Dear Heavenly Father,
You are a gracious and merciful God, whose love is unending. You are always patient with me, forgiving me time and time again. I am so thankful for Christ's death, which opened the curtain into your presence, allowing me to call you Abba.
I come before you today to pray for my children. I confess that I so often pray about their health and behavior more than anything else. I've prayed for their healing from illness and from surgeries. I've prayed for particular behavioral changes. I've asked for help and wisdom in dealing with tantrums and defiance and in weeding out discontent and selfishness.
But increasingly, I've come to see that while those prayers are good, that you hear them and accept them, there is one prayer that stands above them all. While asking for healthy bodies and good behavior certainly makes my life easier, it doesn't address my children's most serious and deadly ailment: their heart.
The most important prayer I can pray for them is that they would see their sin and need for you. I ask that you humble them before you. Pierce their heart so they would see their need for the gospel of grace. I pray that they would know there is nothing they can do to earn your love or to keep your love. Each time they stumble into sin, draw them back to the gospel and foot of the cross. I pray that they would be overcome and overwhelmed by your love for them, that their love in response would overflow beyond measure.
I pray, along with Paul (Ephesians 1:17-19), that my children would know the hope that is theirs in Christ. I ask that your Spirit would enlighten them, grant them wisdom and understanding. Give them a desire to know you more deeply and intimately.
You have been teaching my own heart that change happens from the inside out. Help me to parent them in this way. I ask that you would give me grace to speak to their heart and model the grace of the gospel in all my interactions with them. Please keep me from being a barrier between them and you.
I thank you for the power of the gospel. May it be the motivation for my children's growth in you as well as my own. I thank you that because of Jesus, all is grace.
In Jesus' name, Amen
Dear Lord,
Our hearts are filled with gratitude for the men and women who serve our country now and in the past, and for the sacrifices their families make so that we can all enjoy the blessing of freedom.
We praise you for calling them to help protect us, and for giving them the courage and ability to do their jobs well.
Guide their choices and their actions, Lord. Help them to see you working in their daily lives, whether in the field, at home, or abroad.
Surround them with your mighty angels; protect them in your mercy; cover them with your grace.
Guard their hearts while they are far from loved ones, and bless them with moments to cherish when they are together.
Hold these families close, Lord. May they look to You for the strength and peace that only You can give.
In Jesus Name we pray,
Amen.
Almighty God, Lord of Hosts, we call out to you as the One who is sovereign over all. Watch over and protect our nation's military members and their families. Sustain them with your everlasting arms.
Take into your most gracious protection our service members currently deployed. May you be their comfort and their guide as they live and walk in a foreign land. Give them reassurance that you are a shield around them, an ever-present help in time of need. Grant our service members courage so that in all things they may serve without reproach. Encourage them while they also encourage one another.
As they serve around the world, we ask that you guard their families and loved ones back home. Provide them with peace and surround them with love as they mourn the absence of their loved one and long for their return. May they find hope and strength in you for the trials of each new day. Be with military children who endure the difficult burden of knowing their father or mother is in harm's way for months on end. Guard these children's hearts and minds despite the loneliness and uncertainty of having a parent deployed.
Lord God, be with marriages in the military. Preserve the bonds of husband and wife despite the stress that military life brings, stress only compounded by the decade of war our nation is in. Help military chaplains in their efforts to equip military marriages with ways to stay connected and communicate effectively despite the challenge of frequent deployments. Give husbands and wives strength and resilience to endure separations, frequent moves, and all the uncertainty military life brings.
For some, Lord, service takes their toll permanently in physical and emotional damage. For those wounded in battle, we pray you would come beside them.. Sustain and strengthen them amidst treatment, pain, and adjustments to life with an injury. Help them to find competent care and support, and to not be afraid to reach out for a helping hand or a listening ear. Be with their caregivers in the demanding role they have. Give caregivers renewed energy to offer support and love as they tend to the needs of the injured. Strengthen them as they both monitor and advocate for their loved one.
We know that war is very costly. Some have made the ultimate sacrifice, laying down their precious lives in service to our nation. Each one of them was a son or daughter, perhaps a husband or wife, father or mother. For all those who feel the pain and the toll of this war in the loss of their loved one, comfort them. Be a father to the fatherless and defender of widows. As they cast their cares on you, may they know the consolation of your love. We thank you for the freedoms these service members fought for which we enjoy today.
For each and every veteran who has served our country through the years, we thank you for their sacrifice. Comfort those who struggle in life after war. Help us to honor and care for those who have given so much for us.
Be with our nation's leaders as well, and all those who make decisions for our military. Give them wisdom and discernment in everything they do.
Father God, we long for the day when swords will be beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks. We long for your peace, for your shalom.
In Christ's name we pray, Amen.
Lord,
I just want to thank You for the brave men and women who put their lives on the line daily for our nation! They are living out what it means to serve. By protecting us they are putting us before themselves and I am so thankful for them all. They are a blessing to this nation and I pray that You will watch over them and bless them 10 fold! Thank You for our troops, Father! Without men and women of courage we would not be the country we are today! I hold them in high esteem and I am grateful for each and every single one of them! Thank You for the men and women in our armed forces, Lord! Be with all of them and their families today! I love you! Amen
Lord and Holy Protector, you called Abraham and Sarah to leave their homeland and to journey away from their own people.Yet you kept them safe wherever they went.Protect your children and our friend and loved one who must now leave to fight in this war. Walk by his side and calm any fear. Be his companion and guide his thoughts. Encircle him with your light and keep him from harm. And when his service is ended, lead him safely home again. For you, O God, are our shelter in every storm and our refuge in times of danger. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.