I once was that prodigal child — lost, angry, and struggling to find my identity. Hardened on the outside, but deeply hurting within. The pain of my choices was not only destroying me, but creating heartache within our family and severing my relationships with the people who loved me most.
By God’s grace, my parents did not give up on me — despite how tempting it must have been at times. Instead, they entrusted my life to God, prayed for my brokenness, and fought for me in prayers that God eventually answered.
Parents, if you are raising a seemingly hard-hearted, rebellious son or daughter (whether outwardly or inwardly), I challenge you to take up your arms, fight the spiritual battle that rages over them with all of your God-given strength, and refuse to give up on their life.
I encourage you to pray these three prayers over lost children.
1. Pray for a heart of brokenness, no matter the earthly cost.
It’s incredibly hard to pray for anything but a comfortable, successful, and pain-free life for our children. But as Christian parents, the greatest eternal good that we can pray for them is their salvation over their earthly happiness or comfort. We have to fight for them in this world filled with temporary pleasures, self-gratification, and blurry lines — entrusting their lives to our Lord — even if the path of salvation comes through pain.
I am eternally grateful that my parents loved me enough to pray for my brokenness, a brokenness that would lead to healing.
And my path of brokenness nearly killed me.
After a devastating loss of my identity as an athlete and hidden abuse from peers, my life spiraled out of control. I searched for identity and purpose in anything but Jesus. As self-destructive patterns drove me deeper into despair, I longed for an escape from this world, ultimately landing me in the protection of a hospital.
In that stark white hospital room, the choice before me was clear: be crushed by the weight of my sin or lay the broken pieces of my life at his feet. By his grace, he led me to my knees and has been redeeming those broken pieces ever since.
We will only be bold enough to pray a prayer of brokenness over our children when we ourselves have been broken before God and trust his love for our children and us. It’s only when we have completely surrendered our children to him that we can pray, “Father, use what you must to save my child from an eternity apart from you, no matter the cost.”
2. Pray against the enemy’s desire to have them.
A battle is being waged over our children’s lives. We have to fight for them, especially when blindness keeps them from fighting the battle themselves.
I remember my mom telling me the story of a time when I was standing in the kitchen with her, angry at the world, and taking it out on her. She looked at me and said boldly, “I am fighting for you, and I won’t let Satan have victory over your life!” After she spoke those words, I fell into a heap on the floor and burst into tears.
Although we don’t have a guarantee of our children’s salvation or the outcome we may desire, we can be confident that God is faithful to his promises and hears our prayers. One of the great weapons God has given parents to fight against the world’s pull and the enemy’s schemes over their children is to pray the way Christ did for Peter: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:31–32).
Although Peter was a believer and the children we are praying for may not be, we can still pray to God that he would rescue our children from the power of Satan, give them faith in Christ, and use their lives to advance the gospel and strengthen other believers.
3. Pray specific Scripture over their life.
Even if your child wants nothing to do with the truth and hates to hear the word of God, they can do nothing to stop you from praying Scripture for them. This is another mighty weapon God has given to parents.
My parents prayed Psalm 18:16–19 over my life and prayed it often:
He sent from on high, he took me;
he drew me out of many waters.
He rescued me from my strong enemy
and from those who hated me,
for they were too mighty for me.
They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
but the Lord was my support.
He brought me out into a broad place;
he rescued me, because he delighted in me.
It truly amazes me to look back and see how faithful God was to answer this prayer. I was drowning in self-destruction, abuse from others, rebelliousness, and sorrows too deep to understand at the time. God, in his mercy, drew me out of many deep waters, and rescued me from my own flesh and Satan’s desire for me.
As I sat in a hospital room, no longer wanting to live, God rescued me, brought me out into a broad place, and showed me that he delighted in me (despite my unworthiness). He has continued to be faithful to this prayer, upholding me through many deep waters and carrying me through many dark days.
Parents, no matter how far your child seems to be from Jesus or what path they are on, you can fight for their life with the powerful weapon of God’s word.
