Families of Nations
One beautiful Tuesday evening, Evan and I had our usual prayer group, INQUIRE, meet at the chapel. To be fair, I can’t even remember what the primary prayer topic was. There was a few of us in the room and we took a turn into praying for families. We were in Psalm 23 and I look over to see from Psalm 22 the phrase “families of nations”. It stuck out to me, I read it and then I moved on. It touched our friend that was leading worship so much that he was weeping. It turned that prayer meeting into an almost outcry of praying for families in the world to turn to the Lord.
A few weeks later, I found myself praying these passages again over my friend. Hearing her heart for families to be restored and for these families to turn their hearts to the Lord was absolutely stunning. So while she was in a meeting, I prayed for her heart.
A relationship with the Father is not meant for just an exclusive group of people. We as His children will always be tied to the Father. My heart is that one day, in His perfect timing, that everyone would come to know the Father through His love for us. His love that sent His Son to die for us. This relationship, this Love, is meant for all families, of all nations, of all tribes, of all tongues.
When I’m praying through passages, I always try to find the cross references. It’s incredible how much the New Testament echoes what the Old Testament says. I was mostly in the Old Testament for this study but thought I’d share the passages and phrases that stuck out to me.
Psalm 22:27 - All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you.
Isolated phrase: “all the families of the nations”
Some scripture cross references and my notes/ phrases that stuck out to me:
Psalm 2:8 - make the Nations Your inheritance
Psalm 51:13 - teaching the Lord’s ways and sinners returning to the Father
Psalm 96:7 - ascribe to the Lord, families of nations
Daniel 7:27 - Kingdoms submitting to the Ancient of Days
What I get a picture of is families of nations coming to worship the Lord through this age and into the next. Sharing the goodness of the Lord and the testimonies of Jesus being paramount to seeing God be magnified. We will worship the Lord with spoken word, songs, hymns, and spontaneous songs.
That’s all the thoughts I have on it for now! It all kind of flows into praying for the Fatherless and how we can strengthen ministries and foster families! Ah! Families are so important to the Lord and His heart is to see them restored!!
