When I thought about praying for my family, I thought of praying for my husband and children and all the things that affect us. I had several things pop into mind that were very important things to pray about. Before I began this post, I was confident that I was going to write something else.
But, God lead me to this thought in Leviticus 16:6
Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering for himself and shall make atonement for himself and for his house.(NASB)
Before Aaron could make an atonement on behalf of the people he had to make one for himself first! Now I am not dealing with being the priest of the family, so I hope no one goes along this line of thinking. What I am dealing with is the thought of:
“How can I effectively pray for my family if I am allowing sin to come between me and God so that my prayers are now answered?”
Now don’t get me wrong. This by no way means that a person has to be perfect/sinless to come to God or to pray for others. What I am saying is just like the High Priest prayed for God to cleanse him first so that there would be no sin hindering him from doing his work, likewise we must go to God and give up all our sins to Him first before we can embark on this task of praying for our families.
So with this thought in mind, I have realized that the first person I should be praying for is ME! I can’t intercede in prayer for my family unless I first have made intercession for ME!
So today as we begin this series A Family That Prays Together Stays Together, we will take time to pray for ourselves first. And every time we come to God on behalf of our family, or anyone for that matter, let us always remember to ask God’s to cleanse us first!
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God'sCharacter 
I am visiting you from Thrive @ Home link-up. This is so true. So many times when I have started praying about something that has bothered me about someone else, God points back to me. Once I changed, then the things did not bother me. This is a good reminder. Read my post about teaching children to sew:
http://www.thelostapron.com/2013/06/summer-sewing-camp-lesson-one.html
Yes praying for others seems so easy, but like you said, more often than not, God is showing you that there is some point in your life that needs changing. I experience this DAILY lol.
And thanks for the link to the article. I ABSOLUTELY love sewing!
I’ve been reading through Hebrews and just happened to read chapter 7 today that speaks about Melchizedek, the high priest in Genesis being surpassed by Christ who did not need to offer a sacrifice for his sins but became the sacrifice for us all. This fits perfectly with that thought, my friend. I’m so glad we have a High Priest who we can boldly approach with our confession, knowing He will forgive us over and over again. Great thoughts and thanks for linking up with Wedded Wed. I think it might be your first time, so, welcome!
It is so wonderful knowing that no matter how much we sin there is still forgiveness!!
Thank you for welcoming me at Wedded Wednesday.
Love love love this series. Realigning our priorities around here, starting the day with prayer.
Beyond delighted to meet you.
I hope you don’t mind if I splash around to get to know you. This looks like a refreshing place to dip into some serious goodness.
You splashed me with encouragement today. I would be honored if you would splash other mommas as well with this post or another fave. We gather for momma notes. I jot some on Mondays, but it’s a link up whenever you can kind of link up. Just moms. Sharing our notes. Creating a melody.
http://justsarahdawn.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-new-to-do.html
Oh thanks for your comments Sarah. I already hopped over to your site and I have been blessed and I only read one post! So glad you found me so I know about your link up.