"PRAYING SCRIPTURES ...

... for Your Adult Children"

{moving this blog post forward from the 12th to the 19th so it is the most current}

Trusting God with the Ones You Love

by

Jodie Berndt

who’s continuing with an excellent series she has written "Praying the Scriptures..." for your children, your teens, and now your adult children. I wish I could say that I have read all of them as I prayed for my children and others, but this is my first one by Jodie Berndt, although I have read many books on this topic by authors like Stormie Omartian, Beth Moore, Ann Spangler, James Banks, Germaine Copeland, etc. so I am familiar enough with praying the scriptures and good authors to which I would add Jodie Berndt. Zondervan often publishes good books by good authors that I return to frequently. I can count on them.

I am so thankful that I was given the chance to read this one after years of praying. Not only would I highly recommend this book as a book for "praying for your adult children", it is excellent for learning how to pray the scriptures, pray for yourself, pray for your children at every stage of their life, pray for friend's ... it's an excellent reference with many "prayer principles" inserted as you read through personal stories combined with practical Biblical prayers and Scriptures! This is one of my favorite prayer principles:

"It's never too late to start praying God's best for your children."

[I'm working on a document to gather all these because they are so worthwhile. I could have and may take the time to share more of these.]
When I read this above in the 3 things Jodie states in the first chapter of "The Battle Begins" along with: "you are not alone" and "you can really have peace, even in life's messiest moments", I knew this book - of "joyful stories of answered prayers, lives changed, relationships healed, troubles resolved" and struggles of real people in families, as we trust God with them, and improve our prayer life - is for me, and anyone serious in improving their prayers, learning to pray Scriptures, and applying Scriptures to prayers for others, especially adult children, perhaps "facing harder circumstances than when they were young, but we can hold on to this truth: God has not changed." This definitely convinced me, as each chapter ended with "Poised for Prayer", and then guided us through Scriptures to pray.

What I truly appreciate is that it's meant for less than perfect children with real life problems or situations. {I mention this because of a less than favorable review I read} What is true in that same review is that the best resource is the Bible itself, but as far as I read there are plenty of examples of prayers using the Bible and Scripture throughout this book. If there was an index in the back of the book of the many Scriptures used (something I would recommend to the publishers to add), I could better tell you exactly how many. 

The book is divided into 5 parts with 4-5 particular prayer needs in each one: 
1) Praying for Your Adult Child (and yourself included in each part);  
2) Praying for Your Adult Child's Relationships; 
3) Praying through the Milestones in Your Adult Child's Life; 4) Praying for Your Adult Child's Health, Safety and Well-being; 5) Praying for Your Adult Child's Victory over Temptation; with an Epilogue, "Is Jesus Enough?" 

An example of a particular prayer need of Part 5 is "Praying for Recovery from an Addiction", with such varied content such as Part 3's milestones which includes: a good place to live, when your children have children, and a job; with Part 4 adding "praying through a job loss or financial difficulty" as well as "health crisis", "mental and emotional health", "struggles with infertility", "protection from harm" ... as I've mentioned this book is helpful, not only to pray for your adult children, but for yourself and others, not just your own adult children ... some prayers are included for grandchildren also, as in Part 3. I know without a doubt, I could pray many of these for myself, I have and will continue to use this for reference. I will go back to this book often; daily, weekly and in the future, as I pray Scriptures and "trust God with the ones I love" - all of them, and believe. I will continue to learn to pray God's Word back to Him because it will not return void. (Isaiah 55:11).

You can read this from cover to cover, or skip to just the particular prayer need as I did at first, then came back and read cover to cover, returning often to sections of much needed prayer. It is a small, compact book which makes it easy to carry with you and use often. I found courage and strength in using this book and praying God's promises. It is filled with practical insights and so much hope and encouragement. 

{This book came at just the right time for me, on my birthday, after learning my dearest sister-in-law had passed away; and my yet to meet, precious online sister-in-Christ, was also on her last walk to meet with Our Lord Jesus, as our adult daughter was facing all kinds of heavy trials and circumstances of battles for her living and children ... so it is a gift from Julie, at Handlebar, that I will treasure, because I totally had forgotten requesting this, but so glad that Julie did not and God had perfect timing. Thank you Julie, Handlebar for Zondervan and of course, God!}

Disclosure: I received this book free from the publisher in return for an honest review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTCs 16 CFR, Part 255