Three prayer topics for our children

"The LORD was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master.  When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned" (Genesis 39:2-4).

There is still a scene in my mind that I cannot forget.  The scene is when we had a scholarship service last year July for those high school graduate students who were about to go to college, their parents were praying for them.  Later, when I was looking at the pictures taken at that time, I saw one of the mothers knelt down on the floor and laid her hands on her beloved son’s body and prayed to God.  When I saw it, I was happy and thankful.  When I saw the mother who wasn’t even going to church (wasn’t a believer) and was praying for her son like that, I thought that the parents’ hearts toward their children is the same, whether they believe in Jesus or not.  Their hearts are that they want their children to be well and doing well.  What is it that children are well and doing well?  Is it all goes well?  Is it true that what the parents really want for their children is to do well without any problems?  If so, then by whose will that they should do everything well?  Is it the parents' will or Father God's will?

Every year around this time, I read the Joseph’s story in the Bible, Genesis chapter 39.  And I often remind myself that the secret of success in God’s perspective is God being with us.  In other words, as I remind myself who is truly successful person in God’s perspective through the Bible, the Joseph’s story, I distinguish those who have succeeded in the worldly perspective.  As I do so, I pray to God for our church children “Lord, do not let our children successful in the eyes of this world, but let them be successful like Joseph in the sight of God.'  As I encounter the Joseph’s story through the Bible again in this New Year 2012, God began to teach me three more specific prayer topics in addition to my previous prayer topics.

The first prayer topic is, 'God, please be with our children'.

If we read Genesis 39:2, 3, 21, and 23, we can see the same word.  And that same word is 'The Lord was with Joseph.'  Joseph was separated from his father Jacob and sold as a slave to Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard (v. 1).  There were no family members around him.  But the omnipresent God was with his beloved Joseph (v. 2).  And God gave him success in everything he did (v. 3).  God made Joseph a successful man (v. 2).  Don’t we want our children to be blessed with success from God like Joseph?  We, the parents, cannot be able to with our children for a lifetime.  Sometimes we cannot be with them even a day.  That’s why we must pray to our heavenly Father for our children.  We should pray to God, ‘God, please be with our children.’  Especially for children who are far away, we must ask God for Him to be with our children.  I still remember when our first baby Charis was in the Los Angeles Children Hospital Intensive Care Unit (ICU).  Since my wife and I cannot stay with Charis 24 hours a day, we had to go home at night.  So almost every night when we left the hospital and drove to our apartment, we heard the gospel song “Under the Shadow of Your Wings” (or “Hide Me in the Shelter”) in the car and made that song as our earnest prayers to God.  Whenever we listened to that song, we earnestly pray to God in our hearts for God to hide Charis under the shadow of His wings and protect her.  Dear parents, let us pray to God for our children.  Let us ask our Immanuel God to be with our children all the days of their lives.  When God is with our children, they will able to enjoy the blessings of prosperity (success) like Joseph.

The second prayer topic is, 'God, let our children find favor.'

If we read Genesis 39:4, 21, the Bible says that God let Joseph to be found favor.  In other words, God let Joseph to be found favor in the sight of his master Potiphar (v. 4) and in the sight of the chief jailer (v. 21) when he was put in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined (v. 20) by being wrongly accused by the Potiphar’s wife’s slander (vv. 14-18).  God has already given favor to Jacob, the father of Joseph, when Jacob was in his uncle Leban’s house for 20 years.  God gave him wives and children and made him exceedingly prosperous (30:43).  When Jacob was going back to the land of his fathers and to his relatives with all his livestock, along with all the goods he had accumulated in Paddan Aram (31:3, 18) his older brother Esau was coming to him with his four hundred men (33:1).  How terrifying is it that Esau, who tried to kill Jacob about 20 years ago, came with 400 men?  But God caused Jacob to be found in the sigh of his older brother Esau (vv. 8, 10, 15).  God made Esau, who tried to kill Jacob, to be gracious to Jacob.  How gracious and faithful is God?  This faithful God who fulfilled the covenant with Jacob did not only give Jacob grace, but also made Jacob to find favor in Esau’s sight.  Also, the same God who also gave grace to Joseph, the son of Jacob, made him to find favor in Potiphar’s sight and the chief jailer’s sight.  I pray that our children, like Joseph, also find favor in the sight of the unbelievers.  I hope and pray that our children find favor in the sight of their teachers/professors at their school, their bosses at their work.  Therefore, I pray that God will bless our children’s unbelieving teachers/professors, and bosses (39:5).  May God use our children who live in this world as the channels of blessing to others.

The third prayer topic is, 'God, raise our children and use them to fulfill God's will'.

If we look at Genesis 39:4, Joseph found favor in Potiphar’s sight and became his personal servant.  And Potiphar made Joseph overseer over his house, and all that he owned he put in his charge.  Potiphar made the Hebrew slave (v. 17) Joseph overseer in his house and over all that he owned (v. 5).  So he didn’t concern himself with anything except his wife (v. 9).  But the wife of Potiphar looked at Joseph, who was handsome in form and appearance (v. 6), with desire at him (v. 7) and spoke to Joseph day after day (v. 10) “Come to bed with me!” (v. 7).  But he refused (v. 8).  So one day when Joseph went into the house to attend to his duties (v. 11), it was just him and the Potiphar’s wife.  She caught him by his cloak and said, “Come to bed with me!” (v. 12)  But Joseph left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house (v. 12).  At that time, she called her household servants and lied to them by saying “this Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us!  He came in here to sleep with me, but I screamed.  When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house” (vv. 14-15).  Then, when her husband Potiphar came home, she again lied to him and gave him the false evidence that eventually led Potiphar to put Joseph in prison (v. 20).  But the Lord was with Joseph and He showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the chief jailer (v. 21).  So the chief jailer committed to Joseph’s charge all the prisoners who were in the jail (v. 22).  Isn’t this interesting that God was with Joseph and he was raised as Potiphar’s personal servant, overseer over his house and then in the jail he was raised as a person who was in charge of all the prisoners so that whatever was done in the jail, he was responsible for it.  Then didn’t God raise Joseph as the ruler over the land of Egypt?  Didn’t God, who raised Joseph to be in charge of the Pharaoh's house and of the jail, eventually raise Joseph to be the ruler over the land of Egypt?  As I meditated on this in the New Year 2012 and when God gave me some understanding, I began to pray to God for our children like this: ‘God, please raise our children.’  When I was a little kid, I heard a lot of prayers saying, 'God, do not let our children become tail but head.’  Now when I am grown up and praying for my children, God had taught me to pray for my children: ‘God, please raise them and use them to fulfill God’s will.’  The purpose of God in exalting Joseph as the ruler of Egypt was so that God would preserve the life of Jacob, his children, and his descendants, a remnant in the earth (45:5, 7).  To fulfill this will of God, God was with Joseph, ruled over all things, and gave grace to Joseph so that Joseph became the Potiphar’s personal servant, overseer over his house, a person who was in charge of all the prisoners and then the ruler of Egypt.  I hope and pray that these blessings of God's prosperity be with our children.