Spiritual Children – How To Pray for Others – Episode 188
We were adopted into the Christian family as followers of Christ, so why can’t we have spiritual children? These are people that we pray for each day, often many times a day. This type of focused prayer has amazing results.
Thanks to our sponsor, Media Angels, Inc. and the books A Few Minutes with God and One More Child.
Have you ever thought about praying for someone, or maybe someone asked you to pray for a specific person. Recently this happened to me and what I found was very surprising. I was praying for a friend, off and on and this person ended up having some things happen in their life, and that was very sad. Sometimes we call this bad luck, or we can this spiritual warfare, and while I don’t believe in luck – only God incidents, I was struggling for this person just hearing what was happening.
And when I thought about this, I started thinking that this person I asked the Lord how He wanted me to pray. What I got from the Lord was surprising, in fact, I’ve never done this before, and I felt like the Lord was saying, “adopt this person as your spiritual child.” And this way you will make more of an effort to pray daily for this person. What I found was this person came to mind more often. And not only that, I added another spiritual child to my prayers. Being that I am a mom I knew what it was like to have a child and to pray for my children. And, while I pray for my children each day the prayers are not very specific – which is fine, but then it is as if I’m not spending much time asking the Lord how to pray.
It is not like I hear from the Almighty, but I do feel a certain way to pray. Whether for protection, or consolation, or maybe just for their own prayer intentions. And, I try to pray daily as well. Spending a few minutes with God for their intentions. As I shared with you many times before, I try very hard to attend daily Mass, and while at church and I’m praying for the needs of various people, my spiritual children come to mind. I don’t necessarily know what they need and I don’t need details about their problems because who doesn’t have problems? Even committed prayer warriors! But what I want to share with you is something you may want to try. The praise report is that the Lord calls these people to mind and the fruits of the prayers have shocked me. For the better.
This past weekend I also learned that a good friend of mine from college died, and I remember her fondly as a prayer warrior. In fact, if anyone had something that could go wrong in her life, she did! But she was so joyful and she loved God with all of her heart mind and soul. She was an amazing example of Christian love. She asked me to pray the salvation prayer and I remember telling her that I was Catholic and therefore knew God. Yet, she was insistent, and she wanted me to accept the Lord as my personal Savior. When I read the prayer she wanted me to pray I thought it was beautiful, and so I did. I prayed that the Lord would be my personal Savior. I was a Christian whose life was not perfect and who could’ve been upset with God on more than one occasion, but this friend of mine taught me that instead, we should praise Him no matter what. She was joyful loving and I will always be indebted to her for bringing me to a closer relationship with the Lord. Think of all the opportunities we miss in life because we are worried about what people think of us!
This situation, praying for spiritual children has taught me many things and I want to share them with you.
- If you’re praying for someone ask the Lord how are you should pray. Sometimes you get a sense of a specific thing to pray for and for other times it is just a general intention. For example, something like, “Dear Lord please bless and keep them in the palm of your hand and protect them.”, Or, “Dear Lord I pray for their specific needs… if something comes to mind, lift that up, or just pray in general for needs and intentions.
- Life is too short to aimlessly live. We must spend time each day in prayer, asking the Lord what he wants us to do. Even if we don’t get a clear direction and we have chores such as laundry or dinner or cleaning, we can thank and praise God as we work through our daily chores.
- When people ask you to pray, do it right then. How often have we gotten a text or even a message on social media, and you think post praying hand, but then forget to pray. If you can, stop right then and pray for this person. Sometimes I don’t have time to type out a whole prayer, especially if I’m somewhere public when I see this prayer request, but as soon as I can I pray for this person, and I can send up a quick prayer at that moment, “Dear Jesus please protect, provide and bless this person, Amen.
Let me challenge you today – adopt your own spiritual children. This person can be younger or older than you. Age has no bearing. What if we take back social media and start covering our comments and our posts with beautiful thoughts about the Lord, don’t you think we could change our outlook and that of others. If we focus on the negativity and all of the things that upset us it is difficult to have a clear thought about what we should do and getting upset never helps. It plays right into the enemy’s hands. You’ve heard me say this before you’re a long-time listener to this podcast, spend time with God, praise God in all things.
As I record this I’m not feeling great but the thought of not getting this done was upsetting to me. So as I sit here on the couch with my phone dictating into it and I pray that the Lord provides the words for me to share with you. I want the words to encourage and bless you. Is there someone that you could adopt? Romans 8: 17 states- “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.” We are the adopted sons and daughters of God. We are heirs to the kingdom of God. God knows the number of hairs on our head, God knows Everything about us. And so I encourage you to praise God in all things. And if you pray for people often, adopt them as your spiritual children even if they are your kids, giving the title of “spiritual children” elevates your prayer one more notch. If you don’t think this is true, try it. And, then share all of your praise reports with me!
Let’s pray:
Dear Lord Jesus, I praise you and all the things I ask that you watch over and protect us, I realize that even Christians struggle, and yet you are there for us. Where two of or more are gathered in Your Name you are there in our midst, so as I pray now with you, listening at the other end of a computer or podcast app. The Lord is here and in our midst. I pray for all of your intentions and needs, please add anything you want to pray for in this prayer and I pray this in Jesus’ precious Name, Amen.
Dear Lord Jesus, I praise you and all the things I ask that you watch over and protect us, I realize that even Christians struggle, and yet you are there for us. Where two of or more are gathered in Your Name you are there in our midst, so as I pray now with you, listening at the other end of a computer or podcast app. The Lord is here and in our midst. I pray for all of your intentions and needs, please add anything you want to pray for in this prayer and I pray this in Jesus’ precious Name, Amen.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Google Podcasts | iHeartRadio | Stitcher | Email | TuneIn | RSS | More
Speak Your Mind