The start of the New Year causes us to stop and recalibrate what’s important. As a parent, prayer for our kids is a top priority. We know we should pray, but we’re not always sure what to pray. We may say rote prayers that honestly get tiring after repeating the same thing year after year. Our words may sound weak and ineffective, but God’s Word offers us powerful and effective prayers for our children.
This year, let’s put prayers for salvation at the top of the list. Stormie Omartian said in her book, The Power of a Praying Parent: “Our children’s lives don’t ever have to be left to chance.” We can’t leave this decision of eternal magnitude to happenstance. But as praying parents, we can ask God to move in our kids’ lives. We can surrender our worries and concerns for salvation for our kids to Him.
Insert your child’s name as you pray these scriptures for your child in 2024:
As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty. Matthew 13:23 ESV
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. John 6:44 CSB
Open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a share among those who are sanctified by faith in me. Acts 26:18 CSB
For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 CSB
If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9 CSB
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26 CSB
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.” Matthew 22:37-39 CSB
Remember, our prayers are deposited in the heavenly banks and are deathless. So be patient. If God doesn’t answer your prayers immediately, it doesn’t mean He isn’t listening or never will answer them. Keep praying. Keep persevering. Keep expecting. God is not done with your child.
Sally Cressman’s debut picture book, “The Dance of Easter,” will be released on March 5. She writes about faith, family, and home on her website, www.sallycressman.com. Connect with her on Instagram @sacressman.
