31 Days of Prayer: Confidence in God
Through the month of January, EGM is sharing 31 ways to pray for children around the world. On day 29, we pray that God would help children have confidence in His plan for their lives.
Let’s face it — life is pretty hard. We all have struggles.
Some of them are problems of our own making. Others are things completely out of our control. But either way, challenges and bad times will come. We do our children a disservice when we pretend they won’t. Shielding them from the realities of life doesn’t make them stronger.
Teach them from their youth
I love Psalm 71. It’s the song of someone who’s seen more than his fair share of grief and pain. And yet, through all of it, he has confidence that God is good; that His kindness endures forever. He says things like:
“For you have been my hope, Sovereign Lord,
my confidence since my youth.” (Psalm 71:5)
“As for me, I will always have hope;
I will praise you more and more.” (Psalm 71:14)
“My lips will shout for joy
when I sing praise to you—
I whom you have delivered.” (Psalm 71:23)
The psalmist is confident that his God will come through for him.
But the amazing part is that this is something he says he learned when we has very young:
“For you have been my hope, Sovereign Lord,
my confidence since my youth.” (Psalm 71:5)
“Since my youth, God, you have taught me,
and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds.” (Psalm 71:17)
The psalmist faced challenges at a young age. We don’t know exactly what they were or where they came from, but we do know that God used them to strengthen his faith. He prepared him for the challenges that would come when we was older. And in the face of the tremendous opposition described in this psalm, he stands unwavering in his belief that his God will be faithful.
Kids have real problems. As we guide them and serve them, we must allow them to feel those problems and everything that comes with them. And then we must point them toward the only solution to them: Jesus. He has a plan for their lives. And part of that plan is helping them learn to have confidence in Him even in the toughest situations.
Let’s pray that they will learn to depend on God to help them through.