I have vivid images from my childhood of my grandparents on their knees with other adults, including my parents, praying for the lost.  They weren’t at church. They were in each other’s homes. While we children played outside n good weather, they were inside on their knees in fervent preayer. Those images have stayed with me all my life.

As I look around in our churches and many homes today, I wonder what images of prayer our grandchildren have in their lives. Prayer meetings and groups of adults gathering simply to pray are often entirely missing in the arena of important activities. We often talk about prayer, but I see little evidence of it actually happening with fervor and passion. It is the least practiced and embraced activity among believers today. We say we will pray for someone, but do we? We ask for prayer, but who really gets down on their knees and intercedes for those who really need our prayers?

To be sure, there are some tremendous prayer warriors in our ranks today, but by and large, few Christians really spend any time prostrate before God in prayer. I am on of those who often finds busyness to be the great thief of prayerfulness. As a grandfather, I am now painfully aware of the shallow and self-centered world I have helped to create for my children and grandchildren. But the call to humble ourselves and pray is still being issued, I believe. Oh, if we would only bow our knees and our hearts in surrender to him, acknowledge our sin and the sin of our generation, and plead for mercy and grace for our children and grandchildren! I believe God wants to open up the floodgates of heaven, but it must begin with us–on our knees.

In a few weeks, grandparents across this land will hopefully gather in churches, homes, parks, or other gathering places to pray for their grandchildren, families and our nation. The date is September 11, 2011, the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and the official Grandparent’s Day proclaimed by Congress in 1978. What a glorious day this could be in the face such horrible memories and widespread uncertainly, if thousands of grandparents around this country would gather to HUMBLE THEMSELVES AND PRAY!

I urge you and call you to set aside at least one hour on this day, not to pray by yourself unless you have not other option, but to gather with other grandparents and pray. Will you respond to the call and will you send the call out in your church and community for others to join you? It is easy to find plenty of excuses not to pray, but how powerful the example and image of grandparents on their knees praying for the next generations could be! Which image will our grandchildren have of us when they grow up? An image of selfish living and accommodation to worldliness, or an image of devout prayer warriors on their knees doing battles for them?