#359 - Joby Martin // Pray Scripture Over Your Kids

Transcript

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Welcome to the Daily Blade. The word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

Praying Psalm 1 Over My Son

Reading Psalm 1 Aloud

Making Scripture Personal For Your Kids

Building An Anchor Against Doubt

Psalm 139 For A Daughter’s Identity

Start Praying Today And Share

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All right, welcome back to the Daily Blade. This whole week we are going to walk through one of the psalms, and it's Psalm chapter one. And this psalm is near and dear to my heart. And the reason that it's near and dear to my heart is because almost 21 years ago, when my son JP Joseph Perry Martin IV was born, every night when I would put him to bed, I would pray this psalm over him. And so when he, even when he was like two days old and he couldn't even understand what I was saying, all the way up even to when he got into high school and didn't love it, I prayed these words. Psalm one, Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of the sinner, nor sits in the seat of the scoffers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous, for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. Now, when I would pray this over JP, I would modify it just a little bit, and I think I memorized it like in the NIV or something. It was twenty something years ago. And so I would make it very personal to him. I would say, Blessed is the man that does not walk in the way of the wicked, or stand in the way of the sinner, or sit in the seat of the scoffer, but he delights in the law of the Lord, and upon his law he meditates day and night. And then I would say, JP, and may you be like a tree planted by streams of running water. May your fruit never wither. May everything you do prosper. And I kind of left out the wicked stuff, and I say, May God bless the righteous. Now, here's what I want to encourage you with. If you have kids, you should pray out loud over your children. That it should be the constant thing that they can look forward to every night. Pray out loud. And not just random prayers that you make up. That's fine. But I would highly encourage you to pick some Bible verses to pray over your kids. Part of the reason I picked this to pray over my son is because it says, Blessed is the man. And I wanted my son to grow up to be a man. And he turns 21 this year, and he has grown into that man that I hoped for and I prayed for. And I didn't want him to just be any man, any ordinary man. I wanted him to be a blessed man. And the way that you are going to be a blessed man is first and foremost, you've got to know God. And so I didn't want him to walk in the counsel of the wicked, but I wanted him to be blessed by God and know God. And I don't want to put all of his life out in the world, you know, because that's none of your business, but he wasn't always walking with the Lord. And I highly believe a part of the way that he is walking with God now is because when he was a little kid, I tried to set this word of God like an anchor so deep in his soul that when the winds of doubts and when the waves of this world tried to knock him out of course, that he would always be brought back to this, to this word of God that we tried to plant deep, deep in his heart. Now, when I had a little girl, Reagan Capri, she's 16 now, I prayed a very short verse, Psalm 139, 14, over her every single night. Dear God, I bless you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, and I know that full well. And a part of the reason I prayed that over her is because she lives in a world that says, if you're not beautiful, you're not lovable, and beauty is unattainable because of all of the digital imaging and all of that. And when she came around, some soon-to-be-dead boy or some mean girl that said something other than what the word of God said, I wanted her to know that she knows, that she knows, that she is a part of God's workmanship, that she is fearfully, that means reverently, she is wonderfully made, that everything God makes is exactly the way he wants to make it, and I wanted him to know that. So if you got older kids, I dare you, call them and start praying scripture over them right now. If you got younger kids, don't waste this moment. As a dad, as a leader, you want to push back darkness. Don't just listen to the Daily Blade for you, but begin to pray the scriptures over people that you love. Come back tomorrow and we will begin to unpack Psalm chapter one.

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