Praying for Your Family - 4. Sunday

I love the Tim Hawkins skit where he says, "Whoever wrote the song 'Easy Like a Sunday Morning,' never tried to get a family ready for church and out the door." Amen to that, right!? Sunday mornings are ROUGH for a lot of people I know, especially those with small children, or in ministry positions.  I think it's obvious that the enemy does not want people to go to church, and so he tries to make getting there all the more difficult.  Raising your children to know and believe the gospel? Shoot - you're really in a battle! However, if you can just set your alarm about 15 minutes earlier, lay out clothes the night before, and wake up and PRAY FIRST - it will go better.  I am not promising it will go 100% better, but your inner peace level will be way more attune to the Holy Spirit's calming voice when you need it the most.  Sundays are a day to focus our own hearts on receiving the gospel, as well as salvation for others.

 My husband is a pastor, so my Sunday prayer may look a little different than yours.  You can also pray for your spouse to have an open and listening heart, a willing and teachable spirit, and a true encounter with the Holy Spirit during the music and the message, if Sunday is the day you attend church/worship. If your spouse has not experienced salvation, obviously you want to be praying for God to soften their heart and give them eyes to see his truth and hear His voice, and a willingness to surrender and submit his or her life to Christ.  This week's She Reads Truth post about the spiritual armor was insightful, if you'd like to check out another resource!

Here are a few diagrams to help with remembering spiritual armor:

Here's my personal prayer example:

Sunday- Salvation & Spiritual Armor:

Lord, 

Please help my husband to rest in His salvation. Help him to feel your grace and mercy and know that his eternal future is secure. Help him to 'work it out with fear and trembling.' Help him to bring others to a saving knowledge of you today and every day, especially our children. As he preaches, use his words through the power of the Holy Spirit to convict hearts and minds that they need salvation. Jesus, please help us to point our kids to a relationship with you at an early age. God, I want them to know you and understand that as much as I love them, you love them more.  I am their mommy, but my greatest desire is to hear them call you Father, and know that your parenting is far better than ours. Lord, please help my husband and kids to put on your helmet of salvation. Give them the heart that desires your breastplate of righteousness and to choose what is right. Tie on the belt of truth to my kids. Help my husband to share words of truth and hope to all those listening to him today. Help them to have your peace deep down, no matter the circumstances, and be ready to share it with others by giving away the gospel. God please help them remember to hold up a shield of faith to deflect the enemy's arrows.  Give them a strong faith to withstand doubt and trials. Help my children to desire to hear more of your truth from your Word, and let my husband uphold it like the sword you say it is, to fight the enemy.  Help my husband and kids to use your word to fight - to memorize and store up Scripture in their hearts so that when temptation comes, they are ready to fight. Help me to model these traits for my family and continually use scripture in our home to point us all back to you, to fight the battles we face. In Jesus' Name, 

Amen.

If you struggle to remember the whole armor of God - it's OK to focus on praying for salvation, or just praying for the parts you do remember.  Several of the individual 'spiritual armor' aspects will be repeated during the course of this month for easier memory. ;)

This is the fourth post in a series on Praying for Your Family: a 31 Day Challenge.  You can go to the main 'landing page' for a list of all the days by clicking here:

Landing Page