Sunday Soaking: ALL IN When Praying for Our Children

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul,
and with all your strength.
Deuteronomy 6:5

Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with
all your heart,
with all your soul, and
with all your mind.”
Matthew 22:37

All means ALL!

When praying that our children would love God wholeheartedly, we mean ALL IN … not a little bit, not with half their hearts, and not Sundays only.

When a mom asks her teenager to take out the trash, she doesn’t expect to walk in later and see an overflowing bag sitting by the front door. Trash goes all the way out to the curb, to the outdoor garbage cans, or, if you grow up where I did, to the burning barrel.

When a wife wants a faithful husband, she doesn’t mean 364 days a year; she expects 365 days (and 366 in Leap Year!) of loyalty and commitment.

And when God commands us to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, we need to apply the same high standard. ALL IN!

As we pray for our kids, grandkids, and other children in our circle of influence to love God wholeheartedly, we can also ask God to reveal where we ourselves might be holding out.

Here are some questions to ask as we pray for our loved ones (and for ourselves):

Do I have a divided heart? Is there anything I treasure more than God?
Do I find myself “praying without ceasing” by having on ongoing conversation with God throughout my day?
Does my Savior enter my thought life on Tuesday morning or Saturday afternoon?
Do I ask God about what I buy, read, and watch?
Has Sunday worship become an optional activity? Am I finding reasons – I don’t feel like braving the rain, there’s a mountain of dirty laundry, I’m in the middle of a great book and can’t wait to finish it – not to gather with other believers?
Do I give God the first and best of each day?
Do I speak up when others speak poorly of my Lord?
Do my posts, tweets, and social media comments indict me as a follower of Christ?
Do thoughts about God in my mind and heart make their way into my conversations with others?

I hope one or more of these questions convict you as they do me. Perhaps they could even prompt a loving-God-wholeheartedly conversation with a beloved child in your life.

Lord God, I pray this child would put You on the throne of his/her life each day and every day. I pray this would be deliberate, conscious, daily choice. I pray he/she would be ALL IN for you – loving You most and best and with wholehearted devotion.

This week’s devotional video introduces the fall women’s Bible study group to the Book of Daniel! This class, held on Wednesday mornings in Siloam Springs, AR, will cover Daniel 1-6 – the history of Daniel’s life in Babylon.

Laura’s introductory lecture has three objectives: 1) To cast a vision for studying the Word, 2) To share distinctives in the book of Daniel, and 3) To provide a brief overview of Old Testament history, explaining how the book is set in Babylon.

We invite you to watch the first lecture in this series and hope you will come back each week for the duration of the study!