The Power of a Praying Parent
The truth is, while we must teach and train our children, and put boundaries in place, we have no control over their hearts. Ultimately, God alone can fill their hearts with a love for Christ and open their eyes to see the beauty and glory of who he is.
I am learning this on a new level and from a different perspective as I now face struggles with my own children that often tempt me to despair. But we are not helpless, and we are never hopeless. Whether our children are young or old, have soft hearts or hearts of stone, we have the power of prayer, God’s living word, and a sovereign God we can trust.
Our Father in heaven loves to take seemingly hopeless lives, like my own once was, and show himself merciful and mighty. Give your child the gift of prayer, and trust that God will use his or her life for his good purposes — growing and transforming your own life in the process.
Home is around the corner,
Sarah Walton
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Hi, Sarah,
I always enjoy your blogs. Thank you so much for sharing your journey. Ecclesiastes says to everything there is a time and a season. There is a balance in Scripture. It is true that the will of God is not always what we want in this Fallen World, but it will always be the best path to take because there is nothing greater than our relationship with the Living God.
I hope you do not mind if I share just a few perspectives. Over the years I have come to run every thing I read through scripture. As best as possible I tried to run my thoughts through the lens of what God says in his word.
I would disagree with one line in your blog. And I do not comprehend or claim to comprehend the greatness and vastness of God, but you say there is no guarantee of our children’s salvation. It is true God that there is given to each human a choice. We see that Free Will in the garden, we see it in God’s words to the Israelites to choose life. We see it as Jesus Christ over Jerusalem saying how I’ve longed to protect you as a hen protects her chicks but you were not willing! And from my perspective and this is not scripture that I’m speaking here but just my thinking, but from my perspective because it says love does not demand its own way, there had to be a tree, there had to be a choice or would not be love. If there was no opportunity to choose to not believe God, it would be the perfect beautiful prison and slavery. But God is love and we have a choice. However the word of God says that love never fails. God invites us to be his hands and feet in this world. He’s so longed to be involved as the temple was built in God who created the universe somehow came to be in this time and space with the Israelites. And now that glory of God dwells in every child of the Living God. Now God’s Temple is here. We are the Temple of the Living God. We are called to be his hands and feet. To believe him to spend our time and energy at his feet going forth and sharing his power in love with this world. He does desire healing. And yes to everything there is a time and a season. But God’s power and his truth and his love will endure long after every deception and lie is gone. I was speaking to Demons this past week as they tormented my child and I said temporary. It is temporary! And they left, but the battle has been intense. We had one intercession for my youngest daughter that took an hour and a half of my oldest daughter my husband and I crying Before the Throne of God to break the darkness and the power of the devil off of her. Please parents pray. Don’t take the kids to the movies if they’re under demonic oppression. Pray. Prioritize the things of the Kingdom of Heaven in our own lives, first and foremost is Grace because giving up Starbucks is one of the hardest things in the world which is absolutely ridiculous, we are greedy and self-centered by Nature and we are desperately in need of the love of God and His grace. And I’m not saying there’s not time for things that are fun, but one complication Sarah, is we were never meant to battle alone. There’s supposed to be an army alongside you and it has frustrated me. I’ve said before you were the first person in the Western World I ever felt that I related to the level of trauma that you’ve been through. I never felt like anybody related to the stuff that I’ve gone through until I found your blog.
I have a broken brain for anybody who’s reading. I really believe there are things that the spirit of God wants me to speak and so this is going to be a bit messy and I apologize. I will put the scriptures on my spirit down at the bottom. Sarah I believe you can delete this if you think it’s inappropriate. I apologize for the ramble form and lack of proper grammatical form. I don’t have the brain power to be able to do this properly, but for those willing to dig through the dirt I believe there will be some gold.
We know that God’s salvation is offered freely to all who believe. But the scripture is clea
There is a divine blessing upon family. God will not force the children, but the powerful prayers of a righteous person avails much. God commands his people to train up a child in the way they should go and when they are old they will not depart from it. Notice he doesn’t say when they are young. There are many promises in scripture regarding our children. And I would like to share a few of those with you here.
