God's promises for moms

Don’t Shrink Back from God’s Best

Six years ago my daughter started a new school. I dropped her off one Wednesday morning and decided to go to my first Moms in Prayer meeting. Listening to the moms pour out their hearts on behalf of their children and the school changed me.

I listened in amazement as women boldly called out to God for things that I had never thought to pray for my own kids.

I learned to pray for my child
  • to desire purity over popularity
  • that God would place friends around my daughter that would sharpen her like “iron sharpens iron”
  • that she would grow in favor with God and man

I was determined to stay with this group and glean what I could from these moms.

At the end of that year, the moms of high school seniors asked me to take over the prayer group. I said, “no.” They asked me again two weeks later. I said “no” again. I thought, “I can’t lead this group. To lead a prayer group you have to be really spiritual and super holy. I totally mess up all the time. I am just ordinary—but God, if you really want me to lead this group, have them ask me again.” I was asked again and took over leading the Moms in Prayer group for my daughter’s school. That was five years ago.

It has been an incredible journey for me. I have grown more than I could have ever imagined. I’ve learned how to fight on my knees not only for my own child, but for the children of moms that hold my heart. I have learned that praying scriptures over your loved ones is praying God’s word back to Him.

Prayer and the Word combine like dynamite. The spiritual explosion impacts the person voicing the prayer as much as the person that the prayer is spoken for.

I have had the opportunity to pray over missionaries at the school, experience joys in the answers to prayer, and even encounter some supernatural miracles along the way. Wow! My faith has grown. I am not who I was a short time ago.

I type these words with tears in my eyes because of what God has done through me—and in spite of me. So often I didn’t have the strength or faith on my own, but God shored me up and He still proved faithful. I am so humbled.

My friends, I could have missed it
  • All the moments that I now hold dear
  • The growth, the journey, and the blessings along the way
  • The moms in my group that make my life a joy; each one is so unique and brings something new and exciting to the group
  • God at work because I thought I wasn’t enough

I have come to find that God does his best work in unexpected places. God chooses the weak to do something magnificent so that He gets all the glory.

Philippians 1:6 puts it another way, “And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” 

My challenge to you is this. Say, “Yes” to God in starting a Moms in Prayer group or stepping up to lead the group you’ve been praying with. You will be given chances to serve and step out in areas that may seem bold and a bit ambitious for you. Don’t shrink back from where God is leading. Don’t miss the moment. On the other side you will find growth, blessings, and sheer delight because you did what God called you to do.

Pray along with me

Father God, I praise You for who You are. You are a wonder-working God. You are the One who takes the ordinary and makes it extraordinary. You bring those whose lives seem like vanilla and through Your power, You make them victorious. God, You are amazing. I ask You to give me the desire to walk in obedience before You. Help me to continually say, “Yes” to what You are calling me to do. Enter my humdrum days and make them holy. May all honor, glory, and worship be ascribed to You. In Jesus’ name I pray. Hallelujah and Amen.  

Debbie Smith is an Area Coordinator for Moms in Prayer in the St. Louis, Missouri area where she resides with her husband, Dan, and their children.