Prayer For Fatherhood
Dear God,
Thank you for all the fathers and father-figures in this world and for the many ways you use them to lovingly guide others to Your heart. I ask that you would bless them and give them great joy and peace. May they see You and know You in new ways. Show them how much you love them and care about them. Guide their steps, use their hands, and make them a blessing to others as you continue to fulfill your special purpose for their lives.
Amen.
Dear Father God, my heart is so sad for my father and I am very concerned about the way that he has become such a heavy drinker. I know that he has had a very difficult life and that he is using his drinking habit to cover up a heart that has been bruised and badly scarred, but Father, his alcoholism is causing him so much harm and hurt, and I grieve for the life that he is forging out for himself.
Dear Lord, would You help him to become free of this terrible addiction to drink, and show us what we can do to help and encourage him to become free from this curse that is not only ruining his own life, but which has such negative repercussion in our home as well.
Lord, I love my father, but we are becoming desperate and are turning to You to help us to help him to break his addiction to alcohol.
Most loving Father, I am so sad about my father's life. I suppose I will never know all that happened to him along the way and I can never even imagine what inner pain his drinking is covering up, but it hurts so much to see him trapped in this pattern. And, as frustrated as we are, we will all enable him somehow. Please help us all be healed. Help us to take the steps we need. Help my father come to see his powerlessness before this addiction. Let him turn to You alone for help.
Amen.
God our Father, you made the family a community of love. Bless our fathers as they follow your Son, Jesus. Let their faith, hope, and love shine in our families, and show us the way to you. Strengthen our fathers as they serve our families and communities. May their example reflect your protective care for all of us. We also pray for fathers who have died, that you may bring them into the fullness of your love. May we, the sons and daughters of these men, always honor them with gratitude and hold them in prayer.
Heavenly Father, you give us a model of fatherhood in St. Joseph, who protected and loved Mary and Jesus. He responded quickly and faithfully to your promptings. We give you thanks for our fathers and for the protection and love they give to us. Grant them the same courage and perseverance you gave to St. Joseph when he faced adversity and uncertainty. Like him, may they live with humility and faithfulness, and be a source of joy and a pillar of strength for their families. We ask this through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Eternal God, originator of Fatherhood, I offer to you the blessed office of Father. May the men who occupy this dignified place protect and care for their children and wives with valiant honesty, heroic chastity, noble humility, and stern sobriety.
Ignite a fire in the hearts of men, O God, so that they may respond to the Divine call to fatherhood, both natural and spiritual, and model themselves after the holy example of Blessed Joseph, Father of the Universal Church.
Through his intercession, may fathers be strengthened to flee from sin, subdue their flesh, wrestle with the powers of corruption, banish the darkness, and obtain victory over hell and its agents.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, sanctifier of all men, to the glory of God the Father.
Amen."
Dear Lord Jesus,
Thank you for all the fathers in this room, and for those not with us today. Thank you for the example fathers give us, at their best, of sacrificial, other-centered love. Thank you for giving us fathers to be servant-hearted leaders in our homes, displaying both strength and humility.
In all of this, we get a glimpse of your perfect, sacrificial love for us. Of your giving of yourself to the utmost for our sake, even when we deserved none of it. Of your faithfulness to us, though we are disobedient and ornery children.
We pray that these fathers would find their worth and identity and hope first and foremost in being your child, in being known by you, loved by you, and held by you.
Protect them from making an idol out of their careers, their hobbies, and even their fatherhood. Let them see themselves first and foremost as your children.
Teach these fathers to seek you first, and build them up, by the power of your Holy Spirit, to be humble, wise, pure, and diligent men of God. Teach them to love their families, love their church, and love you.
We pray that in their role as fathers, you would cause them to delight in their children, as you delight in us. Give them great patience and grace towards their children, that they might not exasperate or provoke them to anger.
For those currently raising children in their home, give them wisdom in extending both grace and discipline. Give them opportunities to point to your truth and grace in ways their kids can understand. And may all our children come to know, love, and trust you.
May these fathers see the fruit of their labor, and find joy in seeing their children grow and mature.
As your grace and Spirit work in our families, may we extend your grace to those around us. May our families love and serve other families and individuals in this community. May our work to love and care for our families provide a compelling witness to the power and truth of your gospel. And may you bring others into your family through this witness.
God, according to the riches of Your glory, grant _________ to be strengthened with power through Your Spirit in his inner being, so that Christ may dwell in his heart through faiththat he, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that he may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14-19, ESV)
I pray for __________, that his love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that he may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God." (Philippians 1:9-11, ESV)