The inspiration for beginning the “Grandmothers Praying for Grandchildren” as part of Women’s Ministries at New Lynn Corps initially came from Major Annette Bray during her time as the Divisional Spiritual Life & Prayer Ministries Officer in the former Central Division.
We are privileged to pray for over 80 of our descendants, and not one is forgotten!
We join together to pray at 11.30am once a month following the weekly Home League meeting and regularly have 8 – 15 women meeting together. Most ladies come to pray for their grandchildren, but two ladies come to pray for their nieces and nephews. Our prayers continue for grandchildren whose praying grandmother has entered heaven since this gathering began.
O. Hallesby who authored the classic book, ‘Prayer’, says … ’answers to prayer will settle down on you at every step you take, even to your dying day. In God’s time every prayer and every sigh which you have uttered for them will, in God’s time, descend upon them as a gentle rain of answers to prayers.’
So we acknowledge answers to our prayers by placing a stone in a jar – whether they are miraculous answers or smaller signs of movement towards a big victory. We understand that some responses to our petitions will not be realised until after we have entered heaven and so we trust our heavenly Father to remember our prayer requests even after we have gone.
Interestingly, during our times together, women have shared hurts, failures and the need for prayer and support for themselves. This has been deeply moving. Grandparents sometimes carry a heavy load of grief, anxiety, guilt and a sense of failure. We are grateful for a God who redeems brokenness and continues to listen to our petitions.
We have had to address our personal relationships with our grandchildren and acknowledge we are to love and pray, not demand or have expectations for our wants to be met.
There is much gratitude and thanksgiving for those of our grandchildren who are facing life with a faith and a determination to live well and bring blessing to others. We have also asked some of our grandchildren what they would like us to pray for them personally – their answers were amazing – and so we prayed!
The words we speak in prayer are living and active vehicles of God’s power. Our prayers are ‘stored up’ in the spiritual realm, to be released at exactly the right moment. In the book of Revelation, where we are given a glimpse into heaven’s throne room, we discover a precious scripture, ‘..golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people’ (Revelation 5:8). Bowls full of prayers! We want to fill bowls and bowls with spiritual riches for our children, our grandchildren and our descendants.
Major Janee Sawyer