Lord, Bless My Family With Favor

Devotional

Day 1: When Caves Close and Parents Can’t Follow

The image of parents waiting outside flooded caves mirrors our helplessness as loved ones face trials we cannot fix. Like those Thai families, we realize our limits—classrooms, conversations, and choices where we cannot intervene. Prayer becomes the lifeline, not to control outcomes, but to release our grip and trust God’s unseen work. Favor isn’t luck; it’s God’s presence moving where we cannot. This surrender isn’t resignation—it’s faith in the One who navigates narrow tunnels. [06:33]

Moses said to the Lord, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” (Exodus 33:12–14, ESV)

Reflection: Where do you feel most powerless to protect or guide someone you love? How might praying “Lord, go where I cannot” shift your anxiety into trust?

Day 2: Favor That Teaches Through Struggle

God’s favor doesn’t erase hardship—it uses it. Like a butterfly strengthened by its cocoon struggle, our families need trials to develop spiritual grit. Moses didn’t ask for ease; he begged, “Teach me your ways.” Praying for favor means inviting God to shape character through disappointment, waiting, and failure. It’s trusting that closed doors and rough roads are classrooms, not curses. True favor equips, not escapes. [18:39]

And he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9–10, ESV)

Reflection: What current struggle in your family might God be using to teach dependence on Him? How can you pray for growth instead of just relief?

Day 3: Presence Over Promised Lands

Moses refused to enter the Promised Land without God’s presence. Similarly, we must prioritize God’s nearness in our families over worldly success. A promotion without purpose, a relationship without reverence, or comfort without communion is empty. Praying for favor means wanting Jesus in the job interview, the hospital room, and the lonely car ride more than wanting the “right” outcome. [22:46]

They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” (Luke 24:32, ESV)

Reflection: When have you sensed God’s “heartburn”—His presence stirring you or a loved one? How can you pray for that fire over mere external blessings?

Day 4: Borrowed Faith or Burning Hearts

Faith isn’t inherited—it’s ignited. The Emmaus Road disciples moved from secondhand rumors to firsthand encounter when Jesus Himself walked with them. Praying for favor means asking God to interrupt routines, break bread in ordinary moments, and make Himself undeniable. We don’t want our children to recite our stories; we want them to testify, “My heart burned when He spoke to me.” [26:53]

But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. (Deuteronomy 4:29, ESV)

Reflection: Where have you seen “borrowed faith” in your family? How can you pray for specific moments where God might reveal Himself personally to them?

Day 5: Surrendering the How to the Who

Prayer forces us to trade control for trust. Like the parent releasing the bike seat, we admit, “I can’t, but You can.” Favor isn’t about dictating God’s methods—it’s believing His goodness when the path is unclear. Surrender says, “They belong to You” as we place loved ones into hands that carved galaxies and calmed storms. True blessing follows those who let go. [30:59]

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. (Psalm 23:6, ESV)

Reflection: What situation have you been trying to “fix” that God is asking you to release? How might trusting His “goodness and mercy” behind the scenes bring peace?

Sermon Summary

God’s favor is not good luck, a guaranteed promotion, an easy road, or the best parking spot at Walmart. God’s favor is his presence, his grace, and his help at work in a family for their good and for his glory. The image of trapped boys deep inside a flooded cave shows the burden many parents and grandparents carry. Children go into classrooms, conversations, temptations, decisions, and troubles where family cannot go with them. God’s favor reaches those places.

Moses faces that same kind of limit in Exodus 33. Moses has been told to lead a whole nation, a people who complain, resist, doubt, and rebel. Moses does not pretend that strong leadership is enough. Moses says, in effect, “God, I can’t do this without you,” and God answers, “My presence will go with you.” Prayer for a family admits human limits while trusting God’s unlimited ability.

God’s favor gives what parents cannot provide for themselves. Parents can teach values, warn about danger, set an example, and offer good advice, but they cannot believe for a child or make every choice for them. Parenting does not work like a vending machine, where putting in the right amount of parenting guarantees the desired result. God can open doors, close wrong doors, bring wise people alongside a child, and redirect a life after a bad decision. The prayer changes from “How can I control this?” to “Lord, do what I cannot do.”

God’s favor also teaches God’s ways. Moses does not ask merely for an easier path. Moses asks, “Teach me your way so I may know you.” God’s favor sometimes protects from destruction, but it also allows hard things that form strength, grit, wisdom, patience, and trust. The butterfly cannot be helped by removing the struggle too soon. Children need more than inherited convictions and church habits. They need to know how to hear God’s voice, forgive, endure disappointment, make decisions, and trust God when life does not make sense.

God’s favor is finally experienced through God’s presence. Moses would rather stay where he is than reach the promised destination without God. Success without God’s presence is not the goal for a family. Like the disciples on the Emmaus road, children need hearts that burn within them because they have encountered Jesus for themselves. God’s favor means God goes where family cannot go, teaches what family cannot teach, and does what family cannot do.

