A Prayer For The Men In Our Lives

It is my daily habit to read a passage of scripture. This day it was Romans, chapter 13.As I read, a particular phrase struck me.“And do this, knowing the time …” – Romans 13:11I asked myself whether I know the time? Do I know the time in which I live? Do I understand the implications of the time that God chose for me to live and breathe?As is my daily habit, I took the scripture to prayer. I started praying that God would help me understand the time but my heart kept going on another path. My prayer kept moving away from me understanding to praying for the men in my family. I have a husband, a son, a son-in-law and three grandsons. These then are the men foremost in my family. My prayer then moved toward other men I know – my extended family, those with whom I work, my friends, my pastor.I followed my heart and here is what it led me to pray for these men. I offer this prayer to you, my readers, my friends – a prayer for your men, a prayer for all our men. A prayer for a time such as this. A PRAYER FOR THE MEN IN OUR LIFEOur Father,I pray that the men in our life will know the time …That they will understand the time you chose for them to live;  the time that you chose for them to be children and the time you chose for them to be adults, to be husbands and to be fathers.I pray that they will understand the time in which they are men. You chose for them to live at this, their time. They are uniquely shaped, carefully molded and perfectly equipped for a time such as this. It is time for them to fill a void, to take a place, to stand in the gap and to build the thing that you, at the very foundation of time, designed for them to build. You have a blueprint, a plan of this thing you want each one to build. I pray that the men in our life recognize this holy thing you have for them to build and that they build with all their might. I pray that each man in our life will know that the time is always now. Now is the time to awake out of sleep.Now is the time to walk and to run and to build up and not to break down. “And do this, knowing the time …” – Romans 13:11 I pray that the men in our life will understand the “and do this” as they walk in their time:

• To be submissive to those who lead them because it makes their own leadership pure.
• To pay their taxes and be honest in their finances.
• To not run up debt and be enslaved to others. Rather, may they be givers, generous and kind.
• To give honor to who honor is due, never being so proud that they cannot see the good in others.
• To always chose purity and walk away from lust and lewdness.
• To choose peace and not embrace strife.
• To celebrate God’s blessing of others and not be envious of their neighbor.
• To plan their life around their purpose; not around their ego and their flesh.

In knowing the time, may the men in our life continue on the path that you have set before them. This path leads them to lay their life down.May their lives come second and third and fourth place.May their wives and children and siblings and parents be put before them, so that they may protect from behind as they follow you in the front. For this is your way – the way of the cross – to lay your life down so that your family may be saved. May the men in our life know the time.That now is the time.That now is always the time. “And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep:for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.” – Romans 13:11-14Note: The verses before this speaks about submission and leadership, money and taxes and love that is pure. [Romans 13:1-10]