Have you ever experienced a direct response to prayer? It’s incredible to witness God answering our requests. As we practice aligning our prayers to His Word, we see more clearly His plans prevailing. This is the confidence we have in praying for our children’s faith! 

A familiar passage in Deuteronomy 11:18-20 instructs us, as God’s children, to tether His Word to our hearts and lifestyles. There’s an emphasis on passing along God’s Word to our children and how a beautiful ebb and flow of Scripture throughout our homes and schedules creates a legacy effect. The passage instructs, “You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates ….”

But what does this look like in our modern world? As we incorporate God’s Word into our everyday lives and pray in line with Scripture for our children’s spirits, we will see God do great and mighty things! Here are three powerful ways to pray for your child’s faith.

3 Prayers God Wants to Answer for Your Child

Pray for a Hunger for God’s Word

All of us want our children to do well in life. God’s Word gives a clear path and description of a life well-lived! Psalm 1:1-3 describes a person who is intimately familiar with God’s Word and ways — that they will be productive and prosperous and will see great success! These achievements may not look like the world’s definition of “success,” but they will be far more significant, filling our lives with reason and purpose. Psalm 1 says, “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on His law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers.”

What a beautiful vision for our children’s lives! To be like a thriving tree, taking up God’s living waters and turning them into fruit that will impact their lives and eternity.

In this Psalm, the word used for “meditate” can be translated as “study.” We can pray that God will help our children develop habits of studying the Bible, understanding how to navigate it, comprehending its context, and prayerfully seeking out answers from the text. May God reveal to our children the living and active power of His Word for their lives, that they’ll eagerly return time and again, knowing His Word does not return void.

Pray for God’s Spirit to Be Their Guide in the Bible

Before Jesus died, rose again, and ascended back to Heaven, He assured His followers with these words in John 14:26, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”

Jesus employed the very best help for us: God’s own Spirit! 1 Corinthians 2:11 tells us God’s Spirit is intimately familiar with the thoughts of God, “For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.” Not only that, but with God’s thoughts in mind, the Spirit prays in line with God’s desires on behalf of our kids! Romans 8:27 says, “… the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.”

We are not alone in our prayers. When our words feel jumbled or like they’re missing the mark, we can know that God’s very Spirit is joining up with our prayers and asking God’s will for our children. Let’s ask God to make His Spirit’s voice loud within our children’s spirits so they can know God’s will and ways. May God’s Spirit “bring to remembrance” His truth and promises whenever they pick up His Word.

Pray for “Connect-the-Dot” Real-Life Applications

Have you ever experienced God weaving together lessons and truth along a common theme? Maybe you hear a captivating sermon that connects perfectly with something you read the day before, only to be encouraged by the same passage of Scripture by a friend later that week. You can pray for these same divine connections in your child’s life! Ask God to highlight certain Scriptures, making them relevant and captivating, then help your child spot those same truths throughout their week. In this way, your child can play “connect-the-dot,” tying God’s truths to real-life scenarios and learning to see the connectivity of His plans and purposes.

God has incredible plans and purposes for our children, and as we pray in line with His Word and will, we can watch those plans come to fruition. Begin praying Psalm 1:1-3 for your child. Ask God for a growing hunger for His Word, guidance from His Spirit, and obvious connections between His truth and everyday life.

Listen to “Hidden In My Heart”

from “Hidden In My Heart, Volume I”