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Key Takeaways

1. God goes where family cannot go. Parents and grandparents eventually reach places where love cannot control the outcome. God’s presence can enter the classroom, workplace, friendship, temptation, and difficult conversation. Prayer places loved ones into the hands of the One who loves them more deeply and works more powerfully. [07:41]
2. Parenting is not a vending machine. Faithful instruction matters deeply, but it does not force another person’s will. Children make real decisions, and life brings circumstances no parent can arrange or prevent. God’s favor helps families release the demand to control every result without abandoning love or faithful influence. [14:14]
3. Favor teaches through hard things. God’s kindness does not always remove pain immediately. Some struggles form strength, wisdom, maturity, and a deeper dependence on God that comfort could never produce. A wiser prayer asks God to protect loved ones from what destroys them while teaching them through what develops them. [20:11]
4. God’s presence matters more than outcomes. Moses refuses a promised destination without the God who promised it. Achievement, money, education, and career success become hollow when they pull a heart away from God. God’s presence gives success its right place and keeps the soul alive to worship, obedience, and the Spirit’s leading. [23:08]
5. Children need their own encounter with Jesus. A borrowed faith cannot carry a person through every road of life. The deepest desire is not merely that children remember what parents believed, but that they personally know the One in whom those parents believed. Hearts burn within people when Jesus becomes real to them along the road.

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Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[00:21] - Praying for God’s Favor on Family
[02:47] - The Thailand Cave Rescue
[06:33] - When Children Go Where Parents Cannot
[08:04] - What God’s Favor Is Not
[10:04] - Moses Needs God’s Presence
[12:12] - Favor Gives What Family Cannot Provide
[17:48] - Favor Teaches God’s Ways
[22:03] - Favor Is Experienced Through Presence
[24:59] - Hearts Burning on the Emmaus Road
[27:54] - Carrying God’s Presence Through School
[30:20] - Do What Family Cannot Do
[30:59] - Prayer Requires Surrender
[32:23] - Closing Prayer for God’s Favor

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Exodus 33:12-15
“Moses said to the LORD, 'See, you say to me, "Bring up this people," but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, "I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight." Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.' And he said, 'My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.' And he said to him, 'If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here.” [10:37]

Luke 24:32
“They said to each other, 'Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” [26:30]

Psalm 23:6
“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” [33:28]

Observation questions

In Exodus 33:12–15, what does Moses ask God to teach him, and what does God promise Moses in response? [10:37]
What examples show the kinds of places and situations children or loved ones may enter where family members cannot go with them? [06:49]
What does the message identify as God’s favor, and what are some things it says God’s favor is not? [09:36]
In Luke 24:32, what had happened during the disciples’ walk that caused them to describe their hearts as burning within them? [26:30]

Interpretation questions

Moses had a major responsibility and openly admitted that he could not carry it without God. What does his prayer reveal about the difference between depending on personal ability and depending on God’s presence? [11:15]
Moses asks God to teach him His ways, not simply to make the path easier. How does this shape the meaning of God’s favor when a family member is going through hardship? [17:48]
The message compares parenting to a vending machine, where good input would guarantee a desired outcome. Why is that picture misleading, even when parents have been faithful and loving? [14:03]
Moses would not accept the promised destination without God’s presence. Why can success in school, work, finances, or relationships become spiritually empty without closeness to God? [23:08]

Application questions

Is there a child, grandchild, spouse, relative, or close friend whose situation makes you feel helpless right now? What would it look like to pray, “Lord, do what I cannot do,” for that person this week? [31:06]
Where are you most tempted to try to control an outcome for someone you love—choices, friendships, school, work, faith, or something else? How might you continue to offer loving influence while releasing control to God? [17:12]
Think of a difficulty someone in your family is facing. How can you pray both for protection from what would harm them and for God to teach them through what can grow them? [20:49]
What are some outcomes you regularly pray for your family—good grades, a job, safety, health, relationships, or financial provision? How can you also specifically pray for God’s presence to go with them in those places? [23:29]
Children and grandchildren need more than family church habits; they need their own faith in Jesus. What are some simple ways you can encourage genuine conversations about knowing Jesus personally without trying to force faith? [27:30]
Psalm 23:6 speaks of God’s goodness and mercy following His people. Where have you seen God’s goodness or mercy pursue you or your family, even in a difficult season? [33:28]

Sermon Clips

36s

#GodsFavor

“You can't follow your adult children to work. You can't stand beside them in every difficult conversation, but God can be there with them. His presence can be there with them, and that is God's favor. That is God's favor. So what are we really asking for when we pray, Lord, bless my family with your favor? We're asking, Lord, do what I cannot do, Teach what I cannot teach, and go where I cannot go. We want God's help. We want God's or his ways, and we want God's presence.”

37s

#PrayForYourFamily

“You can pray. And prayer is not the last thing we do when everything else has failed. Prayer is our way of placing the people we love we love into the hands of the one who loves them even more and can do much more for them than we can. So perhaps a prayer we need to pray today is simple. Lord, just bless my family with your favor. Do for them what what I can't do for them. Teach them what I can't teach them, and go with them where I can't go. And then just trust them because God's favor means God is at work.”

40s

#TrustGod

“There comes a point when you said what you can say, and then you have to say, God, I can't control this situation, but you can work on this. That's not giving up on our kids. That's just trusting God. That's trusting God. Some of us need to replace this prayer. Lord, how can I control? How can I fix everything with this prayer? Lord, just do what I cannot do. Do what I cannot do. Open the right doors, Lord. Close the wrong doors. Give them wisdom. Bring the right influences into their lives. Give them what I cannot give them. That's God's favor.”

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