Pray Without Ceasing for your Children

I believe that it is safe to say that virtually all Christians pray regularly for their children. We pray for their present, and we pray for their future. Perhaps, precisely because we spend so much time in prayer for our children we sometimes find it difficult to pray from a fresh perspective. Today I would like to share some of the ways I pray for my children that may help other parents see prayer for their children in a little different light.

First, I set aside a specific time to pray for my children. My drive to work each morning takes between twenty and twenty-five minutes. I begin praying for them as I pull out of my driveway, and since I am alone in the car with the radio turned off, I know that I have a good amount of uninterrupted time to devote to prayer. If I do not finish on my drive to work, however, I finish on the return trip.

Second, I pray aloud. If I try to pray silently, I find that my mind begins to wander, so I pray in conversational tones.

Third, I pray for my children in the order of their ages. Since I have ten children, it is easy to “leave one out” if I do not follow a system. Therefore, I begin with the oldest and pray straight down the line to the youngest.

Fourth, I pray my children’s names. I have not heard of anyone else who does this, but I think it is a great way to begin prayer for each child. As we all know, every name has a meaning, so I pray that each child will become the person his or her name declares him to be.

Of course, some names are more obvious than others. My easy prayer names are Alexandra—helper of mankind; Christopher—Christ bearer; Benjamin—Son of my right hand; Israel—One who has power with God; Gabrielle—Woman of God; and Judah—The praise of the Lord.

My other children’s names took a little more thought when I first began praying them. Francesca is taken from the word frankincense and means “free”, but frankincense was used by the Jewish priests to burn before the Lord. Therefore, when I pray for Francesca, I ask God to help her to live a life that is free from the bondage of sin, and I also pray that her life will be a sweet aroma in His nostrils.

Dominic means “the day of the Lord.” When I pray for him, I pray that he will constantly tell those he comes in contact with that Jesus is returning soon and that they must prepare the way for Him in their hearts, in their lives, in their families, in their communities, in their nations, and in the world. I pray that Dominic’s constant theme will be, “Prepare the way for the Lord.”

Victoria means “victorious”. I pray that her life will reflect victory in Jesus in everything that she does so that when people look at her they will see what it means to overcome the world through faith in Jesus Christ.

Stefan means “a crown”. This one took some thinking on my part, but then I remembered that in his first letter to the Corinthians Paul likens the Christian life to a race. He says that to win the race and be awarded the crown we must deny ourselves the things that will keep us from doing our very best.  “Like an athlete I punish my body, treating it roughly, training it to do what it should, not what it wants to. Otherwise I fear that after enlisting others for the race, I myself might be declared unfit and ordered to stand aside.” (I Corinthians 9:27) When I pray for Stefan, I ask the Lord to help him run his race in such a way that everyone with whom he comes in contact will be able to see that he is running his race to win the crown and that they will be encouraged to join the race to receive their own crown that God has waiting for them.

Fifth, I do not pray that God will simply bless my children. I cannot imagine anything worse than having them blessed if they are outside His will. I pray that if they are not living as they should He will withhold His blessings and will call them back to Him.

Sixth, I pray that our entire family will love what God loves, hate what God hates, and want what God wants. I pray that we will all love to go to church and that if any of us is in a church where we are not receiving proper teaching that God will put us in a church where we will hear His word preached honestly. I pray that we will all love to read the word of God,  that we will all love prayer and appreciate the privilege of being able to go to God with our petitions, and that we will all love praise and worship. In addition, I pray that we will each find the way in which we can praise and worship God best according to the abilities He has given us.

Finally, I pray for revival and ask God to allow each of us to have our full part in it.  He has put us on this earth to serve Him, and there is no better way to do that than to bring His message to the lost.

Remember, there is no wrong way to pray for your children. Just find a quiet place, open your heart, and allow God to teach you pray for the most precious gift He can give you. When you do, I think you will be surprised at the ways in which He will lead you and strengthen your prayers for those people you love most.

Joyce Swann is a nationally-known author and speaker. Her own story of teaching her ten children from the first grade through master’s degrees before their seventeenth birthdays is retold in her book, Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother. Her novel, The Warrior, about how one woman's prayers change the lives of those around her, is available on Kindle and in paperback. For more information visit her website at Frontier 2000 or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup.