God does not give his glory to another. There are times where we battle and we overcome and there are times where we lose the battle with our flesh and we look to his victory into his salvation and rejoice that righteousness was a gift given to us, not something we earned with our great prayer life or our great suffering. We are children of God. Our sins are forgiven. The cross was enough.
One danger is when those who should be mature, when we fall short of clinging to the grace that we have in Jesus Christ. It is tempting to think that the fight is for moral good behavior but that is a lie. The fight is for faith. The fight is for believing when your brain is done and you’ve given into the ways of the world, even as you fought with your son this battle, the fight is for knowing who you are because of what Christ did not of because of what you do. The best place to be is in the will of God. But we can’t free ourselves. Do we have addictions? Glory to God he loves us he forgives us and he is the one who little by little as we bow before him and adore him will draw us into his presence so little by little those things will Fall Away. Are we guilty of the abomination of pride? Then let us come to him and humble ourselves and admit that we cannot save ourselves and that we are unforgiving and we are judgmental and we think we’re better than other people and God calls this an abomination equal to anything else that he calls in Abomination and scripture. The just will live by their faith. God’s love is not dependent on how evil or good we are, because Jesus Christ said there is no one good but God. The message of the Gospel and even from the old Covenant the truth of the word of God Is So counterculture to anything anywhere. You are loved. God Delights in you even though he hates our sin because it destroys our lives and it separates us from him and it destroys the lives of others. But he desires all to be saved. He does not Delight in the death of the wicked but would rather that they change Direction and come to him. Come to him for transformation, not just one moment in time not just one day one hour, but every moment of Our Lives admitting our guilt in our sin and delighting in the fact that he redeems he delivers he forgives, he restores. No one will ever love us like God will. No earthly relationship will ever come close.
There is such power in a faithful believing mother. I studied it out one time. David disobeyed God and the Holy word in a number of areas even though his heart was fully after God. The old Covenant that he was under commanded him not to marry wives that did not believe in God or worship Him. But he got comfortable and did what everybody around him did and married princesses that were not willing to convert to the worship of the Living God. When you see the destruction of some of his sons that broke his heart, it was a direct result of his disobedience. And also of their Mothers Disobedience, though each individual sin is their own. But we affect, in our decisions of how we live, so many lives. An alcoholic mother bequeaths that alcoholism upon her child. So it is with every sin. But by looking at Jesus in the cross each individual can Rejoice that we are delivered and set free and know without a shadow of a doubt that the god that moved the sea is now working in the lives of those who come to him in simple obedience to be baptized to receive Holy Communion and catechism which simply means learning how to obey the commands of Jesus. He commanded his disciples to make disciples not just baptize people. But he did also command his disciples to baptize. I do not agree with some of the traditions of withholding baptism from children or infants. We would never withhold our milk from our infant child why would we withhold spiritual blessing? So if our children are not baptized that would be the first step. There’s so much grace and blessing and baptizing the infants and setting them into that place of Salvation because the word of God says baptism now saves us. And if we say oh well they haven’t had the intellectual ability to make their own decision, where in scripture does it demand but intellect be part? Do you deny salvation to those that are mentally it’s disabled or down syndrome who cannot comprehend mentally what’s happening to them or to those perhaps in a coma? The word of God commands us to baptize. Now certainly if somebody is of age they need to make their own decision and that is scriptural. But the individualism of the western world is not in the Holy scriptures. Family Matters. There is a blessing even as Abraham and his children were blessed because of his obedience. God promised Abraham that all of the families on Earth would be blessed through him. The Messianic promise was given to Abraham Isaac and Jacob. But the love of God is poured out upon all in this world. God’s mercy and kindness and Justice and truth and grace are there for the taking, through his love through his word, but it is only through obedience of Faith to him that we receive it. One cannot say I worship other gods because God is love, and then I God’s truth and be actually walking in God’s truth and love. God’s truth and love go together. Jesus Christ came to bring Grace and Truth. Not one or the other. Truth without Grace is legalism. Grace without truth is licentiousness. Neither can work apart from each other in God’s Kingdom. But Jesus Christ is the truth and so all who call in the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Every choice we make influences others. Godly women we are commanded to be generous to the poor not spend all of our time energy and money on the world and the commands of the world. There is much power in prioritizing giving and hearing the words of Jesus Christ and doing them. There’s much power when Jesus says give to the one who asks when we are in love obeying that command. We are to worship God but we are saved through grace alone. Worship is not what we do on Sunday mornings it is how we spend our time energy money and resources. Do we spend them on the idol of self or the world?
