Pray the Word with David Platt is a resource from Radical.net.

1 Samuel, chapter 2, verse 26.

Now the boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the Lord and also with man.

As I read this verse, if you're familiar with Luke chapter 2, you know there's a very similar verse there describing Jesus.

Luke 252 describes how Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and favor with God and man.

So as we read this in 1 Samuel 2 and Luke 2, aren't we just driven to pray this

for kids around us? For some of us, for kids in our homes? Like, let's pray 1 Samuel 2, 26, Luke

252 over them continually. To pray this for kids in our churches,

to pray this for children, for students, for teenagers, having just spent time not long ago at

our student camp, just seeing all that they are walking through as they navigate how to follow Jesus in this culture.

I am driven to pray this verse over them.

So can we just pray this over kids we know, children we know, teenagers, students that we know.

Just picture them in your mind right now. Picture their faces. Some of them

are listening right now. Like we're about to pray for you right now. First Samuel chapter 2,

verse 26. God, we pray for the children we have in our minds right now. Some of them we're in a car

with right now or we're in a car with right now or we're

in a house with, God, we pray for them. We intercede for them right now. Children in our homes,

children in our churches. God, we pray that you would help them to grow in wisdom and in stature and in favor with you. God, help them to grow in favor with you.

May their hearts be soft toward you. May they know you. May they desire you. May they know your love for them.

God, as you know, I pray this all the time over my kids.

May they know the depth, the height, the width, the breadth of your love for them.

God, help me to love them well as a reflection of your love for them.

...