This is the first blog in a series on prayer called How to Pray for Your Family, Finances, and Future. If you click on the link you can read an overview on prayer (why it’s hard but doesn’t have to be) and get links to the other blogs in the series. For this article we’re going to focus on how to pray scripture over your family.
Why Pray Scripture?
When I first became a mom I was introduced to Bible Study Fellowship, or BSF. If you’re unfamiliar with BSF it’s an interdenominational Bible Study that meets both in person and online. You can search their site to find a group near you, and what’s cool is they have groups for men, women, and children.
I enjoyed BSF for a slew of reasons, but one of my favorite things was hearing my son repeat what he’d learn during his class. One of the things that was regularly repeated was that “The Bible is God’s True Word!”
If the kids left with no other piece of information, they left with that. God’s Word, the Bible, is True. We may not always understand it, but we can trust it for sure.
One year I was invited to be a children’s leader, and I learned something new – How to pray scripture. Each week there would be a key verse to teach to the kids, and in my room we would turn the verse into a prayer.
Ever since my time in BSF that has been a favorite way for me to pray. It takes some of the guesswork out of prayer. We don’t have to wonder if our prayers are pleasing to God because we’re repeating His own true words back to him. So today I’m going to show you how to do it with some great verses to pray for your family.
What Scriptures to Pray for Your Family
We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better. Colossians 1:9-10
Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Colossians 3:12-13
Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. Matthew 7:24,26
I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5
The righteous lead blameless lives; blessed are their children after them. Proverbs 20:7
[E]ach one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. Ephesians 5:33
My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. John 17:15
[W]e constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith. 2 Thessalonians 1:11
How to Pray Scripture
Praying Scripture is super easy. You literally just use the words in the verse(s), put a “Dear God” at the beginning, an “amen” at the end, and some filler words, if necessary, to make the prayer make sense. Here’s an example using one of the verses from above.
Colossians 1:9-10 says, “We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.”
Here’s what your prayer would/could look like:
Dear God, please give our family knowledge of your will, spiritual wisdom, and understanding. I pray that our family would always honor and please you and that each of us would produce every kind of good fruit in our lives. Please help us to learn to know you better and better and grow as a result. Amen.
Downloadable Prayer Guide
You can make your own list of verses to pray over your family, but if you’d like a guide to get you started you can get ours by clicking here.
If you’re ever reading the Bible and a verse sticks out to you, turn it into a prayer! You can pray like this for yourself, your family, friends, church, neighbors… You can pray scripture for anyone and anything!
You could even create a scripture prayer journal by writing down your favorite verses in a dollar store notebook. Prayer doesn’t have to be hard, but sometimes we just need some ideas to get us started.
if you like this idea definitely let us know in a comment! And if you have any other good verses to pray for your family, please share those as well!
Because there’s a better way,
Sarah
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