This is the Truth Network. Encouraging prayer. God offers an open invitation for his people to talk with him at any time about anything. On encouraging prayer, Dr. James Banks, author of the best-selling Prayers for Prodigals and many other books on prayer, provides weekly biblical insight to help you learn to love to pray.
And now, here's James.
So, today on Encouraging Prayer, we're going to talk about leaving your legacy. Through prayer. And James, you're in a special place for that right now, right? Tell us about it. Yeah.
All right.
Well, I'm at the 10th annual Legacy Coalition National Conference in Frisco, Texas, and it's at Stonebriar Community Church, which is a church that was planted by Chuck Swindahl in the 90s. And anyhow, this conference is all about sharing your faith with the next generation and helping your grandchildren and those who come after you to believe in Jesus. And so I'm here with grandpas and grandmas from all over the states and many different countries. And the whole goal is to challenge us to have an eternal perspective. And one of the questions that's been asked is Why are you still here in the light of eternity?
I think that's a great question. It's a great question. Really? Because life is short, and no doubt, eternity is really long. Yeah, you know, Larry Fowler, the founder of this ministry, started out by saying, just draw a line, you know, and does that represent your life?
But then, how long. You know, does it go on from there in the light of eternity? And the truth is, God has a purpose for each of us. And he's kept us here. You know, we're still drawing breath for a reason.
And so it's good to look at our families and those we love and say, am I done yet? Because there are things that we want to do for them, things we know God wants us to be about, and these are eternal things. These are the things that matter most.
So this is a good question to to pray about. You know, you think about the saying, only one life sin is passed, only what's done for Christ. will last and so God What do you want us? to do. For those we love, for those who will come after us.
How can we make the most? of the time that we have left. Yeah, that's beautiful. It's an amazing perspective because when it's all said and done, Really we want our children and our grandchildren to be in heaven with us some day.
So let's talk about the difference our prayers make for this.
Okay, this is this is where it really gets good. Because God can use our prayers to reach into the hearts of our families and into our children and our grandchildren in breathtaking ways. I mean, long after we're gone, you know, I'm thinking about a grandchild that we're expecting. uh in in August, and I'm praying for this little guy. And I haven't seen him yet, but Lord willing, someday I will.
But even if I don't, you know, my prayers for him matter.
So I'm teaching on praying for prodigals here at this conference, and today I was talking to a couple who have been praying for their son for years, and he's in his 40s now. They were at the conference last year and they heard me talk about this. And about that time, they committed. to praying on their knees every night for their son. And and they did this for for almost a year.
And a change occurred in his life that they could not explain. Apart from God's answer to prayer. Previously, he was disinterested.
Now he's walking with Jesus and he loves him. And this was all God's Spirit moving in answer to their faithful committed daily. Rare. Wow, that's amazing. And it really reminds me of the scripture that tells us that the purpose of families.
is to raise children who believe. Yeah, yeah. I mean, Robbie. You know, you You think about kind of the the cultural vision that we have for retirement so often. You see these retirement places advertised on T V, and it's all about self indulgence and kind of going out that way.
And It's not. According to God's perspective, He's got something so much more valuable for us to be about, and our prayers matter so much for this. Because God can touch the hearts of our loved ones in ways we only dream of. But For that to happen, we have to bring them faithfully before him. And the later years of our lives can be some of the most productive years of our lives for this.
You know, our last year shouldn't be about ourselves or self-indulgence. We don't want to go out that way. We don't want to face our Maker that way. You know, we want to finish well. Yeah, and this matters even more when you realize that our prayers will outlive us, right?
I mean, talk about leaving a legacy. I mean, that's it. Just God knows just the right time to move in answer to our prayers. And a prayer that was prayed decades ago by our parents or by our grandparents may be bearing fruit for us in our lives right now. You know, prayers that were prayed a century before are still alive and well before God because He never changes, He never tires, He never forgets, He never loses them.
You know, and He's waiting for just the right moment to move in answer to our prayers.
So just imagine what He can do if we ask. I mean, we've talked about this: how precious our prayers are to Him, and how much more precious are they when they're prayed for those He loves, those He wants to come to Him. You know, this is just a beautiful opportunity. For us to live and love and serve Him and serve others. Yeah, it's kind of cool to think that it's in a way you're building up treasure in heaven.
Both on a level of the prayers that will be there in those bowls that are described in Revelation, but also the fruit of those prayers, right? Because You know, eventually we get to spend time with all those people that we prayed for that weren't even in existence when we begin to pray for them. Right, right, and think about all the love that God has poured into you for your son, for your daughter, for your grandchildren. Think about that love and take that and turn that and bring that before the throne of grace and pray and And God will bless it. Because he said he will.
You know, he said that his love is from generation to generation. with those who fear him. And so You know, we need to do this and we will be blessed if we do. And they will be blessed. It's so beautiful.
We get to take part in eternity, like now. You know, you don't have to wait eternity to take part in eternity. You do that through prayer.
So we probably ought to do that, right? Yeah, so Lord, thank you so much for James. I thank you for this legacy conference and leaders of God looking into this precious subject. And I pray that you would give us this long view, that you'd give us this eternal view, and that we would enjoy spending time with you talking about eternity for. For our families.
Again, I thank you so much for what you're teaching us. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. Amen. You can hear more from Pastor James by visiting his website, jamesbanks.org, or by visiting Peace Church in Durham, North Carolina.
May God bless you and encourage you as you pray.
