A Parents Prayer

by Brother Shaun Ogdie
01/11/2023

Ezra 8:21-23  "Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river of Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance. For I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way: because we had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him; but his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him.  So we fasted and besought our God for this: and he was intreated of us."

The most powerful prayer warrior I have in my life is my mother.  She has been praying for me for over 45 years.  I’m only 44.  She has in her possession a bible where she has written down almost every major issue her children have had in the past 50 years.  In that bible you will find when and where she began praying, next to the scripture she read for that prayer, and you will also find when and where the Lord answered that prayer.  She truly is a prayer warrior for her children.

I learned in 2004 what it meant to become a prayer warrior for my children.  Breanna, our first born, was born with Gastroschisis.  This is a birth defect where a hole in the abdominal wall beside the belly button allows the baby’s organs to form outside of their actual body.  Basically, our baby girl was born with a quarter size hole in her stomach.  Obviously, you know “the rest of the story” because you see that Breanna is a healthy young adult but at the time of diagnosis and at the time of delivery, you had two young parents that were scared beyond all measures.  However, I remembered a mother that was faithful to pray for her children and here it was my turn to pray for my child.  I learned in that 9-15 month time span what it meant to develop my own prayer life.  When your child is rushed off immediately to surgery and then remains two months in the Neonatal ICU, you learn how close you want and need to be to God.
 
We demonstrate our love to our children in many ways, but the greatest thing we can do for them to show our love is pray for them.  Notice in our verse that Ezra sought to know God’s will for him but also that their “little ones” would know God’s will as well.  Ezra was not the only one in the bible to pray for his children.
 1. Abraham prayed for Lot
 While Lot was Abraham’s brother’s son, he became like an adopted son to Abraham. We know that Lot disappointed God and Abraham. Got a child that has wandered away from God? Keep praying parent!
 2. Hannah prayed for a child
 1 Samuel 1:11  " And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head."
 3. Jesus’ parents prayed as we see in Luke 2:40-41, When someone would go to the feast of the Passover, one of the reasons was to get alone with God and pray.

Our homes need to have prayer again.  Mothers and dads, we need to pray with our children and for our children.  You’re looking and listening to a man (Imperfect) that is in God’s will today because of the powerful prayers of his mother and his father.