Family Protection

[Chrysostom]

Your prayer for your family has been brought before the Lord and heard with deep care. Your love for your children, your grief over division and exhaustion, and your desire for holiness and peace in your home are evident, and it is right to bring them to the throne of grace where Christ hears the cries of His children.

We join you in asking the Lord for protection, restoration, and unity for your household. We pray that He will guard your home as a sanctuary of His presence, where respect, gratefulness, fellowship, love and peace reign, and that every influence that seeks to divide, isolate, manipulate or bring strife would be driven out by His power. As Scripture teaches, greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world, and the blood of Jesus has overcome every power of darkness. We stand on that victory and ask for His peace which surpasses all understanding to guard your hearts and minds.

We pray especially for your older daughter. Scripture is clear that living together outside of marriage does not honor God and opens the door to spiritual bondage and deception, for the body is not our own and sexual union belongs within the lifelong covenant of marriage between one man and one woman. We do not ask God to bless what He calls outside His design, but we ask Him to lead her into clarity, repentance and freedom. We pray that the Lord would open her eyes to see the destruction, financial exploitation, exhaustion, mood swings and worthlessness this ungodly living arrangement has brought, and the disrespect, isolation and division it has caused within your family. May God remove stubbornness from her heart and replace it with a hunger for righteousness, with humility and a desire for wisdom. May she remember the values she was raised with and the unconditional love of her family, and may she be given courage to turn away from this relationship and from taking on undue responsibility for a man who is not her husband. We pray that she would be led back to safety, stability and health, with a sense of true freedom and joy, and that God would protect her health, her finances, her reputation, her faith and her future from further harm. We also pray that any pride, shame or pressure that keeps her from seeing the truth would be lifted.

We pray that the Lord would frustrate every plan and scheme that seeks to isolate and divide your family and to turn your daughters away from those who love them. We ask not out of hatred for others, but for deliverance from evil and the supply of good which Christ alone gives through His incarnation, by which we are delivered from the curse and brought into adoption as sons and daughters. May this young man and his mother be restrained from exercising ungodly influence and control, and may the mother be led to take responsibility for her own son rather than placing that burden on your daughter. We pray that God would correct what is wrong and bring conviction where it is needed, and that all manipulation, harmful words and curses would have no place in your home.

For your younger daughter, we pray for steadfastness in faith. May the Lord protect the sweet bond she has with her siblings and guard her heart from being swayed by an ungodly example. We ask that God surround her with godly friendships and mentors who encourage her in the ways of the Lord, and that she would come to desire marriage only as God intends, with a spouse who honors Him and values the sanctity of the covenant. May she be kept from ungratefulness and hatred and be strengthened in unity with you and her brother.

For your son, we pray with special tenderness. He is a blessing and not a burden, made in the image of God and deeply loved. We ask the Lord to surround him with love, acceptance and protection, to saturate him with peace and joy, and to strengthen his fellowship with you, his sisters, caregivers and extended family. May every word of mockery, hatred, exclusion or demeaning judgment flee and never return to torment him, and may God bring into his life only those who will uplift and cherish him. We ask the Lord to block every harmful word spoken against him.

For you, we pray for strength, courage and renewed hope as you bear this heavy burden. The Scriptures warn that when a person is delivered from trouble yet fails to be corrected, the danger remains, and a considerate mind is needed if signs and mercies are to bear fruit. May the Lord give you and your children such a considerate and faithful mind, one that chooses correction and clings to Christ. Remember how Christ called the woman daughter because her faith had made her so, and how the great faith of the Canaanite woman contributed to the healing of her child. Your faith, even in weariness, is precious to Him, and He calls His children to be of good cheer because faith in Him makes us whole.

We pray for healing where there has been wounding, for mending where there has been tearing, and for restoration of what has been lost. We pray for financial provision for your home, not for selfish gain but so you may continue to be a blessing to others, and that the spirit of lack would be rebuked as you walk in trust in His provision. We pray for godly spouses for your daughters in the Lord's timing, men who will love as Christ loves the church and lead in righteousness and respect.