David married women that were not Believers in God. But what you don’t see is Abigail’s son falling. Abigail was a faithful Godly mother and her son was not among those that succumbed to the evil. Abigail’s son was one that submitted to King Solomon in holy Godly submission. And when you read about Abigail she was amazing.
LIkewise, You do not see the destruction upon Solomon that he deserved because of the grace that he was under. God promised he would not take his love away from Solomon. And when you study Bathsheba I believe that is part of the reason why. But that is my conclusion of scripture and not actual scripture itself. Bathsheba was described by the prophet Nathan as an innocent lamb, so technically it was adultery but it was more like rape. What do you do when the king commands you to come? She was innocent before God. So there is much talk and we have many people that fall from God in bitterness and yes it is understandable because the hurt and the pain from such things is so unbearable when there is sexual abuse and spiritual abuse. And hands down I believe that is some of the grossest most disgusting sin, and so King David is living proof, as is the person in the mirror, that we are saved by grace alone not by works so no one can boast.
when you look at that story I remember being completely shocked about 5 years ago when I was reading a different part about King David’s personal bodyguards the 30, that were well known in Acts of Valor in that time. Uriah was one of King David’s personal bodyguards. King David basically raped his wife, committed adultery and had him killed, so it’s really difficult when Christians stray from the truth of the word of God of just how horrible we are. God views pride and lies with the same reaction that we have to this kind of sin. Greed is listed up there as a damnable sin equal to murder. But in our pride we don’t want God’s Authority in our lives and we don’t want to view the law through God’s eyes but ours. We want to make ourselves feel that we are better than those horrible evil sins that others have done but that’s not how heaven or God views it and yet in the moment in time where we are God reaches out and he adores us and he loves us even when we do not want to listen.
The Bible says in Proverbs 6 that pride is an Abomination to God as is lies. God feels about our pride the way we would about spiritual and sexual abuse. He feels that same way about the lies that we talk about him and about each other instead of believing the cross, I’m not saying there aren’t consequences for sin and there shouldn’t be Justice, but God’s mercy and love are beyond comprehension. We want to be forgiven but we don’t want to forgive. We want God to do something about all of the homelessness and the poor but we don’t want to give up our greed and our comfort to be the hands of feet of Jesus. We can speak with Isaiah, woe is me! Because I am a man of unclean lips and I live among the people of unclean lips in my eyes have beheld the Living God! But we don’t want to see how evil we are. But in that moment when we finally grasp the how revolting And disgusting our wickedness and sin is come up all of a sudden we have nowhere else to look but up and there we see Jesus the Lamb of God slain by the sins of the world and it’s the most beautiful thing because in the moment of salvation The Prostitute the addict the Pharisee, you know that equality of the world is craving for? You will never find it anywhere other than the cross. God forgives and gives us a robe of righteousness and desires us to take our time energy money and resources in adoration of him in true worship of Him worship in spirit and in truth. Nicodemus, Mary Magdalene, Simon the zealot, the zealots actually were part of the destruction of Jerusalem because in their desire to get people to fight they burned the stores of food, according to one historical account. Simon was a murderer. But there were people that weren’t so bad either. Nathaniel a man of integrity. All forgiven at the cross made into one body through Christ Jesus. I’m pretty sure they didn’t suddenly stop having thoughts about sinning. I’m pretty sure the disciples and the followers of Christ had battles against greed and pride just like the rest of us but God brought them together and creating something new. Something so beautiful. I believe your children will be blessed. I believe every word of God is true and when those doubts come you can take the word of God and you can destroy and trample on those lies. Are they baptized? If not please get them baptized and encourage them now. If they are not and they are too old and they’re not willing then yes your battle will be stronger and harder and you should have a village. But does not Jesus say that if you pray and ask him anything according to God’s will it will be done for you? Well the Bible says God is not willing that any should perish. So when you pray for your children’s salvation you have the agreement of God. Now we also pray that it might not be so difficult for them coming to Christ but this is a wicked generation. And I speak of the person in the mirror. We live in terrible times as James or Jude I believe it was said. There’s no respect for authority. The love of most will go cold. But he who endures to