Devotional - Prayer For Friends and Family

You can love someone deeply and still be unable to change their situation. That gap between compassion and control is where worry grows, where we replay conversations, where we try to solve what we were never meant to carry. We can, however, pause and do something different: we bring the people on our hearts to the Father and let prayer become the way we show up with real strength. Today, we guide you through a devotional prayer for friends, family members, and even your own weary soul. 

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Transcript

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Welcome to the Father's Business Devotional Podcast, which flows from the heart of Sylvia Gunter and her deep desire to help people know God. May God quiet your spirit and soul, draw you close to the Father's heart, and anchor you in the unshakable truth that you are deeply loved and securely held. I think it's safe to say we all have someone on our hearts right now. When people we care about are in difficult seasons, it can leave us feeling helpless. We want to step in, we want to solve it, we want to make their pain disappear, but we can't. It may be a friend who's carrying grief. It could be a family member facing uncertainty. Anyone standing in a situation that we can't fix and make better. Or maybe the person right now is you, and you need someone to pray for you. Well, scripture tells us to bear one another's burdens. Some burdens are simply too heavy to carry alone. Even the Apostle Paul, when pressed beyond measure, said he depended on the prayers of his friends for deliverance and victory. So today, if you're the one in a place that feels impossible, receive this prayer for yourself. Or if you're the one who is wanting to help out a friend or family member, instead of trying to fix what we can't control, let's align our hearts with God's purposes. He knows far better than we do what he is accomplishing in the lives of our friends and family. So let's pray together. Father, you see the people on my heart right now. You know their struggles, their fears, their hidden battles, their unanswered questions. And Holy Spirit, I ask that you enable me to pray according to the will of God. Let my prayers align with your will and not merely my preference of how I think you can make it better. Father, I pray that you would give them the mind of Christ to teach them to trust in you with all their heart and not lean on their own understanding in their current circumstances, that they would be able to daily lean on you and know that you will direct their path. I pray that you remind them who they are in Christ, that they're complete in Him, they are chosen, they are blessed, and they are redeemed. Father, would you remind them that their identity is anchored in the truth of who you are, not in the circumstances that they're facing right now? I pray that you would guard their hearts from the lies of the enemy, that you would clothe them in the full armor of God, so that they might stand firm in you in faith. Father, I pray that you would give them a heart of worship in the midst of the storm. Jesus, you did many things in storms. You walked on water in storms, you spoke to storms and calling them sometimes, you took a nap in a storm, but the one thing you never were was afraid or surprised. And so I ask that my friends and family who are struggling would be able to anchor into that level of peace. Peace that passes all understanding, peace that guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, and allow them to fix their eyes on you. Father, would you lift their eyes higher, fixing their mind on what is true and noble and right and pure and praiseworthy, even in the darkest of places. Father, I ask where there is relationship conflict or strife in these circumstances, that you would give them supernatural love, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. Let their love be a reflection of 1 Corinthians 13. Because God, you are love, and even in the hardest of places, we are able to love because you are love, which you cause their love to abound more and more in the knowledge and the depth of who you are. And we pray for unity in relationships where there have been fractions, where there is tension, we ask that you bring agreement and alignment. Where there has been pride and rebellion, would you bring humility and peace? And where there is division, would you bring oneness in Christ? Father, just as you and the Son and the Spirit are one, would you bring your God-sized unity to fractured friendship and family systems? Father, for our family and friends who have wandered away from you, I ask that you would help them to turn from broken cisterns, turn from other things and thirst again for living water, that you would make them a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing in your sight, that you would renew their minds, transform their thinking, and shape their desires to be in alignment with who you are. Father, we pray for our friends and family who find themselves in situations that feel overwhelming, that they would take upon them your yoke, that they would learn of you. Your yoke is easy and light. And that feels almost like a shallow prayer for some of the situations our friends are in. But we pray for the fullness of who you are to come even into those very hard places and bring your rest, your lightness. Allow them to lift off of their shoulders the burdens that they carry and allow your big, strong shoulders to carry it for them. And Father, we declare that you're the God of the impossible. What from our perspective seems like a mountain that cannot be moved, you see as an opportunity to show off. So we praise you as our way maker, we praise you as our provider, we praise you as the one who shows up and makes a way when there seems to be no way. So we're asking for you, the God of all creativity and abundance, who can come up with a thousand solutions to a problem, would you give our friends another thought? Give our family members another thought, a God-sized thought, a glimpse of your perspective of what's going on right now. And God, if it is your desire to fix the problem, then fix it. But Father, if you are up to something so much bigger in the midst of all of this than we can comprehend, if there is gold that you are mining even in these hard places, then I pray you would give them the strength and the perseverance to hold on until they receive from you everything that you're up to. Because what we do know is in your economy no pain is ever wasted, no problem is bigger than you can handle, no circumstances beyond your control, and you rarely answer the question why. So would you give us a heart that turns from asking why to who? God, who are you for me in this? To what? What are you trying to teach me in this moment? And so we pray for our friends and families who find themselves in difficult places, that you would give them supernatural insight, that you would drop down into their spirit, deep speaking to deep, just a glimpse of what you're up to in the midst of all of this. And Father, I pray specifically for those that are grieving the loss of relationship, where someone has walked away from a relationship. I pray for that person who has walked away, that as you described in the story of the prodigal son, that when the prodigal came to himself, he returned to the Father. Father, we pray today for family members and friends, for our own hearts as well, because we all do it on a daily basis, where we have turned from you and acted more like a prodigal son. Would you allow us to come to ourselves and return to the Father? So, Father, I'm calling out for the sons and daughters to return to themselves and come to the Father. And you will be waiting with an embrace for us to show up. You've been searching the horizon, just waiting for us to make that one step towards you, and then you'll be there. So thank you, Father. You are far more actively involved in every life that concerns us today. And for every ounce of worry that we do for them, and as for as much as we'd long to fix it, take the burden away, make life easier for them. God, you have supernaturally more love and concern and care for them than we ever could. And you are at work and you are doing things that we don't understand. And so we're our part today is to say, God, we surrender. We trust your timing, we trust your methods, we trust your outcomes in these circumstances. And we may never have the answer to the question why, but we say that we love you and we trust you. And right now, we take every friend and family member that is on our heart today, every circumstance that feels like we can't fix, and we lay it at your feet. And we say, This is yours. And we take the burden off our own shoulders of the people that we love and we're trying to carry. And we receive your yoke today. So thank you, Father, that you are answering prayers according to your perfect will, and that every promise you've ever given in Scripture is yes and amen for us today. So we trust that He who began a good work in us will not stop until it's completed. And Father, give us the gift of patience to wait on your timetable of completion. So for everyone that concerns us today, we pray for you to strengthen them, for you to align their spirit, soul, and body with you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and draw them close to you. And we pray that all of this in your most loving name. Amen. Thank you for listening to this devotional. You can find an archive of devotionals and other podcasts on our website, www.thefathersbusiness.com. This podcast is made possible through donations from people like you. To donate, click on the donate tab on our website at www.thefathersbusiness.com.