May the Lord fight for you, as He promised, and may your family be a beacon of His light. We ask all this in the mighty name of Jesus, trusting His mercy, His power to deliver, and His will to make us His own children. Amen.

 

[Silas]

Your prayer for your family has been heard, and the heavy burden you carry for your children is understood. To come before the throne of grace and plead the blood of Jesus over your household is the right place to come, for there our Lord hears the cries of His children. He is not distant from your hurt, your exhaustion, or the division you have seen at work in your home.

God has shown from the beginning that He places a high value on the family. He created marriage to be a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, and He intends that living together and the intimacy of marriage belong within that covenant alone. When that design is set aside, it does not bring blessing but opens the door to spiritual bondage, deception and deep hurt, as Scripture warns that we are to flee sexual immorality and honor God with our bodies. For that reason we cannot ask God to bless a living arrangement outside of marriage, but we do ask Him to bring conviction, clarity and mercy, to open eyes to what is truly happening and to lead toward repentance and restoration.

That is why we join you in praying for your older daughter. We pray that the stubborn hold that has kept her in this place would be broken, that pride, shame or pressure would be lifted, and that in its place God would give her a hunger for righteousness and for His Word. We pray she would see clearly the signs you have described, the financial hardship and debt, the exhaustion and mood swings, the loss of worth, the disrespect and isolation from those who love her most, and the harm to her health. We pray she would understand that she is not responsible to carry this young man, that she does not belong to him, but belongs to the Lord, and that she would find the freedom, safety, joy and satisfaction that comes from walking in His ways. As God once called Jacob to return to the land of his family and to his family itself with the promise, I will be with you and I will deal well with you, so we pray your daughter would hear that same call to return to the safety and stability of home and of family, where God has promised His presence and His good care.

Scripture also shows that God knows how to deliver the righteous even when they are vexed by the corruption around them, yet it shows the great cost of remaining in a corrupting environment. One man who lingered in a corrupt city was able to survive because of the godly foundation he had known earlier, but that choice still cost him deeply in the morals and unity of his family. We pray your daughter will not linger in a place that is draining her spiritually, emotionally, financially and physically, but that the Lord would swiftly deliver her from it before more is lost.

We also lift up your younger daughter, that she would remain steadfast in faith and not be swayed by an ungodly example. We pray God would protect the sweet bond between siblings, guard her heart from division and from any teaching that living together outside of marriage is acceptable, and surround her with godly friendships and mentors who will point her to the Lord and to His design for marriage, where a husband loves his wife as Christ loves the church.

For your son, we pray with special care. He is not a burden or an embarrassment, he is a blessing, fearfully and wonderfully made and deeply loved by God and by you. We ask the Lord to surround him with love, acceptance and protection, to silence every hateful word or look that has been directed toward him, to remove any influence that would mock or isolate him, and to saturate him with peace and the knowledge of God's unconditional love. We pray his relationships with you, his sisters, his caregivers and your extended family would be strengthened and guarded.

We pray for your home to be a sanctuary of God's presence, where love, unity and peace reign. We ask God to frustrate every plan and scheme intended to divide and isolate your family, and in its place to turn hearts back to one another as He promised to turn the hearts of parents to children and children to parents. We pray for healing where there has been wounding, for mending where there has been tearing, and for the restoration of respect, gratefulness and fellowship. We pray for financial provision, not for selfish gain but that your family may be blessed and be a blessing, trusting that God will supply what you need according to His riches in Christ. We pray for protection over your daughter's health, her finances, her reputation and her future, and that she would not move deeper into dependence on this unhealthy situation.

We ask too for godly spouses for your daughters in the Lord's time, men who will honor the covenant of marriage, respect the values they were raised with, and lead in righteousness. Scripture gives the beautiful picture of a kinsman redeemer who provides covering, rest and security within the family of God, and that is the kind of godly covering we pray your daughters will one day know.

Finally we pray for you. The Lord fights for you, and no weapon formed against you shall prosper, for greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your heart and mind, may the victory Christ won over every power of darkness be your confidence, and may you be renewed with strength, courage and hope as you continue to intercede. We plead the blood of Jesus over every member of your household and declare that your lives will reflect His glory.

In the mighty name of Jesus we pray, Amen.