Chapter 8 of Praying Circles around Your Children explains the 5th circle. Mark Batterson talks about two different themes, the first is to pray through the Bible and the second is a very short look at when God doesn’t answer prayer.
“In fact, I want to give each of my children a Bible that was prayed through specifically for them.” (p. 88) To be completely honest, I am not sure this is something I will do. The idea is great. To have a Bible for each of your children that you have prayed through and jotted down notes is quite the endeavor.
“Now let’s be honest, our children don’t always appreciate what we do for them at the moment when we do it…So don’t be disappointed if you feel your prayer circles aren’t making a difference. They are. They will.” (p.90) Sometimes we don’t see the fruit of our labor, but God doesn’t ask us how big is our harvest. He asks us to be obedient. Obediently pray for your children and leave the results up to God.
“Listen, it’s never too late to be who you might have been. Maybe your kids are already adults and you feel like you missed your opportunity. God gives us a second chance, and it’s called becoming a grandparent. You can do for your grandchildren what you failed to do for your children.” (p. 90) If you have grown children, you have not missed your chance. Who says your adult children don’t need prayer? Especially if they are raising your grandchildren! Don’t stop praying for your children. I am 41 and I know that everyday both my parents pray for me. My parents have been praying for me from the day I was born, if not before that. And I know that they pray for Kurt and my girls everyday. What a great comfort it serves to me to know that I am being prayed for by my mom and dad. I love when they tell me they prayed. I already know it, but I love when they remind me. I love when we are sitting together over a meal to hear my dad pray for my sister and me, our husbands, and all our children by name. I count it as a gift.
“Jesus promises blessing if we are not offended when He does things for others. And if He does it for them, He might do it for us.” (p. 93) Praying for something and feeling like it goes unanswered is difficult. There are times when it seems like everyone around us has prayers answered or are just down right blessed. How do we reconcile it? I remind myself of how much God loves me. I know it sounds simple, but it really is that simple. If we are trusting Him, then we trust Him. We are His children and He loves us. There have prayers that I have begged God about and He has said, “No.” I can be mad at Him, I can ask, “Why?” over and over, but eventually I always land on this one truth: God loves me. I can’t see what His overall plan is. But I do know that His plans are the best plans. Allow me to encourage you, if you are struggling with this, to sit down with the Lord and spend time meditating on how much you are loved by God.
Come back on Monday as we wrap up our book study and read through the last chapter!