Pray Without Ceasing for the Sick

On May 5, 1995, I was run over by my own van and was hurt so badly that when the EMS worker who headed up the team saw me, he thought that I was dead. I sustained multiple injuries, including a number of broken bones, and my recovery was slow. That experience made me aware as nothing else could have how important it is to pray for the sick.

I had always been a believer in the power of prayer, and I had “prayed through” many difficult situations prior to my accident. I was, therefore, surprised at just how unprepared I was to pray for myself when I needed prayer most. If I had not lived through this experience, I would never have known that often people who are virtual prayer warriors at other times are unable to pray for themselves when they need healing.

The surgeries and medications played a big role in rendering me useless for prayer. I was not angry, and I was not having a crisis of faith, but I was unable to focus, and I could not feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. Fortunately, other Christians came forward and did the praying for me that I was unable to do for myself.

All sorts of people from all sorts of places began to pray for me. Our church prayed. Mary Pride, a friend in the homeschooling community, put out the word to the readers of her magazine, and people all over this nation began to pray. Various people in El Paso whom I had never met heard about my situation, and they began to pray. Several nurses at the hospital told me that they were praying for me.

One night my daughter Francesca was visiting me at the hospital when two men whom I had never seen entered my room. As sick as I was, I remember thinking that I would not want to meet them in a dark alley. One was tall and thin with long unkempt hair and the other was short and muscular and covered with tattoos. They did not smile or make small talk. They simply announced, “We heard about you and we came to pray for you.”

Then they touched the edge of the blanket covering me as lightly as possible and began to pray aloud. As they prayed, the entire room filled with the presence of the Holy Spirit; the power was unmistakable. When they finished praying, the two men turned and left the room. My daughter finally broke the silence, “Now, that’s prayer!”

I am so grateful that God provided hundreds of people to pray for me because, if He had not, I have no doubt that I would have died. I would never have finished raising my children. I would never have seen my grandchildren. I would never have written my books. I would never have been able to share my faith with the many people who have come into my life during the past eighteen years.

The next time you are asked to pray for someone who is sick, remember that you may be standing in the gap for a brother or sister in Christ who cannot pray for himself. You may be standing in the gap for an unbeliever who will never see Heaven if he does not live so that he can come to know Christ as his savior. You may be helping someone finish raising their children or allowing them to see their grandchildren. You may be allowing someone more time to tell the world about Jesus.

Joyce Swann is a nationally-known author and speaker. Her own story of teaching her ten children from the first grade through master’s degrees before their seventeenth birthdays is retold in her book, Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother. Her novel, The Warrior, about how one woman's prayers change the lives of those around her, is available on Kindle and in paperback. For more information visit her website at Frontier 2000 or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup.

Pray Without Ceasing for the Brokenhearted

A new Krazy Glue commercial says, “We believe that almost everything in this country is broken.” Most of us would agree that there is much in our nation that needs fixing—our schools, our infrastructure, our economy—the list is endless.  Yet, when compiling our lists of things we want fixed, we often forget about the broken hearts of millions of Americans that can only be healed by God’s perfect love.

It seems that every day another tragedy becomes headline news. We watch in horror as details of the school shooting at Newtown or the bombing at the Boston Marathon are made public, but almost as soon as the images disappear from our television screens, we tend to push them from our minds. It is difficult to think about the victims and their families whose lives have been forever changed by one moment of cruelty, and so we refuse to dwell on those tragedies.

Yet, God sees every broken heart and feels the pain of everyone who mourns. In prophesying about the Messiah, Isaiah says, “…the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the suffering and afflicted. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted, to announce liberty to captives and to open the eyes of the blind. He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of God’s favor to them has come…He will give beauty for ashes, joy instead of mourning, praise instead of heaviness.” (Isaiah 61:1-3)

What a promise! God says that He will turn around the lives of those who suffer and fill them with beauty, joy, and praise. When we pray, therefore, we need to remember to pray that those who mourn will receive these precious gifts from God’s hand. Jesus promised that He will never leave us or forsake us, (John 14:18) but when people suffer it is sometimes difficult to remember that promise.

