Praying for Your Little Princess

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Episode Synopsis

Jani and Heidi share Biblical ways to pray for the little girls in your life.

Audio Transcript

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Download our "Prayer for My Little Princess" PDF that we discuss in Episode 27 "Praying for Your Little Princess". Print it at home to pray for the women God has entrusted to you.

Jani: And we’re delighting to pray over our little ones these days. Last episode, we prayed for our little boys, the little prince in our lives, and today we want to pray for the little princesses, the little girls in our lives.

Jani: I remember a very special little princess that was born into our family 15 years ago. The call came at 4:00 AM a month before we were expecting it. It was our oldest boy, Eric saying, “Mom, mom, Erin just had an Emergency C section. We have a tiny baby girl. We think she’s going to be okay, but could you come?” Well, of course my answer was, “Yes”. I was on a plane the next day to Edinburgh, Scotland where Eric was working on his doctorate. Soon I held our first grandchild, Katherine Grace Ortlund, in my arms as the tears of joy and gratitude flowed—I can hardly talk about it without crying. Oh, so many prayers for this tiny new princess.

Do you know and love a little girl?

Jani: Do you have a little girl in your life? Oh, I hope you do, either a daughter, a granddaughter, a niece, some little girl you teach in Sunday school, or someone in your community or neighborhood. Would you pray along with Heidi and me as we pray for the little girls in our lives today?

Jani: Listen to some of the prayers that I’ve been thinking about:

  • 1 Samuel 1:15, “…but I have been pouring out my heart before the Lord.”
  • Lamentations 2:19, “Arise, cry out in the night…pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord! Lift your hands to him for the lives of your children.”
  • Psalm 62:8, “Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.”
  • Genesis 18:14, “Is anything too difficult for the Lord?”

14 Scripture Prayers For Our Princesses

Jani: Oh dear listener, let’s cry out for our girls this morning. Pray with us, will you?

“And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

John 17:3

Heidi: Oh Lord, thank you for this little girl. I pray you would call her to claim you as the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

“My soul finds rest in God alone.”

Psalm 62:1

Heidi: Oh Lord, the hearts of our daughters are so vulnerable. Even we struggle with that, too. God, I just pray that when her heart is searching for happiness and security that you would let her find rest in you alone; that all of her happiness and her joy and her sense of well-being would be found in you Father.

“Take my instruction instead of silver,
and knowledge rather than choice gold,
for wisdom is better than jewels,
and all that you may desire cannot compare with her.”

Proverbs 8:10-11

Heidi: Lord, give her the gift of counting your instruction and wisdom more valuable than the most costly gold and jewels. May she desire your Word and your wisdom more than anything else in this entire world.

I have stored up your word in my heart,
    that I might not sin against you.

Psalm 119:11

Jani: Father, help this little girl to store up your Word in her heart. Help her to learn it, to love it and to treasure it. Help her to see your Word as a wonderful guidance and protection from sin.

I was glad when they said to me,
    “Let us go to the house of the Lord!”

Psalm 122:1

Jani: Father, we pray for the little princess in our life, that her heart would always say, “I was glad when they said to me, let’s go to church.” We pray that Sunday will be her favorite day of the week. We pray that she’ll be eager and anxious and desirous to go to church and be with your people and hear your Word. We pray that she would flourish in your courts. Oh Lord, give her a love for you and your church.

“…but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.”

1 Peter 3:4

Heidi: Lord, I pray as she grows into the beautiful woman you have created that you would develop within her the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to you.

“May our sons in their youth
    be like plants full grown,
our daughters like corner pillars
    cut for the structure of a palace…”

Psalm 144:12

Heidi: Lord, I pray that she would be like the corner pillars, cut for the structure of a palace. Grow her into something of beauty, Dad, living the life of noble stability.

“For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy…”

2 Timothy 3:2

Jani: Well Lord, thank you for this warning. We’re asking for our little girl. Keep her from being a lover of her own self. Help her to be selfless. Keep her from being wise in her own eyes and leaning on her own understanding. Lord, we are asking that she would be as fearless as Sarah, as loyal as Ruth, as discerning as Abigail and as faith-filled as Mary, your mother, was.

“Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.”

Hebrews 13:4

Heidi: Lord, I pray that you would protect her and her future husband as they go through their teens. Give them purity of mind and body so they can enter their marriage free of shameful memories, uncomplicated by past relationships. I just pray that you would put your hands around them and that you would protect them and keep their hearts in their eyes looking at you until their spouse comes into their lives.

Jani: Oh yes Father, please.

“In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church…”

Ephesians 5:28-29

Heidi: Oh Lord, I pray that you would bless our princess with a man who loves you with all of his heart, with a man who follows hard after you and loves your Bible and loves your church. God bless her with a man that’s full of your Holy Spirit, one who will nourish and cherish her as you do your bride.

