Growing Wholesome Families

Prayer should build our relationship with God. Each time we pray we should grow in our faith and trust in God.  There are four key  aspects you need you can bring in as you pray. Use this acrostic to P-R-A-Y. Powerful prayer connects our children to God and opens their hearts as they discover how God interacts with us through talking ton him.

Powerful Prayer 

More powerful prayers start with faith or basic beliefs about pryer and God. Understand that prayer is communicating with God. We talk, He listens, an we also expect Him to respond. His response can come in many forms that includes answering a prayer, impressing a thought or scripture in our minds (these will never be counter to scripture), connecting us with someone who has insight into the pryer need, or simply a call to be patient before he answers while we continue to knock (pray as mentioned in Matthew 7:7). God’s responses help us realize that God wants to interact with us.

Relationship 

Connecting with God is fundamental in prayer. We must believe he is with us. listens, and loves us. Trust that God  has our best in mind. Choose to love the Lord totally, follow him, and be right with him (forgiven of sins). Relationship continues with conversations. God has shared his stories with us in the Bible so we need to study those. Follow His example and share our stories of what’s happening to us.

Applications of Powerful Prayer

Applying scripture and biblical principles when we pray helps us engage with God and equips us to use the knowledge we gain or follow His guidance. This is also an opportunity to explore what God says about our circumstances and problems. We investigate what happened in the Bible, what principles are at work in our life, and what we can learn from our situation. Then, extend beyond the powerful prayer time and words, to check out the Word, doing some hands on activities to reinforce truths, and journaling about the prayer time. Record how God responds and how your family grows in faith.

Yield and Yearn

Be open to yielding your will to God. Yearn to follow God and know him better. We can build on our experience with God and prayer. That’s why we keep a record of prayer answers and why we may try different methods of prayer, to focus our prayer in various ways from praising God to praying for god to help people we care about.

The above plan out for us as individuals or in prayer groups as well as through different methods of prayer.

For example, with kids, let’s do a stacking prayer where a person puts in their hand and says a one sentence prayer and the next person places a hand over the first and adds to the prayer. Continue to create a stack of hands praying together. It is a good idea for the leader to announce the theme for the stacking prayer. So, maybe it is the word confess. One person may call out, “I am a sinner.” The next adds, “God forgives us.” Another Can add “I am a child of God.”  Another person follows continues with, “God loves us, or,  “Jesus died to give us forgiveness.” These simple methods can help children understand powerful prayers can be simple but effective.

More Powerful Prayer Methods

Try other methods to pray together. It’s fun to discover ways to connect tonight and build faith bonds.

Power comes with stating truths from the Bible as part of the prayer and knowing we believe in forgiveness of sins. Tap into power by discussing being God’s children and that He who loves us. We are applying truths as we join together with our words. And we yield to God as we confess we are sinners, loved, and more. Invest time in learning more about praying as a family. Find family prayer resources to use.

When we are done all can raise their hands up with a shout, “Glory to God forever!” that declares our worship.

Blessings,
Karen