Day 15: Guide Me in All My Relationships

Lord, I lift up every one of my relationships to You and ask You to bless them. I pray that each one would be glorifying to You. Help be to choose my friends wisely so I won't be led astray. Give me discernment and strength to separate myself from anyone who is not a good influence. I release all my relationships to You and pray that Your will be done in each of them.
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With my most difficult relationships, I ask that Your peace would reign in them. Specifically I lift up to You my relationship with (name a difficult friend). I know two can't walk together unless they are agreed (Amos 3:3), so help us to find a place of agreement, unity, and like-mindedness. Where either of us needs to change, I pray that You would change us. Break down any "wall of separation" (Ephesians 2:13-15) or misunderstanding. I release this person into Your hands and ask that You would make our relationship what You want it to be so that it will glorify You.
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I pray for my relationship with each of my family members. Specifically, I pray for my relationship with (name of family member with whom you are most concerned). I pray You would bring healing, reconciliation, and restoration where it is needed. Bless our relationship and make it strong.
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I pray for any relationships I have with people who don't know You. Help me to be Your light to them. Specifically I pray for (name an unbeliever or someone who has walked away from God). Soften this person's heart to open his/her eyes to receive You and follow You faithfully.
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I pray for godly friends, role models, and mentors to come into my life. Spend people who will speak the truth in love. I pray especially that there will be women in my life who are trustworthy, kind, loving and faithful. Most of all I pray that they will be women of strong faith who will add to my life and I to theirs. May we mutually raise the standard to which we aspire. May forgiveness and love flow freely between us. Make me to be Your light in all my relationships.* In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.
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God sets the solitary in families;

He brings out those who are bound into prosperity;

but the rebellious dwell on dry land.

- Psalm 68:6

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*Make this prayer your own! From the book, The Power of a Praying Woman. Ordering information is at the bottom of this page.
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Today's prayer for your husband: His Reputation
Today's prayer for your children: Identifying God-Given Gifts and Talents

Day 18: His Fatherhood

Whoever curses his father or his mother,

his lamp will be put out in deep darkness.

- Proverbs 20:20

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Lord, teach my husband to be a good father. Where is was not modeled to him according to Your ways, heal those areas and help him to forgive his dad. Give him revelation of You and a hunger in his heart to really know You as his heavenly Father. Draw him close to spend time in Your presence so he can become more like You, and fully understand Your Father's heart of compassion and love toward him. Grow that same heart in him for his children. Help him to balance mercy, judgement, and instruction the way You do. Though You require obedience, You are quick to acknowledge a repentant heart. Make him that way, too. Show him when to discipline and how. Help him to see that he who loves his child disciplines him promptly (Proverbs 13:24). May he never provoke his "children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:4). I pray we will be united in the rules we set for our children and be in full agreement as to how they are raised. I pray that there will be no strife or argument over how to handle them and the issues that surround their lives.
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Give him skills of communication with his children. I pray he will not be stern, hard, cruel, cold, abusive, non communicative, passive, critical, weak, uninterested, neglectful, undependable, or uninvolved. Help him instead to be kind, loving, soft-hearted, warm, interested, affirming, affectionate, involved, strong, consistent, dependable, verbally communicative, understanding, and patient. May he require and inspire his children to honor him as their father so that their lives will be long and blessed.
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Lord, I know we pass a spiritual inheritance to our children. Let the heritage he passes on be one rich in the fullness of Your Holy Spirit. Enable him to model clearly a walk of submission to Your laws. May he delight in his children and long to grow them up Your way. Being a good father is something he wants very much. I pray that You would give him the desire of his heart.* In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.
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Children's children are the crown of old men,

and the glory of children is their father.

- Proverbs 17:6

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The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice,

and he who begets a wise child will delight in him.

- Proverbs 23:24

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I will be a Father to you,

and you shall be My sons and daughters,

says the Lord Almighty.

- II Corinthians 6:18

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*Make this prayer your own! From the book, The Power of a Praying Wife. Ordering information is found at the bottom of this page. Watch for a giveaway coming next week!
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Today's prayer for your children: Praying Through Your Child's Room

Day 17: His Relationships

The righteous should choose his friends carefully,

but the way of the wicked leads them astray.

- Proverbs 12:26

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As iron sharpens iron,

so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.

- Proverbs 27:17

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Ointment and perfume delight the heart,

and the sweetness of a man's friend does so by hearty counsel.

- Proverbs 27:9

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Lord, I pray for my husband to have good, godly male friends with whom he can openly share his heart. May they be trustworthy men of wisdom who will speak truth into his life and not just say what he wants to hear (Proverbs 28:23). Give him the discernment to separate himself from anyone who will not be a good influence (I Corinthians 5:13). Show him the importance of godly friendships and help me encourage him to sustain them. Give us believing married couples with whom we can feel comfortable sharing our lives.
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I pray for strong, peaceful relationships with each of his family members, neighbors, acquaintances, and coworkers. Today I specifically pray for his relationships with his new coworkers (name your person here). Inspire open communication and mutual acceptance between them. Let there be reconciliation where there has been estrangement. Work peace into anything that needs to be worked out.
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I pray that in his heart he will honor his father and mother so that he will live long and be blessed in his life (Exodus 20:12). Enable him to be a forgiving person and not carry grudges or hold things in his heart against others. Lord, You've said in Your Word that "he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes" (I John 2:11). I pray that my husband would never be blinded by the darkness of unforgiveness, but continually walk in the light of forgiveness. May he not judge or show contempt for anyone but remember that "we shall all stand before the judgement seat of Christ" (Romans 14:10). Enable him to love his enemies, bless those who curse him, do good to those who hate him, and pray for those who spitefully use him and persecute him (Matthew 5:44). I pray that I will be counted as his best friend and that our friendship with one another will continue to grow. Show him what it means to be a true friend and enable him to be one.* In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.
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Let us consider one another in order to stir up love

and good works,

not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together,

as is the manner of some,

but exhorting one another.

