing them joy in the home. Happily serve the Lord. Enthusiastically give to God and others. And along the way loosen up a little bit, relax! I already know that a ton of bad things have happened to you, because that’s just an everyday fact of life. These things happened to the Apostle Paul too. He was beaten, flogged, shipwrecked, imprisoned. Yet he had the courage to say, "I have learned to be content in all things, whether in plenty or want." You see, contentment doesn’t really have a lot to do with what you have or don’t have. And it doesn’t even really have a lot to do with how much success you’ve attained. For some people what they perceive as success is the worst thing that could ever happen to them! Sometimes we just need to loosen up a little bit and quit taking ourselves too seriously. God really wants us to enjoy life. It’s not only a choice we make, but a quality of life that can only come from Him.
Let’s practice what we preach. (bow your heads for prayer)
