Effective praying is precision praying. Prayer is most effective when it has as its backbone reliable substance in the word of God. The Bible says that when God sends forth the rain, He aims for a precise result. The same is with the word of God, after it is sent forth, it does not return to God void. It accomplishes exactly what it was sent forth to accomplish. Scripture even assures us that God watches over his word to perform with razor precision what He intended.

It is therefore imperative that when we pray, we pray with precision. When we pray we must pray God’s word. In this series, I would like to take us on a journey, an adventure to discover the power of precision praying.

I will seek to show you examples of how to pray for various aspects of our lives. So today, I would like for us to begin with the privilege of parenting. Recently my status as a father was upgraded to father of not one, but two teenagers – both of whom are girls.

It is an absolute joy raising my girls together with my wife who is incredibly phenomenal with them. But I have come under an acute awareness that I need to adjust my prayer strategy to something more than – “just bless them Lord!” I need to become a bit more precise as the kind of blessing I want God to release in their lives.

In The Spiritual Warrior’s Prayer Guide, Quin Sherrer and Ruthanne Garlock, describe how we can take the word of God and apply it to “every area of life, whether in illness, financial trouble, depression, concern for wayward loved ones, unemployment, or spiritual confusion.”

Take a look at what they outline in their book about how exactly parents can pray for their children:

• That Jesus Christ be formed in our children (see Galatians 4:19);
• That our children—the seed of the righteous—will be delivered from the evil one (see Proverbs 11:21, KJV; Matthew 6:13);
• That our children will be taught of the Lord and their peace will be great (see Isaiah 54:13);
• That they will train themselves to discern good from evil and have a good conscience toward God (see Hebrews 5:14; 1 Peter 3:21);
• That God’s laws will be in their minds and on their hearts (see Hebrews 8:10);
• That they will choose companions who are wise—not fools, nor sexually immoral, nor drunkards, nor idolaters, nor slanderers, nor swindlers (see Proverbs 13:20; 1 Corinthians 5:11);
• That they will remain sexually pure and keep themselves only for their spouse, asking God for His grace to keep such a commitment (see Ephesians 5:3,31-33);
• That they will honor their parents (see Ephesians 6:1-3).

In short, “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart,” and we are going to pray for our children, we must pray the word.  Usually this phrase (word of God) in Hebrews refers to the message of salvation, but here the “word” is pictured as God’s personal utterance. It is living and active. When we speak God’s personal utterance over our children in prayer, that word comes alive – it actively pierces and provokes their innermost thoughts and intentions. When we expose our children to the word of God, and bathe that word in precision prayer, the results are dynamic and powerful. So I encourage you not only teach them the word of God, use that word with precision in prayer.

Isaiah 55:11

Hebrews 4:12