A prayer based on Deuteronomy 6:4-9.

<aside> 🙏🏻 Our Father in heaven, We thank You for every family in the church. We pray for them now, especially for all the parents who have the amazing privilege and great responsibility of bringing their children up to know and love You.

We pray, first of all, that they would love You as their God with all their heart and all their soul, and with all their strength. That You would reign supreme in their lives. May Your commands be on their hearts and in their heads. Help them each day to resist the temptation to make their child into an idol and put them at the centre of their world. Instead to show that their ultimate devotion is to You their God. With the help of Your Holy Spirit, would this be seen by them being loving, patient, selfless, truthful, gentle, self-controlled, forgiving and repentant.

Give to parents the wisdom and help they need to teach their children about Jesus. To explain clearly who He is. That He is the Son of God and the Saviour of the world. That He is fully God and all truly man. To explain why they need Him to save them. That they are sinners who are facing God’s punishment in hell. To explain how Jesus saves. That He live a perfect righteous life that they could never live. That He died on the cross in their place to take penalty their sins deserve so they can be forgiven. That He rose again to give them eternal life. And to explain to their children what they need to do to be saved. That they need repent of their sins and trust in Jesus. And that this will be shown by loving Him and obey His commands. We pray that parents would put more energy into this, than helping their children achieve academic success or developing their sporting, musical, or artistic abilities. And we plead with Your to be gracious to all the children in the church by saving them while they are young.

Please help the families in our church to spend time each day reading the Bible and praying together. Whether it be at breakfast time or dinner time or bedtime. But may that not be the only time during the day that God is mentioned. Help them to give thanks to You in all circumstances. For prayer to be their first impulse when faced with any problem or crisis. Would remembering hymns and songs full of Bible truth give them prompts and encouragements during the day.

And we ask that parents would set a good example for their children about what it means to be committed to God’s people, to love those whom Jesus loves and bought with His own blood, by fully engaging in the life of this local church. May their children grow up seeing church as being central to their parents lives and not simply an add on or something you can opt in and out of.

Thank You that forgiveness is available through Jesus for all the times each day they fail to be the parents You call them to be. And that He with them to provide all the strength they need to face the highs and lows; challenges and trials parenting brings.

Amen.

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