“The heart of her husband trusts in her,
    and he will have no lack of gain.
She does him good, and not harm,
    all the days of her life.
Strength and dignity are her clothing,
    and she laughs at the time to come.
She opens her mouth with wisdom,
    and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
She looks well to the ways of her household
    and does not eat the bread of idleness.”

Proverbs 31:11-12, 25-27

Jani: Father, we are asking for our little princess. We’re asking for her future, and in so doing, we’re asking you to do this in lives as well so that we can be good examples for her. When our princess marries, help her to do her husband good and not harm every single day of their life together. Let her bring him good. I pray that their marriage would be one of deep trust and joy and satisfaction. I pray that you’d guide her and help her to look well to the ways of her household. Help her to honor that worthy work. Help her to make her home a little foretaste of heaven. Lord, would you clothe my princess with strength and dignity?

“We will not hide them from their children,
    but tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,
    and the wonders that he has done.”

Psalm 78:4,6-7

Heidi: Oh Lord, when you bless her with children, I pray that you would give her the wisdom to know how to show you to her children and to her family. Open up her mouth to tell them of your glorious deeds, God. May it just spill over from her heart. May she talk about your might and the wonders that you’ve done so that the coming generations will set their hope in you.

“Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children…”

Deuteronomy 4:9

Heidi: Oh father, I pray that you would let her walk with you and be irresistibly beautiful to her family. Dad, would you meet her? What do you call her heart as she grows up to come have quiet time with you and come spend time in your presence? I just pray even now as she’s so young that you would give her that desire, that desire to come spend time with you and to talk with you through prayer, and that you would pour into her this sweetness that that is. And as she gets older, God, that that would be an example to her family. May your presence dwell in her heart and in their home.

“O God, from my youth you have taught me,
and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.
So even to old age and gray hairs,
O God, do not forsake me,
until I proclaim your might to another generation,
your power to all those to come.”

Psalm 71:17-18

Jani: Father, we’re not asking for our little girl’s life only for these early years, we’re asking that she would flourish like a palm tree and grow strong like a cedar. We’re even asking for when she nears the end of her life. Would you keep her heart young and fresh in you, always ready to speak of your goodness to others? Oh Lord, take this little girl and build her into a mighty woman of God for your kingdom sake. Pour your Spirit upon our family so the truths that our little princess hears coming from my mouth will be heard by her children from her mouth. I pray you would make our faith a generational faith in our descendants forever. Let not one of ours wander from you until we all gather around your throne, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Poem: “For Our Children” by Amy Carmichael

Jani: Now we want to close our podcast today with one of our favorite prayers from Amy Carmichael. She’s one of our heroes. Maybe some of you know about Amy. She was born in Northern Ireland way back in 1867 and she died in 1951. She felt God called her to be single and to serve him, so she never married. She was the first missionary sent out by the Keswick Convention, and she went to Japan, first of all, for a few years, but then she came to India and she served there for 56 years (on the Southern tip of India), never once returning to Ireland. There she founded the Dohnavur Fellowship, which rescued countless babies and children. And in that little Christian village that she made, there were nurseries built and cottage homes. She began farming and they built gardens and workshops. There even came to be a hospital through those decades of her service, she worked so hard.

Jani: You see, Indian girls were often unwanted and they were given to the Hindu temple to serve as prostitutes. What Amy was doing was dangerous. She could have been charged with kidnapping and pulled into prison, but she kept on going, and God rewarded her. She rescued countless little girls, and eventually boys as well. She was known as Amma, which means “mother” to them. Heidi and I love one of her prayers for her children. I want to pray it as the end of our series on children. Will you pray it with me?

“Father, hear us, we are praying,
Hear the words our hearts are saying,
We are praying for our children.

Keep them from the powers of evil,
From the secret, hidden peril,
From the whirlpool that would suck them,
From the treacherous quicksand pluck them.

From the worldling’s hollow gladness,
From the sting of faithless sadness,
Holy Father, save our children.

Through life’s troubled waters steer them,
Through life’s bitter battle cheer them,
Father, Father, be Thou near them.

Read the language of our longing,
Read the wordless pleadings thronging,
Holy Father, for our children.

And wherever they may bide,
Lead them home at eventide.”

Amy Carmichael, “For Our Children,” in Toward Jerusalem (London, 1987), page 106.

Jani: In Jesus’ name, Amen. May God bless your little princess.

Thank You

Thank you for joining us today. This podcast is generously funded through Renewal Ministries. If you would like to discover more about Jani and Ray’s ministry or make a donation, visit their website at renewalministries.com. If you have a question for Jani or would like to learn more about this podcast, please visit our website at herestoresmysoul.org.

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About The Podcast

He Restores My Soul with Jani Ortlund seeks to encourage women with God’s renewing power for their busy lives. Episodes include relevant biblical teaching, stimulating gospel conversations with other Christians, and “Ask Jani” sessions where we talk about what’s on our listeners’ hearts.

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