Today, Lord, I ask that your heart and your attitude would be formed in my children and grandchildren.  May everything they have done and experienced be used and redeemed by you to bring them into a deeper relationship with you. And as this occurs, may the kind of heart you describe in your sermon on the mount be crafted in them.

Matthew 5

3 God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.

I thank you that my children and grandchildren will truly be “poor in spirit,” realizing their need for you.  I thank you that they will discover that they were made and designed by you to need you.  They will not walk in pride and self-sufficiency, imagining they can do life without you.  They will not walk in fear and insecurity, believing that no one can be trusted. They will not walk in half-hearted commitment to you, yielding only what is convenient and comfortable to yield.

Instead, Lord, I pray that they become fully and completely dependent upon you, holding nothing back.  Only then will they find the blessings of your kingdom.  May they abandon themselves to you, surrendering fully to your Lordship in their lives.  And as they do, pour out upon them the blessings of your kingdom.

4 God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

In their places of grief, meet them.  Comfort them.  Father them. 

Where they have experienced abuse, pain and loss, heal their broken hearts.  Restore their shattered identities.  Enable them to forgive those who have hurt them and wronged them.

Hold them in your embrace and melt away their grief with your love.  May they experience the newness of your mercy every morning.  May they experience the everlasting nature of your love.  May they see your hand take those areas of grief, abuse, pain and loss, redeem them, and bring good out of them.

You are the God of all comfort.  Touch them.  Heal them.  Restore them.  Put joy back in their hearts.  Put a dance in their steps.  Be the glory and the lifter of their heads. 

I speak healing over their areas of hurt, in Jesus’ Name.  Those areas of hurt will not define them.  They will not be victims.  They will be overcomers.  Their places of pain will become their places of testimony.  Why?  Because you, Father, bless and comfort those who mourn.  Thank you!  Thank you!