How do you pray for your family? Obviously your prayers should regularly focus on the family. But how can you expand your “prayer horizons” for your family, so that they go beyond the simple “bless me and my family”?
Be stimulated by the following prayer of Matthew Henry for the family. Read it through once, and then go over it again, applying each portion of the prayer to the various parts of your own family. Pray through this prayer several days in a row. Then put your hope and trust in the LORD’s grace to do wondrous things for you and your family.
“Lord, let our family be blessed in Christ,
since all families of the earth may receive blessing in him.
Let this family be blessed with all spiritual blessings
in the realities of heaven that have come to earth by Christ Jesus.
“Let us also be blessed with the temporal blessings
that you judge to be best for us.
Give us the amount of health and prosperity
that will promote our sanctification.
“Especially let our souls prosper and go from strength to strength,
from glory to glory.
Let all that belong to our family belong to Christ.
“As we live in one house together on earth,
may we be together forever with the LORD in heaven.”
Matthew Henry, A Way to Pray, pages 333, 334.
O. Palmer Robertson
Dr. Robertson is a teaching elder. He is the author of several books and articles, primarily viewing the scriptures from the perspective of the history of redemption.
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