Praying Together
How we pray in front of our kids over time might teach them more about how we think of God—and what we think is most important for people—than any number of family devotions or Sunday School lessons. So this week we’re suggesting making time to pray together with your child in a specific way for some specific people.
Think about picking someone—a believer or group of believers—to pray for as a family project this week. It could be another family in your church, a relative, someone sick, a pastor or missionary. The only qualification should be that your child knows the person or group of people personally.
The conversation you’ll be having with your child will be about the conversation you’ll be having together with God. And what you’ll be praying for is very specific; we’re going to pull the prayer items from Ephesians 3:14-19.
You can make a point to pray several times this week—or just once. You can break the points up into sections or just tackle it together in one sitting. If it is not too much of a stretch for your family, consider asking your child to pray for some of these things either out loud with you or on their own during the week.
Our hope is that praying these requests together for someone else will make an impression on your family about what matters to God and what we as believers need most from Him.
NOTE: If you would like to make a daily habit of praying Scripture for your child, check out our Daily Prayer feature. Each day, you will receive (via e-mail or Twitter) a prayer based on a verse correlated to these Conversation Starters and the daily devotional for students over on PlanetWisdom.com.
Talking Points
- We’re going to spend some time praying together for someone. Why do you think it matters that we pray for people?
- We’re going to use one specific passage of the Bible to pray for this person (or these people). We’re going to imitate some things Paul prayed in Ephesians 3:14-19. Why do you think it’s a good idea to learn about prayer from prayers in Scripture?
- [Parent: Read the passage together.]
- The first thing Paul says is that he kneels to pray for his readers. In what position do we usually pray? Do you think it really matters to God what position we use to pray? If not, what’s the point of kneeling or bowing our heads or closing our eyes sometimes?
- Paul prays to God the Father. Some Bible passages include prayers to Jesus, but mostly we’re taught to pray to the Father, just like Jesus did Himself. Why do you think some people might feel uncomfortable praying to God the Father instead of Jesus?
- Let’s pray what’s in verse 16: “Father, we ask that out of your huge wealth you would strengthen (person/people) with your power inside them through the Holy Spirit.”
- How do you think it would help you to be made stronger with God’s power inside you?
- Let’s pray the first part of verse 17: “Father, we ask that they would have that power so they would have the faith to keep Jesus first in their hearts.”
- Why do you think we need power to trust God and keep Jesus first in our hearts? Do you ever feel like you don’t have enough power for that? Have you ever asked God to give you the power to keep Christ first?
- Let’s pray the second part of verse 17: “Father, we ask that you would help them to grow deeper and more solid in living in your love.”
- Why does our ability to live in God’s love need to get more solid, to grow deeper?
- Let’s pray verse 18: “Father we ask that you would help them to have the power to get how wide, long, high, and deep Christ’s love really is.”
- Why does it take so much power to understand Jesus’ love? What happens when we don’t really understand Christ’s love for us?
- Finally, let’s pray verse 19: “Father, please help (this friend/these friends) to know your love so they can be filled up all the way to the top with you.”
- How do you think knowing and living in God’s love helps us to be filled up with Him?
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