The Key of Family Time

You are deeply blessed if you have a devoted brother or sister with whom to pray. Indeed, the most powerful intercessors I’ve known have come in twos and threes. “I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven” (Matthew 18:19, NKJV).

Some Christians call this “agreement praying.” The place where this kind of prayer takes place most powerfully is the home. My wife, Gwen, and I pray together daily, and I believe it holds our family together. We prayed for each of our children during their growing up years, that not one of them would be lost. We prayed about their friendships and relationships and for their future mates, and now we’re doing the same for our grandchildren.

Very few Christian families take time for prayer in the home. I personally can testify that I am in the ministry today because of the power of family prayer. When I was a child — no matter where my siblings and I were playing, in the front yard or down the street — my mother would call out the front door of our home, “David, Jerry, Juanita, Ruth, it’s prayer time!” (My brother Don wasn’t born yet.)

The whole neighborhood knew about our family prayer time. Sometimes I hated to hear that call, and I griped and groaned about it. Something clearly happened in those times of prayer, though, with the Spirit moving amid our family and touching our souls.

Maybe you can’t see yourself holding family prayer. Maybe you have a spouse who isn’t cooperative or a child who’s rebellious. Beloved, it doesn’t matter who chooses not to be involved. You can still come to the kitchen table and bow your head and pray. That will serve as your household’s prayer time, and every family member will know it.