I am so burdened for my family. I am thinking of my mother, my sister, and younger brother. My heart is so heavy for all three and I strongly desire to have stronger, better relationships with all three. I pray the Lord draws who He will draw and bring to salvation all He has elected and chosen before the foundation of the world. I am so sad when I think of my family and how Satan has worked to tear us apart. My mother is ###. She professes Christ, works in ministry, but remains cold towards her children and allows the devil to feed her lies that she uses against her family by trusting scripture to gain control. She refuses to acknowledge that God is sovereign and in control of all and it causes her so much stress as she desperately grabs at the next situation to control. She’s been this way since I can remember and often times it feels like she puts herself on the same level as God instead of submitting herself to Him and responding with grace and mercy. She thinks she’s saved yet she only shows fruit when it comes to helping others not in her family. With her family, she posits herself as the ultimate authority and this would be okay if we were children but we are all grown now and her actions don’t draw us in, they push us away. I am overcome with grief and emotional pain as I think of all the trauma that lies in our past. She seems to have a contentious spirit and a spirit of rebellion and pride that keeps her in a state of desperate control-seeking. She’s not happy, she’s not at peace, she’s not healthy in her mind. When she reads her Bible, it’s as if she’s always trying to find a verse that further drives home her point, and it’s as if she’s reading it at us, not reading it to learn from or grow from. She takes joy in telling us we are going to hell and is haughty in her attitude. This is a seriously bad place to be if you call yourself a Christian and profess to have a changed heart that lives for and loves like Jesus. My sister is a nominal Christian. She grew up under my mom who is strict and made her way as a college student with no help from my mom. She’s loyal and a good person so to speak, but she doesn’t go to church, doesn’t have community with other Christians and sees church and Jesus as something she makes time for if she can. I worry I will not see her in heaven and it weighs so heavily on my mind please pray that the Lord will wake her up and she will have a true conversion. I know she’s hurting and thought she’s closer to my mom than I am, there’s plenty of hurt in their past as well. She’s married with kids and her husband is unsaved. He’s not even a nominal Christian and I think that’s part of the reason why she’s drifted away from going to church. Ultimately, that’s not to blame, though. If she’s not converted, it’s because her heart remains unchanged. Please pray for her salvation. I long to have a new relationship with her where we can talk about spiritual things and she meets me in the middle with understanding on a heart level. She knows about God but doesn’t know Him personally at this point. My brother, my best friend, was saved a few years ago but has started to drift away from church and though he reads his Bible, it seems like he is lost in sin of some kind. I have hope that his conversion was real, but I worry constantly for him. I continually pray and cast my cares on Jesus, but I love my brother and I want to see him flourish in his faith as he did in the beginning. My family is very important to me. I don’t know where I would be without them. I’m praying for a Christmas miracle but know if it’s God’s Will, He will work everything to His glory in His time, not mine. But I do hope something would happen and we could all go to church together. That’s what I’ve been hoping for and praying about the most. I just want my family to know Jesus, to obey Him, to want His perfect will and guidance, and to receive full healing and reconciliation.
Prayer Focus: God, Thank You for loving me. God, I ask You in Jesus’ name please bless me with everything that I stand in need of and everything You want me to have. 
