Praying For Our Families || Day 2

Prayer Focus: Filling of the Holy Spirit

Central Scripture:  “You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Holy Spirit of God, if the Spirit of God lives in you.” (Romans 8:9)

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, this morning I come on behalf of my family, confessing how often we allow the ways of the world and our own sinful natures to control us. I confess my selfishness, and I confess that I have allowed a spirit of selfish sinfulness to take up residence in my home. I don’t desire that for my family, but the sad truth is that sometimes it is just easier to let things slide than to press in and confront them. Please forgive me for the role I have played in allowing my family to follow their sinful natures rather than Your Holy Spirit.

Lord, as we press in to You and receive the new life that You offer, I pray that my husband, my children, and I would all receive a new filling of Your Spirit. We are dead to our sins and alive because of Christ’s life in us. The very same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead now lives in us and raises us from death. Fill us anew, God. 

Holy Spirit, come. Come and lead us. Come and control us, not that we would be mindless and unable to make choices on our own, but that we would have the minds of Christ and the desire to choose only what He chooses. Blow through our home like a wind. Burn through this space like an unrelenting wildfire, burning away anything that remains of our sinful natures.

Holy Spirit, lead my husband as he leads our family. Give Him wisdom from above and guide him in everything he does. Fill him and guide him, God. Help him to walk in confidence because he walks not in the ways of the world, but in strength that comes from you. Help him to be a light in the dark places; let Your Spirit shine in and through him. As the Israelites followed a pillars of clouds and fire, help my husband to have a clear sense of your leading even in the most difficult of situations. Make him bold and courageous to go against the flow.

Spirit of God, fill my children. Let them be so filled by Your Spirit even from a young age that anything not of You stands out and is easily discerned as contrary to Your will. Let Your Spirit of truth guide them in all they do, and let anything that seeks to lead them away from Your will for their lives be burned away. Help them to see Your will clearly above all else. Help them to know the Truth and walk in it. I pray against the influence of the world and their own sinful natures, and ask that You would convict them of their sins and guide them back into Your will.

Teach us to walk by faith, not sight, God. Teach us to walk by the Spirit, not by the ways of the world. Teach us to follow what we cannot always see, but what we always know to be true. Thank you for making a way for us to be overwhelmed by You in real ways every day. Thank you for choosing us as Your temples. Make us holy and set apart.

Amen.