Preparing for Prodigal Prayer Day, episode 172

0:00 If you love a prodigal, you can discover help and hope for your wilderness journey right here at the When You Love a Prodigal podcast. And also help and hope for your own life journey. Don't forget, if you want to remember something that I mentioned, have a pen and paper or your phone ready to jot down any helpful ideas or information. so you remember to do it. The gang our adopted son had joined had a confrontation with another gang. It didn't lead to violence, but for some reason, the other gang thought our Josh was the instigator. He came home terrified.

0:49 Sure, they were planning to kill him, saying he needed to get out of town. if he wanted to stay alive. Our ministry had a summer conference beginning that very week in Colorado, and they needed some teenagers to serve in various capacities. Josh had not been willing to do that, but now he was. In a couple of days, we had him on his way to Colorado to work and to be with strong believers for a month. That was one of many answers to prayer prayed on a June 2nd Worldwide Prodigal Prayer Day. For more than 20 years, I can't seem to keep track of how long, every June 2nd, hundreds and now thousands of people from around the world have joined together in a day of prayer for those who are walking away from God or walking away from their families. often making destructive choices. On June 2, 25 years ago, our prodigal Josh met Jesus. He was living at House of Hope, a nearby residential home for troubled teens.

2:10 His house dad, Mike, really loved him, prayed for him, sought to guide him into better life choices. And on June 2, In 1997, he introduced our son to Jesus. That evening, Mike baptized him in the nearby lake. The next day, there was a big alligator there, but he came out of it safely and with Jesus. And Josh's life changed then. When he came home from House of Hope several months later, he wanted to walk with God. But wrong friends and the trauma of his early life put him on a roller coaster. He would do well and make good choices for days, weeks, even months.

3:00 Then he would go for many months down, making bad choices. The unpredictable cycle went on for 15 years. I called it our 15 -year wilderness journey. At the beginning, we invited friends to pray for Josh on June 2nd, his spiritual birthday. We called it a Worldwide Day of Prayer for Josh. Then God encouraged us to expand it to others needing prayer, and the Worldwide Prodigal Prayer Day was born. We have found grandparents especially love to take part. The objective of this day is to come together before God to petition him for the redemption, restoration, deliverance of those we love. Most often, the prodigals are our children, but they might also be grandchildren, a spouse, parents, relatives, friends, co -workers, or just someone we care about. We started putting first names on a list to share with others to join us in praying. And every year we have added to the list the first names for whom prayer has been requested. And that is posted on our Prayer for Prodigals website. Anyone can submit as many

4:30 names for prayer as they desire. Feel free to tell friends of yours, others, about this special day. It has grown to include thousands of prayers, lifting up more than 8 ,000 names this year that we know of all around the world. So if you love a prodigal, we would love to pray for your loved one. And we invite you to join us in praying. Does this make a difference, a lot of people naming names of people they don't know? Oh, yes. Usually it takes a while, and sometimes a long time. But sometimes it happens quickly, as in the story of Josh's need to get out of town.

5:21 His month working with praying people who cared for him brought about good changes in his life. In another incidence, shortly after June 2nd, our son was put on probation by a judge for two years for a minor incident. The consequences were much greater than the offense. But it was an answer to prayer that we could never have anticipated. We had prayed he would receive some real -life accountability for some of his poor choices in his late teens. Two years of probation put the fear of jail in Josh. Every time he was attempted to make another bad choice, he stopped to think about the possibility of getting caught.

6:13 Sometimes he still went ahead and did what he was going to do but often he did not. Another teen we had prayed for asked to come home after our time of prayer and finally accepted help for his substance use disorder. He had been homeless with no contact with his family for a long time. A daughter who turned into an angry atheist in her first year of college, not wanting anything to do with her parents, experienced a radical change of heart through the influence of a few Christian friends. She is now on fire for the Lord. A daughter reunited with her parents after years of being estranged due to an abusive relationship with a man. who kept her from her family. Somehow, she managed to get away from him and run back to her family. We had been praying just that for her. In recent years, we've had many more adult children who have turned their backs on their parents, rejected them. But even there, God works and often brings reconciliation. God hears and God answers. in his time. But a word of caution. The evil one, the enemy of our souls,

7:44 loves to lead our rebellious ones astray. When we interfere, especially through prayer, he tightens his hold on them. But we have the power of prayer to El Shaddai, the Almighty God. We can pray to him and things happen. I have found it is good to prepare my heart and mind to enter this battle. And one of the most effective ways I have found to confront Satan is to give thanks in everything, as we are urged in 1 Thessalonians 5 .18. If we resist him, he flees. If we keep giving thanks to our God, he decides he's going to leave and look for a more opportune time.

8:32 Our theme for June 2, 2025, for our Worldwide Prodigal Prayer Day, is On Our Knees. I will be writing and sending to anyone who requests it five short devotionals. You can sign up for them at the prayerforprodigals .com site. You can sign up also at the Prayer for Prodigals Facebook page. Those links will be in the show notes for this podcast. If you are new to Prodigal Prayer Day, we invite you to send us the first names of anyone you would like us to pray for and join with friends or family to pray together.

9:20 You're also invited to join the Prayer for Prodigals virtual community. This is a safe and encouraging place to post specific requests for others to pray for. And you can pray for the posted community requests that are there. You can send names and or join us by writing to us at prayerforprodigals at gmail .com. or go to the prayer for prodigals facebook page all of that information again is in the show notes you ask who do you pray with well We have sometimes a group in Orlando that gathers together. I happen to be going to be at my grandson's graduation right then, so I won't be doing that. But we also have some online ones. But we really encourage you to find a few friends from your church or your family or your neighborhood. get together to pray. And we will be posting some information on... prayer suggestions and and just how to pray for these prodigals so you can do what you want you can do it all by yourself some people pray for half an hour some people pray all day and most pray somewhere in between that but whatever works for you what you're comfortable with what you have time for

10:52 doesn't matter if it's first thing in the morning or late at night And in reality, it doesn't matter when it is. We're just focusing on it for this day. So we invite you to join us June 2nd, the Worldwide Prodigal Prayer Day, for anyone you know, or you could have some friends or someone you know has been struggling with a child or a grandchild and say, I'll be glad to pray with you on this day. We're just asking God to do some real miracles. Sometimes we see quick results. Sometimes it's a long time. God doesn't seem to be as controlled by time as we are, but he is working. One of my favorite things that scripture tells us that he is always working and he hears our prayers and he answers them. So please join us for the Worldwide Prodigal Prayer Day. God bless you.