Transcript
Shea Hill (0:01)
When your thoughts are racing and nothing feels clear, you need something solid to hold onto. Because of you, another woman can find that steadiness in biblical truth found in resources like therapy and theology. Your special financial gift today helps place God's Word into women's hands so they can be guided by truth, not fear. Give now by going to proverbs31.org givenow or or simply click the link in our show notes below. Welcome back to Therapy and Theology where we help you work through what you walk through. I'm your host Shea Hill and today's episode is so special as we help you fight for your family this season. We especially want to help you fight for the people you love most in prayer. So today's episode will help you do just that as Lysa, Jim and Joel provide a framework for how to pray for your family and they'll even include some specific script scriptural prayers. As you fight for your family this season, maybe you're inspired to ask a question that sounds something like this. How do I really help the young people in my life who are struggling both mentally and emotionally? If that's you, whether you're a parent, a grandparent, or someone who just feels called to help, we're here to help you. That's why I want to tell you about the Youth Mental Health Coach Program from the American association of Christian Counselors and Light University. It's it is a Biblically based, clinically excellent training that equips you with practical, real world tools to support youth and their families. You'll learn how to recognize 15 of the most common mental health challenges facing young people today, including anxiety, depression, digital addiction and emotional regulation. You'll also learn how to respond with care, when to step in and when to refer to a professional. Right now you can receive a full tuition scholarship and get started when you pay a one time $54 technology fee. Friend. This is the training that will give you the confidence to make a real difference. Learn more and apply@mentalhealthcoach.org or you can visit the link in our show notes. And before we jump in, here are just a few reminders. We are launching a brand new podcast exclusive segment in 2026 called Live Listener Mail brought to you by Compassion International. These segments will include a question pulled from one of our listeners just like you and an answer from either Lisa, Jim or Dr. Joel. Tune in on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen and make sure you stay listening all the way through the end so you don't miss this special segment of each episode. And lastly, we want to know how therapy and theology is helping you work through what you're walking through. So leave us a review or a comment on YouTube and tell us all about it. Okay, now onto today's conversation.
Lysa TerKeurst (3:03)
Hi, welcome back to Therapy and Theology, of course. I am here with the amazing Jim Kress and Dr. Joel Mutamali. And I am so excited about today because we've been talking this whole season about fighting for your family. And we can give you all kinds of tips and strategies and biblical wisdom and solid therapy, you know, to help ease the ache of tensions inside the family or hardships inside the family. And we can encourage you all day long to fight for your family. But the reality is sometimes things are still just going to be hard inside of a family dynamic. And so I don't think that today's topic needs to be a last resort. I think it needs to be a first priority fight for our family on our knees. You know, I'm really passionate and have become even more passionate lately about when we pray the word of God, we pray the will of God. And so I have taken time in a new book that I've written called Come Close to Jesus. I've taken time to go through scriptures and connect those scriptures to become scriptural prayers that I can do just what we're talking about today, fight for my family on my knees. So the order of the show is going to be a little different today. I'm going to start by reading some of these scriptural prayers and I've picked three out of this book that I think you would really benefit from that I know have really encouraged me and made me feel like my prayers are powerful and effective because again, when we pray the word of God, we pray the will of God. So here's one where combined these scriptures to pray for our husband. Lord, today I pray for my husband as Romans 12:12 13 instructs us. Help him be joyful in hope, patient in affliction and faithful in prayer. Give him a kind spirit and a tender heart that loves me and our family. I pray that he will always hold our marriage in honor according to Hebrews 13:4 and that you will turn his heart to our children. Remind him, Lord, to guard his heart above all else so that everything that flows from it is pure, good and honoring to you and our family. And I continue on using really important scriptures, Romans 12, 12, 13, Ephesians 5, 25, Hebrews 13:4, Malachi 4:6, Proverbs 4, 23 and the list goes on. It's not a tremendously long prayer, but it is incredibly powerful. And then here's another one that I really appreciate and this one is praying for thanking the Lord for the gift of our children. Abba Father, thank you for the gift of my children. I know they are a reward from you. Thank you for choosing me to be their earthly mother. I often feel so inadequate, but you Lord, are more than enough. You, you are able to give me all that I need at all times. I pray they would see the great love you have for them and know they are special because they are your treasure created in your image to do good works. And again, I continue on with many more scriptures and then here's a last one that I'll just give you a little glimpse of this prayer and it's praying for our adult children. Dear Lord, I release my adult children to you knowing that you are able to guard what you entrusted to me. I pray they will hold tightly to your love and the sound teachings of Jesus. Release them from the generational effects of my and my family's sins so they can rejoice in their inheritance and have everlasting joy. I pray that you would reveal yourself to them even when they are not seeking you and help them to grow and mature in their faith. Strengthen them and protect them from the evil one. Help them to guard their hearts so they can flee from all sexual immorality. Lead them to a spouse who loves you and will be a suitable helpmate to them. Surround them with like minded friends who desire oneness with you Lord, so they can encourage one another in their faith and it continues on. So these are exactly examples of scriptural prayers that I've taken time to put all in this one book, Come close to Jesus. And it's not that these are formulaic, these are a starting point and I think it is a beautiful thing. Sometimes when we sit down we don't know what to pray or we've prayed the same prayers over and over and over and we just wonder are my prayers even, even doing anything? Like is it, is it even creating any kind of good? And so I love shifting away from prayer so focused on all the problems to more focused sometimes on God's word and what he has already commanded us to teach and think about and park our minds on.
