Read Previous Articles in this Series:
Biblical Exhortations to Dads #1: Imitate Your Heavenly Father
Biblical Exhortations to Dads #2: Love Your Wife and Children
Biblical Exhortations to Dads #3: Lead Your Family
Biblical Exhortations to Dads #4: Provide for Your Family
Biblical Exhortations to Dads #5: Protect Your Family’
Biblical Exhortations to Dads #6: Disciple Your Children
Biblical Exhortations to Dads #7: Discipline Your Children
How can we be dads who honor God and bless our families?
Thankfully, God has told us in His Word what He expects from fathers. In this new series of articles, we’re going through a list of biblical exhortations for fathers. So far, we’ve reviewed the following exhortations:
- Imitate Your Heavenly Father
- Love Your Wife and Children
- Lead Your Family
- Provide for Your Family
- Protect Your Family
- Disciple Your Children
- Discipline Your Children
Let’s review the next exhortation on our list.
- Pray for Your Children
As fathers, we have the privilege of interceding for our children before the Lord.
Way back in the Old Testament, we see the positive example of Job interceding for his children before God.
His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually (Job 1:4-5).
Job lived in the patriarchal period, even before the Mosaic law required animal sacrifices. However, Job loved his children and he was concerned that they may have sinned before God. So, he was interceding on their behalf by offering burnt sacrifices to God.
Now, we live under the New Covenant, where Christ has fulfilled the law and animal sacrifices are no longer necessary. If I want to intercede for my children, it’s not like I wake up in the morning, make some coffee, have breakfast, and sacrifice a bull on the altar in my backyard. However, I can still intercede for my children through prayer.
Scripture has much to say about prayer:
The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working (James 5:16b).
The prayer of a Christian is effective and powerful as God uses it to accomplish His will.
As Christians, we can go before the God of the universe any time we want because He’s our Father.
It’s an incredible privilege to be able to speak to the King of the Universe. It’s mind-boggling to think that we have access to Him whenever we want. We have that kind of access before God because of our union with Christ. He is our Father and we can boldly approach Him:
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Heb 4:16).
As parents, we can boldly go before the Lord to pray for our children. We can pray for their salvation. We can pray for their spiritual growth. We can pray for God to give them wisdom. We can pray for His hand of protection to be on them. We can pray for help in parenting them. We can and should bring every hope and anxiety we have about them to the Lord in prayer:
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God (Phil 4:6).
We need to lift up our children to the Lord, because He is sovereignly in control of their lives. As parents, we can be faithful in obedience to how God wants us to parent, but we know that only He can sovereignly work in their lives to save them and grow them.
Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep (Ps 127:1-2).
Fathers, pray for your children as often as possible. Seek the Lord’s help in parenting. Seek His blessing on your children. Trust that He alone can work in their lives.