Therefore, when we pray for those who have known a great loss, let’s pray specifically that they will feel the presence of God’s Spirit in their lives. Let’s pray that all that God has promised will come to fruition in their lives, and they will experience the peace that goes beyond their present circumstances and draws them into a healing relationship with Jesus Christ. He and He alone can mend broken hearts, so when we pray we must remember to take the brokenhearted to Him so that they can receive the fullness of those promises.

Joyce Swann is a nationally-known author and speaker. Her own story of teaching her ten children from the first grade through master’s degrees before their seventeenth birthdays is retold in her book, Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother. Her novel, The Warrior, about how one woman's prayers change the lives of those around her, is available on Kindle and in paperback. For more information visit her website at Frontier 2000 or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup.

Pray Without Ceasing for the Saved

We have all heard countless sermons on praying for the unsaved, praying for our country when it is on the wrong track, praying for dishonest politicians, praying for wrongs to be righted, praying for almost everything that impacts us in a negative manner. But, how many sermons have we heard on praying for the saved; praying for the godly who are living normal lives going quietly about their work and doing the right things? I, for one, have never heard a single sermon on this topic.

We tend to pray for unsaved family members and acquaintances while ignoring those who are faithful Christians. It is a little like giving all of the attention to the bad child while the other obedient children are ignored. We do, of course, pray for the saved when they are in danger—missionaries serving in dangerous areas, for instance. We also pray for the saved when they become ill or have a terrible accident that threatens their lives. Yet, we rarely pray for them with the same level of concern and the same fervor that we pray for the unsaved. Likewise, we may spend years praying for someone to accept Christ as his/her savior and then stop praying when they do.

Why is it important to pray for the saved? It is important because those who have a relationship with Jesus Christ are the backbone of this nation. The Bible says, “If my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:13-15) This is an interesting scripture because the Bible does not say that if there are enough people who are called by his name; it says that God’s healing of our land depends on the prayers and actions of the saved and their willingness to turn from their sins and seek God. 

We should, of course, always pray for the unsaved, but after they accept Jesus we need to continue to pray for them. We should pray daily that every Christian in this world will be strengthened and filled with faith. We should pray that they will be bold in their witness and bold in their prayer lives. We should pray that our fellow Christians will be wise and unshakable in their resolve to follow Jesus.

God has always accomplished great things using a few faithful people. When you pray for the unsaved, remember to also pray for those who are fighting the greatest battles of our time on their knees. And remember, as long as God’s people are willing to seek Him and turn away from sin, He will hear us and heal our land.  

Joyce Swann is a nationally-known author and speaker. Her own story of teaching her ten children from the first grade through master’s degrees before their seventeenth birthdays is retold in her book, Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother. Her novel, The Warrior, about how one woman's prayers change the lives of those around her, is available on Kindle and in paperback. For more information visit her website at Frontier 2000 or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup.

Pray Without Ceasing for Our Nation

The Bible tells us to pray for those in authority over us. It seems to me that most people interpret that to mean that we are to pray for God’s blessings on our current elected officials. While that is probably true to some extent, I believe that there are some important considerations that we sometimes overlook.

First, when God established this country, He gave us a brand new form of government. We began fresh with a government of elected officials who were put there to act within the framework of the Constitution and to serve the people. As soon as our independence was secured, we were able to move forward as a free people.

Second, our founding fathers recognized that if our elected officials were not serving the people and acting responsibly, we should throw them out and replace them with those who would. It is our responsibility to demand just, honest government, and when we do not get it, we need to replace those who are at fault.

Third, if we have corrupt elected officials it is our own fault. We can never say that there is nothing we can do about the mess that our government is in because we have chosen these people and given them permission to do make and enforce the laws that direct our lives.

Because of our particular system of government, I believe that we should begin to think differently about how we pray for those in authority over us. Today I am going to share with our readers how I pray daily for our nation.

When Jim DeMint announced in late December that he was leaving the Senate to become the new head of the Heritage Foundation, I began to pray for him by name. At the time of his announcement DeMint said that he was going to explore how best to “get the message out” to the American people. Therefore, each day when I pray for him I ask God to, first, show him what the message should be. Then I ask that God will show him how to get that message out. Next, I pray that DeMint will find the right candidates to promote—ones that will do exactly what God has put them there to do, no more and no less.

