Day 22: Destroying an Inheritance of Family Bondage

If anyone is in Christ,

he is a new creation;

old things have passed away:

behold, all things have become new.

- II Corinthians 5:17

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Lord, You have said in Your Word that a good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children (Proverbs 13:22). I pray that the inheritance I leave to my children will be the rewards of a godly life and a clean heart before You. To make sure that happens, I ask that wherever there is a sinful trait in me that I have acquired from my family, deliver me from it now in the name of Jesus. I confess my sins to You. I ask for forgiveness and restoration, knowing Your Word says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (I John 1:9). I know that cleansing from sin through confession lessens the possibility of passing the habit of sin on to my child.
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Jesus said, "I give you the authority... over all the powers of the enemy" (Luke 10:19). If there is any work of the enemy in my past that seeks to encroach upon the lives of my children, I break it now by the power and authority given me in Jesus Christ. I pray specifically for the lack of desire to attend church (name something you see in yourself or your family that you don't want passed to your child). Whatever is not Your will for our lives, I reject as sin.
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Thank You, Jesus, that You came to set us free from the past. We refuse to live bound by it. Thank You, Father, that You have "qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light" (Colossians 1:12). I pray that my son and daughter will not inherit any sin trait from their earthly family, but will "inherit the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world" (Matthew 25:34). Thank You, Jesus, that in You the old has passed away and all things are new. In Jesus' name, Amen.*
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Stand fast therefore in the liberty
by which Christ has made us free,
and do not be entangled again
with a yoke of bondage.
- Galatians 5:1

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** Please pray for the Fry family today. At 2pm they will be having the funeral for their 22 year old son who died in a motorcycle accident on Sunday. Mr. Fry is a pastor in my home town. Aaron was a senior at Abilene Christian University and left behind Mom, Dad and one sister, Brittany (who attended the birth of my first child). **
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*Make this prayer your own! From the book, The Power of a Praying Parent. Ordering information is at the bottom of the page.