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'The Power of a Praying Parent' by Stormie Omartian.
The book suggests some 30 topics that we might like to pray specifically for relating to our children including:
Praying for protection from harm
Strength to release our children into God's hands
Feeling loved and accepted
Honouring parents
Resisting rebellion
Maintaining good family relationships
Attracting Godly friends and role models
Developing hunger for the things of God
Being the person God created
Following truth, rejecting lies
Enjoying freedom from fear
Inviting the joy of the Lord
Avoiding addictions
Rejecting sexual immorality
When you read through the list, the first thing that strikes me is that there is a challenge here to parents, to model and get victory over the very things we are praying for our children to receive.
George Verwer's principles for daily living
1. Spending time daily, in the Word of God, prayer, praise and worship.
2. Repenting immediately of anything that is not pleasing to God. Apologising quickly to any offended person.
3. Sharing your faith on a regular basis, always working toward the right motivation, especially 1 Cor. 13-- LOVE.
4. Attempting in the power of the Holy Spirit to make Christ Lord over every action and attitude in one's life.
5. Developing, by His grace and help, true discipline in every area of life, constantly working for biblical balance.
6. Practising not only private prayer and intercession, but also corporate prayer, giving large amounts of prime time to prayer ministry.
7. Esteeming God's people, the local church and churches. Do everything possible to be a true friend to as many as possible.
8. Being pro-active, not only about personal sin or failure, but also corporate sin and failures such as racism, materialism, injustice, hypocrisy and all kinds of promotion of that which is wrong and evil.
9. Always having as your priority the need and vision to reach every person in the world with the Gospel and especially the more difficult and unreached places, like the Muslim world.
10.Together with reading God's Word, feeding regularly on Christian books and magazines, always have a place for more general study and reading.
11.Working with all your heart to esteem others better than yourself. (Phil. 2:3) Living in the light of the reality that all true believers are ONE BODY IN CHRIST.,
12.Being aware of all forms of lust and having accountability and strategy to stand against it in specific ways. Being honest and open about weaknesses in this area and learning to walk in the light.
13.Being aware of the sins of the tongue and how quickly we can sin in this area.
14.Knowing the reality of I Jn. 2:1 and making sure you bounce back quickly from sin and failure. Take a ruthless stand against all forms of discouragement and yet be real in the process.
15.Never forgetting the power of the printed page and other ways to communicate the message via the media? This means buying up every opportunity to mobilise and get the message out. (Going door-to-door with God's Word and Christian books almost right after my conversion helped lay a great foundation in my life).
16.Developing the willingness to suffer and endure hardship as good soldiers of Jesus Christ (II Tim. 2:3).
17.Always being quick to forgive and to also go the extra mile in every possible way to build relationships and to build the Kingdom.
18.Reflecting, meditating and drawing strength constantly of the ALL SUFFICIENCY OF JESUS CHRIST, THE SON OF GOD.
19.Being aware of the hundreds of forms of extremism and false teaching; working daily on developing great knowledge and discernment.
20.Leaning how to handle criticism, keeping a godly foundation and biblical self-acceptance and knowing what it is to have your love relationship with Jesus and the living God as your top priority.
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