Several years ago, my wife Katrina and I took in a troubled young man with a long history of drug and alcohol abuse. We loved him dearly. After six months of apparent progress, he relapsed. We’ll call him Mark.
The next months felt like a nightmare, but Mark finally consented to let us enroll him in a drug rehabilitation program. He entered just before his birthday. I told him that instead of giving him a present, on his birthday I would pray for him for an hour.
When the day came, I wondered how I could pray so long for one person. I waited until everyone had gone to bed, and I knelt by the living room sofa with an open Bible before me. I started in Genesis and thumbed through page after page. Before me lay well-worn chapters, underlined verses, and highlighted passages. One by one I converted them into prayers for Mark. Seldom have I felt such power in prayer, and the hour went quickly. I ran out of time long before running out of verses.
Meanwhile, in the rehab center, Mark turned the corner.
If, in dealing with your children’s problems, you find your stomach knotting, your head pounding, and your teeth clenched, discover the simple remedy of bending your knees. Plead the promises of God and learn to pray-a-phrase of Scripture. In other words, find some verses that you would like to pray and put your child’s name in them.2.
Throughout this devotional, you’ll find many prayers adapted from some of the Bible’s greatest passages, as well as from ancient prayers of godly saints and the tender prayers of some of our best-loved hymns. Make them personal for your need and soon you’ll be praying-a-phrase of Scripture whenever you read the Bible.