- Hebrews 10:24-25

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If we walk in the light

as He is in the light,

we will have fellowship with one another.

- I John 1:7

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*Make this prayer your own! From the book, The Power of a Praying Wife. Ordering information is at the bottom of the page.
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Today's prayer for your children: Staying Attracted to Holiness and Purity
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Day Four: His Sexuality

The wife's body does not belong to her alone

but also to her husband. In the same way,

the husband's body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife.

Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time,

so that you may devote yourselves to prayer.

Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you

because of your lack of self-control.

- I Corinthians 7:4-5

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Lord, bless my husband's sexuality and make it an area of great fulfillment for him. Restore what needs to be restored, balance what needs to be balanced. Protect us from apathy, disappointment, criticism, business, unforgiveness, deadness or disinterest. I pray that we make time for one another, communicate our true feelings openly, and remain sensitive to what each other needs.
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Keep us sexually pure in mind and body, and close the door to anything lustful or illicit that seeks to encroach upon us. Deliver us from the bondage of past mistakes. Remove from our midst the effects of any sexual experience - in thought or deed - that happened outside of our relationship. Take away anyone or anything from our lives that would inspire temptation to infidelity. Help us to "abstain from sexual immorality" so that each of us will know "how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor" (I Thessalonians 4:3-5). I pray that we will desire each other and no one else. Show me how to make myself attractive and desirable to him and be the kind of partner he needs. I pray that neither of us will ever be tempted to thing about seeking fulfillment elsewhere.
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I realize that an important part of my ministry to my husband is sexual. Help me to never use it as a weapon or as a means of manipulation by giving and withholding for selfish reasons. I commit this area of our lives to You, Lord. May it be continually new and alive. Make it all that You created it to be.* In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.
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Drink water from your own cistern,

running water from your own well.
Should your springs overflow in the streets,

your streams of water in the public squares?
Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.
May your fountain be blessed,

and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.
A loving doe, a graceful deer-- may her breasts satisfy you always,

may you ever be captivated by her love.

- Proverbs 5:15-19

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*Make this prayer your own! From the book, The Power of a Praying Wife. Ordering information is at the bottom of this page.
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**Today's prayer for your children: Feeling Loved and Accepted

Day Eight: Attracting Godly Friends and Role Models

The righteous should choose his friends carefully,

for the way of the wicked leads them astray.

- Proverbs 12:26

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Lord, I lift up David and Elizabeth to You and ask that You would bring godly friends and role models into their lives. Give them the wisdom they need to choose friends who are godly and help them to never compromise their walk with You in order to gain acceptance. Give me Holy Spirit-inspired discernment in how I guide or influence them in the selection of friends. I pray that You would take anyone who is not a godly influence out of their lives or else transform that person into Your likeness.
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Your Word says, "He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed" (Proverbs 13:20). Don't let my child be a companion of fools. Enable them to walk with wise friends and not have to experience the destruction that can happen by walking with foolish people. Deliver them from anyone with an ungodly character so they will not learn that person's ways and set a snare for their own soul.
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Whenever there if grief over a lost friendship, comfort David and Elizabeth and send new friends with whom they can connect, share and be the person You created them to be. Take away any loneliness or low self-esteem that would cause them to seek out less than God-glorifying relationships.
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In Jesus' name I pray that You would teach them the meaning of true friendship. Teach them how to be a good friend and make strong, close, lasting relationships. May each of their friendships always glorify You.*
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I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother,

who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater,

or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner -

not even to eat with such a person.

- I Corinthians 5:11

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Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,

nor stands in the path of sinners,

nor sits in the seat of the scornful.

- Psalm 1:1

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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 this page.

Day Seven: Maintaining Good Family Relationships

Blessed are the peacemakers,

for they shall be called the sons of God.

- Matthew 5:9

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Let us pursue the things which make for peace

and the things by which one may edify another.

- Romans 14:19

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Lord, I pray for David & Elizabeth and their relationships with all family members. Protect and preserve them from any unresolved or permanent breach. Fill them with Your love and give them an abundance of compassion and forgiveness that will overflow to each member of the family. Specifically, I pray for a close, happy, loving and fulfilling relationship between David and Elizabeth for all the days of their lives. May there always be good communication between them and may unforgiveness have no root in their hearts. Help them to love, value, appreciate, and respect one another so that the God-ordained tie between them cannot be broken. I pray according to Your Word, that they "be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another" (Romans 12:10).

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Teach my children to resolve misunderstandings according to Your Word. And if any division has already begun, if any relationship is strained or severed, Lord, I pray that You will drive out the wedge of division and bring healing. I pray that there be no strain, breach, misunderstanding, arguing, fighting or separating of ties. Give them a heart for forgiveness and reconciliation.

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Your Word instructs us to "be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous" (I Peter 3:8). Help them to live accordingly, "endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Ephesians 4:3). In Jesus' name I pray that You will instill a love and compassion in them for all family members that is strong and unending, like a cord that cannot be broken. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.*

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Now may the God of patience and comfort

grant you to be like-minded toward one another,

according to Christ Jesus,

that you may with one mind and one mouth

glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

- Romans 15:5-6

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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 this page.