Psalm 119:90a

Grandparents love to boast about their grandchildren, ready to show their pictures to anyone who will look at them.  Grandmothers used to carry “Brag Books” with them but they don’t need to do that any more since many grandparents store the pictures of their grandchildren in their cell phones. The pictures are always conveniently accessible to show their friends.

However, with the joy of grandchildren comes a responsibility. God has given each generation a responsibility to intentionally pass their heritage of faith to their children and future descendents according to His Word.

In Nehemiah 4:14, when Nehemiah faced opposition rebuilding the wall in Jerusalem he told the people, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, sons, and your daughters, your wives and your homes.” Just as Nehemiah asked the people to fight for their families, we as grandparents need to fight the opposition our children and grandchildren face with our prayers for them.

Fighting the opposition with our prayers for the ongoing guidance and spiritual growth for our grandchildren takes daily discipline. To pray effectively we need to know their frustrations, dreams, fears, concerns and expectations. Now and then we will need to ask them “How can we pray for you?” or ask their parents how they would like us to pray for the grandchildren.

When we pray we need to ask God to fill our minds with His thoughts, instead of ours. I not only find myself in intimate communication with God, but my mind is being renewed to think His thoughts, about the situation I am praying for, instead of mine. Ultimately, God shrinks what I thought as impossible to a possibility and gives me confidence to wait for His answer.

To fight for our families as Nehemiah told the Israelites we have to pray intentionally and regularly for our families. Praying for our children and grandchildren should be a high priority for us according to God’s Word. Not all prayers are going to be answered immediately or even in our lifetime. However, God will acknowledge our intercessory prayers and answer them just at the right time.

The most important task we have as grandparents is to communicate our faith in Christ. I was recently reminded of important truths in a Beth Moore “Believing God” Bible study I would like to pass on to our dear children and grandchildren.  They are:

1. God is who He says He is.
2. God can do what He says He can do.
3. I am who God says I am.
4. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me
5. God’s Word is alive and active in me.

A family’s faith can be lost in one generation. However, we as grandparents can be defenders of our faith. Life is full of disappointments and crisis, if our children and grandchildren turn their backs on their heritage of faith, they will face these challenges and trials without God in a chaotic world.

In addition to your daily time in prayer for your grandchildren you can fulfill this task is by uniting in prayer with other grandparents by starting a “Grandparents@Prayer” group in your area. Ask several grandparents to join you, uniting in prayer for the grandchildren. Satan will be threatened when we, as grandparents unite in prayer with other believers to pray for our grandchildren. Our children and grandchildren need our prayers desperately in this moral and spiritually depraved culture we live in today.

©2009 Lillian Penner