I then pray that God will give us the right candidates for 2014 for both houses of Congress—that He will raise up men and women of God who will be his “Daniels”. The Bible says that Daniel was “faithful and honest and made no mistakes” in the performing of his duties as one of three presidents who administered Darius’ kingdom. (Daniel 6:1-6) This is my prayer for these men and women of God—that they will look neither to the left nor to the right but only at God so that they will make no mistakes in the performing of their duties.

We will have honest, just government only when we demand it. It is God’s will that everyone be saved, but it is not His will that everyone should be allowed to serve in government. We should not pray for blessings on those who are godless. Instead we should pray that God will raise up men and women who will obey Him. We should pray that He will remove from office anyone who will not do what they were put there to do. And we should pray that our nation will become what He created it to be. Most of all, we need to understand that our nation will never reach its full potential until we choose to be governed by the godly.

Joyce Swann is a nationally-known author and speaker. Her own story of teaching her ten children from the first grade through master’s degrees before their seventeenth birthdays is retold in her book, Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother. Her novel, The Warrior, about how one woman's prayers change the lives of those around her, is available on Kindle and in paperback. For more information visit her website at Frontier 2000 or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup.

The Greatest Generation

On March 18, 2013, my step-father died on his ninety-first birthday. He was one of the few remaining veterans of World War II, and this fact was made even more significant because he had remained in the Air Force until his retirement in 1965.

Bill’s health had been declining for some time, but we did not believe that his death would come immediately. Therefore, when I had made plans to leave my home in El Paso, Texas, to travel to Southeastern Kansas to list the home where he and my mother had resided until they went into assisted living this past December, I had no idea that I would not only be preparing the house for sale and listing it, but I would be attending his funeral and taking care of all of the things that need to be done when a veteran dies.

My sister took a week off from her job and flew in to attend the funeral and help me prepare the house for sale. After the funeral, as the two of us went through my step-father’s personal effects, we discovered many little things about him that we had not known—nothing of importance, just those bits of trivia that contribute to all our lives.  For instance, I had always been puzzled about why Bill began his military career in the Navy and had then gone into the Air Force. As my sister and I went through the paperwork to determine which government departments we needed to notify, we discovered that the Air Force had originally been part of the Navy. He had already completed several years of military service before the two were separated and he became part of the Air Force. As we examined his birth certificate and marriage license and looked at the medals he had been awarded during the war, we came across something that truly amazed me. There among his personal effects was a small New Testament with gilded pages bound in red leather. The front page said that this New Testament was presented to all military personal upon entering military service.

I could not help but think about the contrast between the attitude of our government then and now. Now our military chaplains are not allowed to pray in the name of Jesus lest they “offend” someone. Then, our government not only armed its servicemen with guns, they armed them with the word of God with Jesus Christ at the center.

Tom Brokaw coined the phrase “the greatest generation” when speaking of our World War II generation, and we tend to think that they were great because they were brave and patriotic and hardworking. But were they really any more brave or patriotic or hardworking than today’s soldiers who have sacrificed so much in Iraq and Afghanistan? I don’t think so.

I think that the reason so many exceptional people came out of that World War II generation is that they had a connection with Jesus Christ that helped them overcome almost insurmountable odds. They fought for a nation whose government had not yet forgotten that God made this country great and if we are going to remain great we will keep Him at its center. They fought for a nation that sent its men into battle carrying a Bible as well as a gun. It was that willingness to recognize that we are, indeed, a nation under God that made this country and that generation great.

Joyce Swann is co-author of The Chosen, a dystopian novel about the battle of one U.S. family to restore the Constitution and stop the indefinite detention provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act.  For more information, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net

Welcome to Walmart

As our nation’s debt nears the 17 trillion dollar mark, I have begun working on a plan to get the spending under control and restore prosperity using a common-sense approach to government.  As a wife and the mother of ten children I know that when one is faced with the necessity of reigning in the spending, there is no better place to begin than at Walmart. The following are some of my recommendations for the federal government to follow to reign in their own spending. The list is not exhaustive, but I think it is a good start:

First, we should adopt the Walmart approach when making all federal government purchases. The federal government will set a price based on the fair market value that they will pay for each item, whether it is a transport plane or a paper clip. They will then publish that price and allow suppliers to apply to supply that particular item at the listed price. Suppliers will be chosen according to their ability to fulfill orders quickly and efficiently. Quality control checks will quickly detect substandard materials, and any supplier who does not meet the criteria of timeliness and quality will lose its contract effective immediately.

