Helping Grandfathers Leave a Legacy of Prayer

Written by Tony Souder, Founder of Pray for Me Campaign

Grandfathers have the potential to be some of the most influential people on the planet when it comes to their grandchildren.

Of course, like so many things in life, grandfathers must be intentional if they are going to reach their potential in influencing their grandchildren. Being an intentional Christian grandfather touches many important areas, but for this article, I want to focus on leaning into being intentional concerning prayer for your grandchildren.

First, let me tell you a secret: I founded a ministry that helps grandparents, parents, churches, and ministries powerfully and intentionally pray for and connect with each emerging generation.

Okay, that isn’t a secret, but this is. Prayer has not always been easy or important to me.

There, I said it. I’m not proud of it, but it’s the truth.

Over the years I have found that I’m not alone. It seems that there are many of us who love Jesus and yet have had seasons where prayer wasn’t easy. Times when you just couldn’t seem to get in a rhythm of talking with God in a way that you sensed you should.

I realize that this may not be your experience. Prayer may come easy for you. You may have a delightful rhythm in your prayer life with God. If that is your experience, Awesome!

However, because that isn’t everyone’s experience, I thought I would share a few things that have helped transform my perspective and practice of prayer and hopefully will be an encouragement to you no matter where you are in your prayer journey.

Today, more than ever, I realize that prayer is too important and those we pray for are too important for us to stay in this sluggish prayer space. I’m so thankful to realize that God never intended for our lives to remain in this prayer funk.

God has given prayer to nurture and awaken our relationship with Him as well as give us a powerful weapon to advance His purposes in the world and our grandchildren’s lives.

Take Time to Be Still

In Psalm 46:10, the Psalmist provides us with a powerful truth. He says, “Be still, and know that I am God.”

Wow! It is in the stillness that our knowing God becomes deeper, richer, and clearer. We need to let stillness be our friend.

I realize that, like me, you may feel like you don’t have time to be still. There is too much to do. This is when I remind myself that “being still” IS doing something. It is one of the primary pathways that God has said will allow our knowing Him to flourish. And, your flourishing with God leads to incredible blessing and benefits to your grandchildren. They will have grandfathers that are living life from a deep reservoir of goodness from God.

So, what should you “do” while you are “being still”?

Magnify the Majesty and Mercy of God in Your Heart and Mind

In your stillness with God, your goal is to let your heart and mind be filled up to overflowing on the majesty and mercy of God.

By focusing on the majesty of God you are seeking to be saturated by the all-satisfying, relentless magnificence of God. By focusing on the mercy of God you are allowing your heart to embrace your overwhelming need for God’s intervention and involvement in every area of life.

Here’s the point: People whose hearts are enthralled by the majesty and greatness of God move toward Him in worshipful prayer. People who feel the fullness of their neediness and understand their dependence on God for life and breath and all things, move toward Him in pleading prayer.

When the majesty and mercy of God are embraced, then there emerges a rhythm of reliance on God in prayer that is unstoppable.

Hovering over the majesty of God is the kindling that He uses to ignite hope in our hearts and minds to overcome the concerns and cares we have for ourselves and our grandchildren every day. The more we come to understand the multifaceted magnificence of God in all that He is and does, we can begin to let all of His goodness fill our prayers for those we care for most.

Practical Way to Start

I realize this process may be new for you, so let me offer some starting points and takeaways for focusing on both the majesty and mercy of God to fuel your prayers.

God’s majesty and greatness are encompassed in all that He is, all that He has done, and all that He promises to do. Which means, we have the opportunity to see the majesty and greatness in all of Scripture, all of creation and throughout our daily lives.

God’s mercy is an expression of the very majesty of God applied to a specific need or situation.

In your stillness, begin to take all the majesty of God you are seeing in Scripture, creation, and your life and pray them over the needs of your grandchildren.

Your grandchildren will have immediate needs that you can pray the greatness of God into and you can also pray His majesty and greatness into their futures. Providing them with time-released mercy for the future.

It’s time to leave a legacy of prayer that stirs the majesty and mercy of heaven for the good of grandchildren everywhere, for generations to come.