Prayer Target: Families

There is an all out assault from the kingdom of darkness on families and marriages. This is not just targeted against Christians, but against families in general. Divorce rates are way up in much of the Western world. For instance, in California, an average marriage will last less than three years. Even when the families are not torn apart by divorce, they are often still torn apart.. the father who works so many hours that his children never see him; the mother who has to hold down a job as well as take care of the housework and does not have time to spend with her spouse or children; the child who is glued to the television or to the internet and has closer relationships with "online friends" that they have never met face-to-face than they do with their own brothers and sisters.

God developed the family unit as a bases of support and comfort for each person. Satan has been targeting this God-appointed structure for many years and has made significant inroads against it. First he wants to destroy the God-appointed structures of support and then he wants to destroy each person. It is time to stand up and take back this ground for God.

If you do **not** come from a "disfunctional" or "broken" home, you are in the minority. First, thank and praise God for the good family you have and then speak and proclaim His blessings over it. Ask God to keep the family healthy and well and then pray for His will to be done for the families of your friends and of your brothers and sisters in the Lord.

If you come from a struggling or disfunctional family, ask God to come into the situation and to bring His glory and to transform the situation by transforming each person in your family. Take authority over the strategies of the enemy against your family. Pray for a healing and restoration of relationship as much as possible. Pray for God's presense and His grace and His protection and His perfect will to come into your family. Ask God to empower you to forgive in any area where you need to forgive family members who you feel have wronged you. Pray as He leads you.. speak His blessings over your household and call it into "lining up" with His plans for it. God desires good for your family.

If you don't have a family then pray and bless those who do. Speak His protection over other households and at the same time, ask and trust Him to bind you together with ones who will become like a family to you.. because God does not want you alone, and He will provide for you.

Finally, regardless of your state, pray for those in the ministry and in political leadership.. Satan has an all out offense going against these families.. he wants to destroy them and he is working overtime towards this goal. Speak God's blessing and protection on these families, pray that they be united together and built up in Him and strengthened and in the center of God's will.

Lord, thank you for custom building a support structure for each of us where we are to be loved and cared for. God, we bless you plans and purposes in this and we call each of our families to being lining up with your prefect will for them.

Lord, restore where the enemy has torn down. Heal where there has been broken relationships. Bring your goodness, grace, love and caring where this has been missing. Empower parents to be good parents and to be effective in making their children feel loved, wanted and cared for. Strengthen the bond between husband and wife.. rekindle the flame and stir their love for one another, as well as their love for their children. Strengthen the tie between brothers and sisters.. make them to care, support, protect and take care of one another.

Bless and protect and restore our households. Lord, through the power and authority of Jesus Christ, we call each household back into the center of God's plan for you.. we speak God's blessings over each family and we proclaim and release the love and support and caring had healthiness of God back into the family structure.

Amen.

Please feel free to pray into this topic during the week, to build on one another's prayers and also to discuss insights you have on the week's prayer target. Post your prayers and /or discussion to the prayer-school list by emailing them to this address: prayer-school@xc.org

Please limit your prayer/discussion to the current week's prayer target; please do not pray into or discuss previous week's prayer targets. However, if you have a praise report to answered prayer from a previous week's prayer activity, please feel free to post them any time.