Next, all TSA employees will be replaced by senior citizens who will be trained by Walmart to function very much like Walmart greeters. This will save the taxpayers billions of dollars because we seniors will be willing to wear our own dockers, polo shirts, and tennis shoes that we purchase ourselves out of the money in our own bank accounts. The only “uniform” we will require will be the familiar Walmart vest with the word “Walmart” removed and the initials “TSA” added.

An additional benefit to having Walmart greeters staff the TSA is that we seniors have enough life experience to know that while the 92 year old woman in the wheelchair is almost certainly wearing Depends, she is not wearing a suicide bomber’s vest. We will, therefore, simply smile and allow her to pass without harassing her.

We also have the benefit of having been raised in a kinder gentler world where it is considered rude and unacceptable to grope a stranger’s body parts while he or she is attempting to pass from the metal detector to the boarding gate. No more stuffing of hands under the clothing of housewives while lines of would-be passengers look on to make certain that the wire the metal detector picked up really is the underwire in her bra.

My plan will also require that Sam’s Club, the big box store set up to allow small business owners to purchase various items at discounted prices, participate. Because I have lived on the Mexican border for virtually all of my adult life, I am well acquainted with the mindless inefficiency of the federal government in supplying work visas, student visas, and all sorts of other permissions that allow immigrants to be in this country legally. We who live in border towns are well aware of the dilemma of the Mexican people who are in this country legally but have never been issued a laminated card proving their legal status. Instead, they carry with them—sometimes for ten years or more—a grimy, frayed paper issued by our government that verifies their legal status while they wait to receive the much coveted laminated card.

As a long-time member of Sam’s Club, I can attest that when one applies for membership at Sam’s, they are able to complete your application, establish your eligibility, and issue a laminated card with your picture and membership number within minutes. I, therefore, strongly urge the feds to turn over all aspects of issuing these visas to Sam’s Club.

An added benefit of having Sam’s Club oversee this function is that they never lose track of their members. They send emails and hard copy catalogs to their members on a regular basis. They always know whether a membership is current, and whenever a member whose membership is coming up for renewal is shopping in a Sam’s Club, that information appears on the screen of the cash register the moment the card is swiped. The clerk then offers to renew that membership on the spot. A club that efficient will not experience the problem the federal government seems to have in keeping up with those who enter the country on visas and then simply “disappear” never to be found again.

Finally, I propose that we set up Bentonville, Arkansas, as our provisional capital. (Please note that the definition of a provisional capital is, “a town or city chosen as an interim base of operations due to some difficulty in retaining or establishing control of a different metropolitan area.) Since all training for all federal positions will, of necessity, be done at the Walmart headquarters, this only makes sense. Both houses of Congress will need to move their offices to Bentonville as well. In this environment they can be expected to make better decisions and to get their heads on straight.

In Bentonville the lavish and costly lifestyles of our elected officials, which we taxpayers are currently funding, will be replaced by activities such as clog dancing, AKA Irish step dancing, quilting, and fiddle playing. A special dinner out will consist of a bucket of KFC eaten at a picnic table in a local park. We can only hope that this will help them better connect with their constituents.

Washington will remain the "permanent capital" of the United States. This will allow tourists to go to the city to tour the White House and the various monuments and museums. While other elected officials will govern from Bentonville, the president will continue to live in the White House in D.C. He will be “under White House arrest” so to speak. He will not be allowed to leave the city limits unless he is on official federal government business, such as inspecting damage done by a natural disaster or traveling abroad on official business. No more golfing, shooting hoops, languishing on the beach, or stuffing his face with lobster at Martha’s Vineyard on the taxpayer’s dime. These rules will apply to all future presidents as well.

I believe that it is time to send a message to all our elected officials, and that message is, “Welcome to Walmart!”

Joyce Swann is co-author of The Chosen, a dystopian novel about the battle of one U.S. family to restore the Constitution and stop the indefinite detention provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act.  For more information, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net