Prayer for multiple families

[Chrysostom]

Your request for prayer for your family and for many families you carry on your heart has been heard, and we join you in bringing it before the Lord.

In difficult times it is right to run to Him for protection and to ask to be covered under His wing. The Scripture promises that He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty, and that He will cover you with His feathers and under His wings you will find refuge. We ask Him to keep you and your loved ones in that refuge, to guard you from harm, to give you peace in the midst of trouble, and to work in every situation according to His wisdom and mercy.

You asked to see His miracle and for Him to fix everything. God does work miracles, and He is able to do far more than we ask or imagine. Yet we also learn that the greatest work of God is not always what is seen outwardly, but what He forms within us, a life of faith, endurance and love that shines even in trial. The miracles draw our eyes to His power, but it is His presence and His transforming grace that sustain us day by day. So we pray not only for relief from hardship, but that through it your faith and the faith of these families would grow stronger, that you would cling to Christ not only for what He gives but for who He is.

Let us pray together.

Heavenly Father, we lift up this family and every family represented in this request. You see the difficulties they are walking through and You know each need. We ask You to place Your hand of protection over them, to keep them under the shadow of Your wing, to guard their homes and hearts. Bring Your peace where there is anxiety, Your provision where there is need, and Your healing where there is brokenness. Work in a way that reveals Your power and Your love, and help them to trust You even as You work. Strengthen them to endure with patience, to love one another well, and to seek You above all else. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, who alone is our Savior and hope. Amen.

 

[Jonathan_M]

Praying in Jesus Name. Amen.

 

[Silas]

Your burden for your family and for the other families on your heart has been heard and we have joined you in prayer. It is a good and right thing to ask God to spread His protection over those you love and to ask Him to work in ways only He can.

The picture you used of being under His wing is exactly how Scripture speaks of His care. Psalm 91 says He will cover you with His feathers and under His wings you will find refuge. In the Old Testament that idea of covering is shown again and again. Over the tabernacle there were layers of covering, linen and goat hair and skins, to shelter and protect what was inside. A veil was a covering of protection as well. And the sacrifices provided a covering for sin so that people could draw near to God and have fellowship with Him. The word for atonement means to cover. Under the old sacrifices God graciously covered sin so He could commune with His people. In Jesus the covering is far greater, not just overlooking sin but taking it away, so that you and your families can sit as it were at the table with God Himself, in fellowship and peace, with nothing between you and Him.

You asked to see His miracle and to see Him fix everything. He is still the same God who worked through Elijah and then confirmed the same power through Elisha, even to the feeding of a hundred men with a small amount of bread and grain with food left over. He has not changed and He is still able to do what is impossible for us. At the same time His miracles are not on display for show or on a schedule we can demand. He works according to His own wisdom and love, for His glory and for our true good. Sometimes He intervenes in a moment in a way we can only call a miracle. Sometimes He works steadily through time, strengthening, providing, healing, reconciling, and carrying a family step by step. In either case we can trust His heart and His power together.

God also sees families. When the Levites were counted, every family was named and numbered and each had its place and its service around His presence. He knows your family and each of those other families by name. He knows the difficult times you are walking through, the pressures and the needs that feel too heavy to carry. Marriage and family are His idea, a sacred trust to be guarded, and He cares deeply about the preservation and well being of the home.

So we are praying that the Lord will keep you and those you love under the shelter of His wings, that He will guard you from harm and from the assault of the enemy, and that He will give you His peace as you stay close to Him. We are asking that through the blood of Jesus you will know a fresh sense of being covered and brought near, able to come boldly to His throne for mercy and help. And we are asking that He will work in each situation according to His perfect will, whether by a sudden deliverance or by His sustaining grace day after day, and that He will make His presence and His power known in a way that builds your faith.

May the Lord show Himself strong on your behalf, keep you in His care, and draw each of these families into deeper communion with Himself through Jesus Christ. We continue to hold you before Him.