Thesis 72- We must faithfully pray for our wife and children.
There is no calling more fraught with danger and import than leading a family. Certainly bad things can happen if we fall down on our 9-5 jobs. No doubt failures at the local church have deep impact. Every member of every family, however, is a person who will last into eternity. There are only two destinations where that eternity will be spent. No father, no parent, is fully responsible for all those under their care. We are, as husbands and fathers, given the tasks of raising our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Ephesians 6). We are called to wash our wives with the water of the Word (Ephesians 5). Scared yet? If not, you clearly don’t understand.
The purpose of the fear, however, isn’t to make us freeze up, to futilely seek to flee our responsibility. Rather, the fear is there to drive us to our Father. The church is chalk full of tools and helps to carry out these callings. We have seminars and podcasts, conferences and books, whole para-church ministries devoted to equipping us. Many of these, of course, can be quite helpful. None of them, nor all of them put together, however, can hold a candle to the power of prayer.
Actually, while it may seem a pedantic distinction, the power isn’t in the prayer, but in the One prayed to. We often rightly chasten ourselves for looking to prayer as the strategy of last resort. “Tried everything else and still stuck? Try prayer!” We’re fools to forget where the power lies. We’re fools as well when we forget the promises of Him to whom we pray. Our Father indeed hears us when we pray, “Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes-Benz.” And He more often than not answers, “No.” When, however, we pray in line with His actual promises, we can be confident in positive responses.
Who, for instance, is more interested in your children being raised in His nurture and admonition, you or Him? Who is more committed to the washing of your wife, you, or Him? Who is more zealous for the growth in grace and wisdom of you and your whole family, you or Him? So let’s pray. Let’s daily storm the throne room of God Himself for those under our care, for those whom we love most of all. Let’s ask for direction, wisdom, power, strength, perseverance, faith from His Spirit. Let’s invest our time in time with our Father.
Let’s in fact, remember that husbands, wives, children, that we are all together both part of the bride of Christ, having the perfect Husband, and are all children of our heavenly Father. We are being washed by our Husband, and nurtured by our Father, all while being led by the Spirit. Reformation comes as we are re-formed into all that He calls us to be, as we are re-committed to doing all that He calls us to do. Pray for yourself. Pray for your wife. Pray for your children. Pray for His grace, and give thanks.