Have you ever felt like you’re praying for the same things over and over and getting discouraged when it seems God isn’t answering your prayers? I’ve been there. With two children with special needs, I was constantly praying for my sons’ speech, their development, their progress, and for peace for my own stress and anxiety. I began really struggling in my faith and in my prayer life.
One night at Bible study, when the leader asked for prayer requests I poured out my struggles with my anxiety and my faith and my worries about my children. I feared their response to my vulnerability.
Their response stuns me to this day. Those ladies put down their Bible study materials, gathered around me, laid their hands on me, and surrounded me with comfort and prayer. Each and every woman took a turn to pray over me with confidence and power. Each and every woman included a Bible verse, or several in their prayer. They claimed the Word of God and declared it boldly over me.
I was cocooned by the transforming power and the presence of God. Tears slid down my face, dripping onto my jeans. The anxiety melted away from my shoulders, my mind stilled, and peace filled my heart for the first time in a long time. It was then I experienced the power of praying Scripture and I knew I wanted to experience more of it.
I had been praying for my childrens’ speech for years, but I determined I was going to pray God’s Word over their speech. My older son has a diagnosis of apraxia—a neurological speech disorder that requires years of frequent and intensive speech therapy to learn to speak. My younger son has a speech delay that accompanies an autism diagnosis.
I looked up and recorded every verse about words and speaking and the mouth and the lips and the tongue. There were hundreds. But two verses in particular really stood out to me.
“How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Psalm 119:103 NIV).
And “a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver” (Proverbs 25:11 NKJV).
When each of my children said his first word and then sloooooowly added to his vocabulary, I viewed each of those words as both something sweet to savor and a precious treasure. I combined the words I liked from both of these verses — ‘sweet’ from Psalm 119:103 and ‘apples of gold’ from Proverbs 25:11 — to form my new prayer for my children. I prayed for new ‘sweet apples of gold’ in my prayer time with God, and on the way to speech therapy, and praised God for new ‘sweet apples of gold’ after my children said a new word or phrase.
Image by @simxa from Unsplash.
Finding God’s own words to pray for my childrens’ words brought a refreshing joy to my prayer life. The Bible became a treasure trove of prayer possibilities and learning to pray God’s Word revived my prayer life and my faith. I found delight in praying again. Honestly, part of this joy was because I was witnessing God answer my heart’s desire for my kids’ speech. There were new “sweet apples of gold” from my sons each month, and each was a treasure. Seeing God answer your prayers does wonders for your faith. But a large part of what brought me joy was that the practice of praying the very words of God’s own heart and mouth drew me so much closer to Him.
Just as my sons needed speech therapy to learn to effectively communicate with us, learning to pray Scripture helped me communicate my prayers in a new and powerful way. Just as my sons persevered and slowly learned to string new sounds, then words, then phrases together to better express themselves, I slowly added new words and phrases from Scripture into my prayers to better articulate my desires, hopes, prayers, and praises to the Almighty.
Praying Scripture also helped me align my heart with God’s heart. We tend to pray for things WE want to see happen, but praying Scripture helps align your desires with what HE wants to see happen. And when our desires are aligned, that’s when we’re most likely to see God move powerfully in either our circumstances, or in our mindsets and hearts.
Resources You May Find Helpful:
Scriptures to Pray for Your Child with Special Needs
Scriptures for Your Child’s Speech
Jenn Soehnlin is a mother to two boys who are precious blessings and who both have special needs. Her heart is to share encouragement and God's truths with moms who are also traveling the special needs parenting journey. She is the author of Embracing This Special Life: Learning to Flourish as a Mother of a Child with Special Needs. Jenn enjoys blogging about faith, praying Scripture, and special needs parenting at www.embracing.life.
For online encouragement and support for special needs mothers, check out her Facebook group Christian Special Needs Moms Embracing This Special Life.
