We Keep On Praying For You - The One Year Praying through the Bible for Your Kids

We keep on praying for you, asking our God to enable you to live a life worthy of his call. May he give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do. Then the name of our Lord Jesus will be honored because of the way you live, and you will be honored along with him. This is all made possible because of the grace of our God and Lord, Jesus Christ. 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12

PAUL KNEW GOD INTIMATELY, and he understood the will of God that had been revealed to him in the Scriptures. Because of this, when he prayed for the people he loved, he prayed for what he knew God wanted to do and provide. His prayers were never general or generic, never selfish or shortsighted, never for external or temporal matters. As we listen in on Paul praying for those he loved, we discover he has something to teach parents about how to pray for the children we love.

Paul asked God to enable these believers to live in such a way that they would deserve the name they bear —the name of Christ. In other words, he didn’t want them to live with hypocrisy, calling themselves Christians while living in a way that was anything but Christlike. He asked God to give them the spiritual power they needed to do the things the Bible instructed them to do —such as exercise their spiritual gifts, endure under persecution, and provide for the needs of the poor among them. As they lived, gave, and loved in these ways, Paul’s greatest desire, which had brought him to his knees, was accomplished —that “the name of [the] Lord Jesus will be honored.” But that’s not all: “And you will be honored along with him.” These people he loved would share in the honor that Jesus himself had been given.

Lord, forgive us for focusing on temporal matters in our prayers for ________. While we know that you care about every area of our lives, we do not want to neglect praying for the things that are most important to you and the things that will bring ________ lasting joy and honor into eternity. So we ask you to enable ________ to live a life worthy of your call. We ask you to give ________ the power to accomplish all the good things faith prompts him to do. Then the name of the Lord Jesus will be honored because of the way ________ lives, and ________ will be honored along with him. This is all made possible because of your grace.