Prayer for Foster Care and Adoption
This past Sunday I had the opportunity to offer our prayer of intercession during all of our regular worship gatherings. The program for the services were a little bit different. We had Katie Davis with us. So, our pastor, David Platt, did some teaching, and then interviewed Katie for a while before ending with a bit more teaching. It was a lot, but really good. Anyway, after we celebrated Communion, David asked everyone present involved in foster care or adoption in any way to stand, and then I had the chance to pray for them and for all of us. I honestly felt really humbled and honored (yes, both at the same time) to be able to do this. So, I thought I’d share the text of the prayer with you all here. If you were there, it probably didn’t go exactly like this since I wasn’t reading it, but this is what I had prepared ahead of time.
Abba, Father,
We worship you alone this morning. You are infinitely greater than all things, and only you are worthy of all honor and glory for all that you are. But in this moment we praise you specifically for being Father, Provider and Sustainer.
So, in light of who you are, we pray for all those standing now and the lives they represent.
We pray for children in the foster care system. We pray that you will save them, that you will adopt them as your children, that they will turn to you as their perfect Father. We pray that you provide for them with loving foster families and with healing and restoration for their own families from which they’ve been separated. We pray that you will sustain them through questions without easy answers, through situations they don’t understand, and through struggles so many of them endure as a result of no fault of their own.
We pray for foster families. We thank you for the Fatherly love you have shown each of them that equips, enables and empowers them to now love all children in their homes. We ask that you provide them with the resources necessary to provide for their family. We ask that you grant them great wisdom, patience, compassion and discipline, that you protect their homes and make them a refuge for those needing comfort and caring. We pray that you sustain them through all the challenges of our foster care system, through great joys and celebrations as well as deep grief and sacrifice.
We pray for the 147 million orphans around the world. We, again, ask that you save them, adopt them into your family, that they will know you as the Father to the fatherless. We pray that you will provide them shelter, that you will provide them food, that you will provide them medical care and education, and we ask that, for your glory, you will provide for them through your Church. We ask that as we all care for orphans together, that you will call out from among your people 147 million homes and families for these children. We ask that you will sustain all orphans until they have a home and ultimately until your coming to gather us all together take us home with you.
We pray for adoptive families. We thank you for the picture they are of the gospel, for the living example of your love that you demonstrate through them. We ask that you provide for unity and attachment among these families. That you will provide patience, understanding and grace for both parents and children. We ask that you provide adoptive parents the resources necessary to provide for their family. We ask that you sustain them through early days of getting to know one anther, of learning to trust each other, of what it means to love and be loved, to provide for and be provided for, and we praise you for knitting families together in such creative ways that can only come from you.
We pray for those of us who are adopting. We ask that you provide us with the resources needed to cover the financial costs and the strength to endure the wait. Sustain us through that wait God until we can have our children home. Lord, protect our children, care for them and keep them safe. Bring them home to us soon.
Abba, we pray for those here today whom you are calling to foster care, adoption or both. We thank you for your command from your Word to care for orphans and the calling we can receive only because you have saved us and adopted us. We pray that you will provide the money needed for the costs, the patience needed to endure long timelines and programs, the wisdom needed for the journey, the conviction needed for the long haul and the great grace needed to address critics and those who do not understand. We ask that you sustain them through what can seem like an endless process when they are so ready to invite children into their home now.
And for all of us, Abba, we thank you for the conviction and discipline that we experience because you are Father. Thank you for all the many ways you provide for us in abundance. We pray for your continued provision, not for our comfort but for our contentment. Sustain us as we constantly seek to better live out the gospel through giving and sacrifice, not just of our things, but ultimately of our lives as you have given so freely to us.
We praise you and pray to you, Father, in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, amen.
On a related note, be sure to check out our most current prayer needs to the right. We greatly need it and appreciate it. Thanks.
Also, if you’d like to see/listen to David’s interview with Katie you can check it out HERE.