the end will be saved. Oh he who is never prideful again or never greedy again or never commit sexual immorality again or never falls back into addiction again? No, like pulling weeds out of a garden that is overgrown with weeds and putting beautiful things in those things will come out in time. But the word of God says he who endures to the end will be saved. Endures what? The one who continues in the faith that works by love grasping to Jesus for salvation and taking those steps to love those that are not lovable, which includes the person in the mirror. Self-hatred is abounding in this generation. But God adores you. The battle is for truth. There is no other name by which men can be saved except for the name of Jesus. That is the reality. That is the message of the cross. The gods of this world do not have your best interests at heart. They did not create the universe. They have very very limited power and they cannot save eternally. Medicine cannot keep you from hell. Humanism will not deliver you or me the moment we step through the door into eternity. There is no other name by which we can be saved. Jesus. Simply Jesus. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. It’s promises for all. But our children, no guarantee? The word guarantee is not used in the Bible so in that respect that is true. There is no guarantee. But there are the promises of God that he hears our prayers and answers them. There was a beautiful story and I wish the book had not gone out of print. My Russian teacher came out of Stalin Russia when he was 10. His grandmother chose to serve and be obedient to the state though she was a woman of great faith and love. And God sees the hearts and he directs our spirit in such difficult situations when Christianity was completely closed down. And so she could not tell her children or her children’s children her about her faith in Jesus Christ. But she told them Parables about a land flowing with milk and honey. She gave them bits and pieces and she prayed and prayed and she prayed. She gave her life when the secular father who had no knowledge of Jesus chose to escape Russia and they tried to take her with them and my Russian Professor was 10 at the time. This praying grandmother and mother. But during the flight when they went back to get her she was almost dead encompassed with worms and in tears they had to leave her behind and she died in Russia her faith sustaining her children and grandchildren that had never been verbally taught the faith. They were escaping across the border in a hay Barrel trying to hide under the hay with a double barrel airplane gun shooting at them. No knowledge of the name of Jesus or of Miracles the 10-year-old watched in amazement as the dirt pounded in behind and then in front of the wagon with the bullets but as he’s knock his head out of the hay he watched the bullets go around the wagon completely impossible. And he couldn’t understand. It was probably 10 years after their arrival to America that he came to Christ and eventually LED his father and the rest of his family to Jesus Christ and he became a pastor. And when he found the Bible he found the bits and pieces of the stories his grandmother would tell. No guarantee? No. But the promises of God will never fail you.
Bathsheba the few times we get to see her was a gentle loving soul. She had an amazing spirit that was not angry or bitter but gentle. Loving the unlovely. And God is a just God because there were a number of Sons of David that were in line before Solomon to be king, but God shows bathsheba’s son, Solomon to be the next king of Israel and to build the temple. He granted him wisdom above any other human. However Solomon did not have the love for God that King David did and instead of taking warning from his father’s sin he committed more sin sexually because the Old Testament commanded Kings not to have too many wives. King David in the Old Testament was commanded not to take foreign wives wives that were not Jewish, and the wages of sin is death. And it was heartbreaking but God was there in the midst of the Heartbreak comforting. What’s interesting and sometimes people don’t understand and I’m just since this is a public post going to explain, anybody could become Jewish. If there was for example a princess in another culture that worshiped foreign gods she could follow in the footsteps of Ruth the moabitus and she could become Jewish. God invited anybody to come with the exception of the first seven tribes that were destroyed but even there there was Grace with the gibbonites who chose to surrender to God. God is greatly merciful in all are invited to Israel if you are willing to give up your gods and willing to come into Obedience of the laws of God and into his protection. And that was the old Covenant! How much greater is the New Covenant in the blood of Our Savior Jesus Christ. All were invited into the kingdom of God. And the 400 years that Israel spent as slaves in Egypt were not wasted because it said many were coming up out with them when they left Egypt. It was not just jews. Others had joined and become part of Israel worshiping the Living God and that has always been God’s desire for people to come into His safe place in protection because there is no other savior besides our God.
