Prayer For a Fragile Next Generation

Father in heaven, You are our God and it is You we seek to know and to understand Your ways, Your thoughts, and Your expectations for our lives.  We present ourselves before You this morning, bending the knees of our hearts in total submission to see what You will say unto us so that we can do Your will, oh God.  There is so much that we see that seems right to us, but we caution ourselves because we know the cost of being wrong about some matters of great importance and consequence to our future and the future of those around us that depend upon us in various ways.  Some of us have known the pain of going our own way, and some of us know the consequences of knowing Your ways, but choosing to pursue paths that we knew were not consistent with Your way of righteousness.  In those times when we have proceeded into those unrighteous paths You have shown us the extent Your love and commitment will go to correct and chasten us to turn back unto You, the God of our salvation.  Thank You for the painful love and discomfort that guides us safely back to Your loving arms
We pray to You Oh God, and bring before You our children, and our children’s children, and even the generations of children beyond them if they are still living and waiting for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.  We see before our eyes a generation that we have raised up who are turning either away from the spiritual foundations of their parents, or they have chosen to pursue a different way that they say is Your leading to other places of worship and fellowship.  When they become of age we can only counsel them and trust the promise You have given unto us, that if we train them up in the way they should go, when they are old they will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6).  You have taught us that every generation that proceeds from the righteous ways of the elders is under the attack of delusion and deception by the Devil’s use of the world and false prophets and teachers to draw them away from the covering of the generation that has been their covering.  If they are in Your will and are being sent to serve You in other places, we pray Your abundant blessing upon them for the praise of You glory, but if not, we pray that You will please block their pathways, and through whatever means necessary rescue them from the infective influences that has spread amongst them to follow the way of their own ways.  Please, we pray Your hand of intervention in this matter, and we give You thanks and praise for it, in Jesus Name, amen and amen.
Pastor Wayne Cockrell