Create a House of Prayer for all Nations
Our family left the church house and headed for one of the closest Mexican restaurants. As I devoured the chips, my wife ordered lunch for the kids. Once it arrived, my son was ready to spill more rice than he ate and my daughter was already covering her tortilla in enough butter to make this restaurant start charging for butter the moment we left. Before we could enjoy the fajitas, though, we gave thanks for our food. On this particular day, my 3-year-old daughter prayed:
"Thank you, God, for this day. Thank you for mommy, daddy, Sy, and myself. I pray you heal Silas of his pink eye. Thank you for loving us and dying on the cross for us. Help Clint & Missy, Eva & Bliss & baby Ezra, and Micah too. I pray for Micah too. Help us not sin. And please don't let any Pharaohs come. Don't let any more Pharaohs come ever. Oh, and thank you for this food. Amen."
(Quick side note: Gracie recently watched the movie, The Prince of Egypt, and has been terrified, ever since, of the godless, violent Pharaoh in the movie...we're working on this).
Now, Gracie's prayers aren't always as long or thoughtful. Often, they are short, consisting of just a brief, "Thank you for this day and this food." However, this prayer was significant. While it might sound just like another prayer for her family and friends, it is actually a prayer for the nations.
We try to spend time, as a family, praying for our friends who are missionaries in different countries. And we hope to encourage our children to pray for these nations too. So, just before we started spilling queso on our Sunday outfits, Gracie prayed for these Great Commission missionaries.
Clint & Missy are our friends who serve in Poland. Eva, Bliss & Ezra are missionary kids in Asia, and Gracie prayed for her buddy, Micah, because he is about to move with his parents to live the mission in Poland as well.
In Isaiah 56:7, God clearly shares his will to see his house called "a house of prayer for all nations." I believe the application for today's church is twofold: (1) The nations are to gather together and pray with one another, and (2) the gathered nations are to pray for the nations. In the same way, I believe there's an application for today's families; namely, to create a house of prayer for the nations where our families come together to lift up the needs of the nations and the missionaries serving there.
Creating this type of environment starts with the simple step of opening eyes and hearts to the nations. We start by simply exposing our family to the nations. We talk about other countries, the needs that exist there, and the missionaries who serve there. We look at maps, and we put prayer cards on the refrigerator.
Little by little, we incorporate a Great Commission heart into the DNA of our family, so that one day, when I think we're about to have just another, noneventful, fajita lunch, my daughter will lead us into a spontaneous prayer for missionaries among the nations.
Jonathan Williams is the founder of Gospel Family Ministries and the Senior Pastor of Wilcrest Baptist Church, a multi-ethnic church of 44 nations located in Houston, TX.