but one of God’s commands is forgiveness and Bathsheba walked with God. And she was blessed and even amidst the great sin that Solomon foolishly committed against God which was not a lack of wisdom but of love for God, God did not take his spirit away from him as he had with Saul. Because King David understood in his moment when he had to face his Wicked sin and how damnably he had behaved, he wasn’t worried about the kingship, he wasn’t worried about anything other than God please don’t take your presence from me don’t leave me don’t take your Holy Spirit from me! And you see David’s love for God and for the people. When he sinned against God in the counting and a plague came against Israel there was a point where David hit his knees and said God let the sin be upon me and my family these are just sheep! And God in his Mercy held his hand and no more were killed by the plague and God answered David’s prayer and the guilt was put upon David’s family and born at the cross.
I do not believe the devil has any right over my children. I know they have free will and I know that God is God. But God is not willing that any should perish. And I agree with your mother as she was standing even when we fail which I have God is the Redeemer God is the restorer he is the savior. And there are days when we are fighting the battle and we are strong and we are on our knees and there are days well we have nothing left but this one thing I know my redeemer lives and with my eyes I will see God and I know that every promise God has spoken he will fulfill. He will not take his Spirit from my children. He has promised. And I pray that and I stand and I believe for my children and their spouses and for my children and their children’s children I know I do not believe God will force anybody into heaven, but he is the creator who causes life where there was nothing. Abraham was blessed and God promised Abraham that all of the families on the Earth would be blessed through him. All means all. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and are Justified freely through his grace. God promised to bless Ishmael whose mother Hagar rejected by Godly Sarah who had used her servant as basically a sex slave in order to produce Sun for Abraham and then hager’s child would have become hers and that was the current culture. God had called Abraham out and I don’t have right to judge Sarah I don’t say that she was doing wrong but the Lord didn’t condemn her or judge or he just walked alongside them in the knowledge they had in that time and season and God promised to bless Ishmael. Forgive me I don’t believe people can be blessed if everybody’s just going to hell. And I could be wrong and I know many theologians will disagree with me and I don’t understand many things but I know there will be a renewal of all things. And I know that as Hagar cried out for her son God heard her cries and the cries of the boy dying in the wilderness, this does not negate the Messianic promise, but the truth of the word of God demolishes any argument that the children of God are children of God through anything other than grace through faith. Yes we are called to live more Godly lives. So, have we given up our pride and our grade yet? Because greed is just as damnable as soon as sexual immorality in the eyes of God. My computer is not working right it will not allow me to put in paragraphs. I have to stop now because my brain is done. But you can know without a shadow of a doubt the Lord hears your prayers for your children and answers them. God is with you, the only thing we are to fear is God. Now I would be afraid, more afraid than anything, to walk away from God or to not walk in what I’m given. Some days I have given the ability to pray. Other days all I can do is clean to the Bloodshed for my sin and trust that God receives the offering simple offering of believing he is enough. It is finished I’m sorry the writing wasn’t better but I pray it be blessing that those who believe in Jesus Christ will fight for that faith and believe. Just trust him. Just believe what he says and Obey and do it. Be baptized. Study the word and go to church and be in a Godly group of Believers under a Godly pastor. Receive Holy Communion. And fight with everything in you to not let those things go. Don’t say you don’t need other people. That’s a lie. Don’t say you don’t need to go to church. Those are damnable lies. God commands it because we are a body and you can’t cut the hand off the body and expect it to live. Isaiah 44:3 Isaiah 59:21
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