Pray Network Forum

 It seems like our social media, financial, and email accounts get hacked now and then. When that happens, we change our passwords to protect our privacy since we don’t want intruders to have access to our accounts. Passwords protect our accounts.

I recently heard a message that spoke to my heart about guarding my heart just as I protect my Internet accounts.  We read in God’s Word that we are to guard our hearts. In Proverbs 4:23, “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.”  Don’t let the enemy hack your heart.

How Do We Guard Our Hearts?

We can protect, defend, and shield our hearts from Satan by developing an intimate relationship with God. Paul tells us, “Set your hearts on things above . . . Not on earthly things.”(Colossians 3:1, 2) The enemy wants to rob our hearts; he tries to get us overwhelmed, defeated, tired, and so busy that when God wants to get our attention, His call goes to “voice mail”. As grandparents, we can set an example by demonstrating that our relationship with God is a high priority for us.

We must guard our hearts because God valued our hearts and the hearts of our grandchildren and their parents so much that He sent his Son, Jesus into the world to die on the cross for our sins.

Do you have a password to guard your heart against the distractions and business of your life?My favorite password is Joshua 1:5 “I will never leave you nor forsake you”. When the enemy tries to hack my heart, I claim my password. Do you have a password to keep your heart from being hacked, if you don’t have one already?

If we as grandparents guard our hearts, we will have a part in nourishing the souls of our dear grandchildren by our example. Our grandchildren need grandparents who will model how they guard their hearts.  

Our grandchildren are living amid a cultural and spiritual battle; a brutal and vicious war against a subtle and friendly enemy (Satan) who knows his time is short. We have a responsibility to pray for them and encourage them to guard their hearts.

Don’t let the enemy rob your heart;he tries to get you overwhelmed, defeated, tired, and so busy that when God wants to get your attention, His call goes to “voice mail”. Spend time in His Word. Don’t forget your password when you need to guard your heart against your busy schedule, and you don’t have a chance to cover your grandchildren and their parents in prayer.

This is the reason Christian Grandparenting Network is asking grandparents throughout the world to unite in prayer for their grandchildren and their parents.

 Sunday, September 8, 2019, is the National Grandparents” Dayin the United States, but we are asking grandparents throughout the world to join us, making it a Day of Prayer. If you cannot schedule and event on that day, do it sometime in September when it is convenient or whenever you have a Grandparents’ Day in your country.

Many grandparents have signed up to participate and volunteered to organize events because they realize the urgency for a Day of Pray for their grandchildren.

We have two ways that you can participate in our website.www.grandparentsdayofprayer.com

1. Click on “I will pray” button and give if you will commit to joining us as a prayer warrior on Grandparents’ Day of Prayer.
2. If you are willing to organize an event in your church, home, or retirement complexes, etc. click on “To find out more about becoming a volunteer” to follow the process

If you realize the urgency for a Day of Prayer for our grandchildren and their parents, will you help us call grandparents to join in prayer on September 10th? Christian Grandparenting Network is prepared to provide step-by-step guidelines, resources, and online tools for creating successful events.

Please check our website http://www.grandparentsdayofprayer.comfor more information, testimonials, promotional materials, and free downloads.

Thank you for your consideration to participate in this event.

For additional information or if you have any questions, please contact us.

Lillian Penner lpenner@christiangrandparenting.net

Sherry Schumann sherry@christiangrandparenting.net

Deborah Haddix  Deborah@deborahhaddix.com

My prayer is that you will experience

God’s most abundant blessings as you pray for your grandchildren,

invest in the spiritual lives of your grandchildren, their parents, and future generations. In Jesus’ name.

 As we are in the autumn season, I was reminded of my childhood, growing up on a wheat farm in Oklahoma. In the summer after the wheat harvest, my father would prepare the soil for the next year’s harvest and in the autumn, he would sow the wheat seed. Throughout the winter months, we would wait for the rains to water the seed and wait for it to come up and watch it grow. In the spring, we would see the wheat heads form and ripen to a golden color for the harvest in early June.

We simply had faith that once the seed was in the ground, nature would take its course, and the golden heads of wheat would be ready to be harvested in the summer.  

It reminds me of when we pray we are sowing seed, asking God in faith for what we desire. Once we have asked, things start happening behind the scenes, whether we are asleep or awake, God is at work, preparing an answer to our prayers. In God’s timing the answer will be evident and we will “reap” the results of our seed (prayer) sown.

However, we must have faith trusting God is at work even when it seems like nothing is happening while we are wait for the seed (prayers) to sprout, grow, and bring forth a harvest.

One little seed has a lot of potential, it seems so small, but under the right conditions, this one seed can grow into a plant that will yield a great harvest! Spiritual multiplication is the same. The seed (prayers) that we sow in the lives of our grandchildren will produce a harvest, even into the next generation, our great-grandchildren. The seeds of prayer that we plant today will yield a harvest of blessing in the future.

Questions: What are you asking God in faith for your grandchildren today?

Are you able to fully trust God with the prayers that you are sowing to bring forth a harvest in the lives of your grandchildren?

“And let us not grow weary while doing good,

for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart” (Galatians 6:9, NKJV).

“Prayer is one of the easiest subjects to talk upon, but one of the hardest to practice.”

−Henrietta Mears, What the Bible Is All About, p.598.

I would appreciate your comments about how you are sowing seeds in the lives of your grandchildren.

When I was a young woman, I had many opportunities to visit my widowed grandmother while I attended college in her town. As she grieved my grandfather’s death, she reflected her trust in God to care for her and showed how God sustained her each day, by claiming the promise Jesus gave His disciples after His resurrection. 

“Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.”

Matthew 28:20 (KJV).

My grandmother’s faith that God would always be there for her made a great impact on my life. Her testimony influenced me to incorporate that verse into my daily experiences. Since those early adult years, whenever life has been difficult, disappointing, or downright discouraging, I have claimed that same scripture verse. My prayer is that I will have opportunities to reflect my life experiences of trusting God during my difficult times to my children and grandchildren.

In Proverbs 27:19 we read, “As a face is reflected in water, so the heart reflects the person.” However, we may ask what does that look like. When we meditate on God’s Word and grow in our relationship with God, we will reflect God’s glory because we are being transformed into His image. We glorify God when we reveal or manifest his character by the way we live by demonstrating God’s love to those around us.   

 We, as grandparents who love the Lord have a responsibility to reflect a godly life to our grandchildren. We must ask ourselves, is my walk with the Lord as I want reflected in the lives of my grandchildren. 

My grandmother made a lasting impression on my life because she reflected her faith in God’s provision to sustain her during her time of grieving. When we reflect God’s love to our grandchildren and they are walking with the Lord, our love for God will keep on living through our grandchildren.

Questions to ask ourselves:

What does the reflection of my life look like to my grandchildren?

Do I want my grandchildren to imitate my spiritual life?

Will they want my Jesus?

Pray your love for God will keep on living through your grandchildren, even after you are deceased. 

Prayer

Lord, forgive me when I have not taken the time to be in Your Word

 and model the life of a godly grandparent.

 Help to take the time to read and meditate on Your Word every day

So I will reflect your face in the heart of my grandchildren.  

Even after I have passed on to be with you.

In Jesus name.

© 2010 Lillian Penner