Praying Moms and Grandmoms

Dannah Gresh: Have you been influenced by Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, the host of Revive Our Hearts? If so, you’ve benefited from the prayers of her grandmother.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: There's a sense in which I believe I would not be here today if it were not for the power of a praying grandmother. She actually was my great-grandmother. My father is of Greek background, and his parents were Greek immigrants. He had a grandmother that they called Yaya, which is the word for grandmother.

My dad and his family and the cousins grew up in the same house, and Yaya was part of that household. She came over with my dad's parents.

Though the home was not really a Christian home, Yaya was a woman who did know the Lord, and who prayed earnetly for the salvation and the spiritual life her children and grandchildren and perhaps her great-grandchildren, which I am one.

My dad's cousin, Ted DeMoss, whom you may have heard of, was a great man of God and a real leader in ministries. He is now with the Lord. I remember hearing him tell the story of how when he was a little boy, he shared a bedroom with Yaya. He told about how sometimes at night he would go to bed and Yaya would be on her knees praying for the family. She never learned English. She prayed in her mother tongue, which was Turkish.

Then he told how he would sometimes wake in the morning and find that she was still up praying for her family, her children, the grandchildren—and the impact that that made on his life as a little boy.

Dannah: This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author of Choosing Gratitude, for June 30, 2023. I’m Dannah Gresh.

This week Nancy’s in a series called “Leaving a Godly Legacy,” based on Psalm 127. On Wednesday we heard how parents are called to be watchmen, workers, and warriors. Yesterday, Nancy reminded us to keep our families a priority amid life’s busyness. Today, Nancy will remind us: we can only invest in our families by depending on God’s strength.

Nancy: Any effort undertaken independently of God will be futile.

That's what we read about in Psalm 127 in the very first verse: "Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it." You can be a workman, but if you are not working under the Master Workman, if you're not a subcontractor under the General Contractor of God Himself, your work is going to be in vain. You can't have a godly family if God's not building the home. Now that sounds so obvious, you may wonder why I even have to say it. But that affects the way that we think about family, the way we do family day in and day out. Are we consciously recognizing our dependence upon God?

He goes on in this passage to say, "Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain." I know that every parent, particularly mothers, are tempted to be afraid in this day and age about what's going to happen to their children. Afraid when you send them to school, afraid when you have a babysitter, afraid even sometimes when you take them to a church nursery of what is going to happen to them. Will they fall? Will they get hurt? Will somebody do something wrong to them? You hear all the horror stories. Maybe you've experienced some of those things with your own children. It's easy for mothers to become watchmen, to become zealous in their protectiveness over their children.

The psalmist says here that no matter how good of a watchman you are, unless the Lord guards the city, you're staying awake in vain. Even if your children are within your eyesight every moment of the day, you can't protect them from getting hurt. Certainly as they get older and move out of your immediate sphere of influence and control and move out into the world and move away from your home, you can't watch over them every moment of every day.

But there is Someone who does. One of the names for God that I think must be a precious name to every mother is the name El-Roi, the God Who Sees. When you send your children out into the world, you send your children out to school or out of the home and into their own marriages and into the workplace, aren't you glad that you can trust El-Roi, the God Who Sees? Doesn't that motivate and encourage you as you pray?

You say, "I can't see where this son or daughter is right now. I can't see what they're doing. I'm not there physically to protect them. If I were there physically, I couldn't protect their heart. But, Lord, You see them." "Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain."

It goes on in verse 2, "It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows." He says, in other words, if you undertake building a home or watching over this city in your own effort, independent of God, you will end up with heartache and sorrow. You just can't control the situation. You can't control your children. For certain, we can't control the next generation.

That's why we must acknowledge the Lord. Acknowledge His role as the master builder, as the ultimate watchman. We are partners with Him. Certainly not equal partners—He is the senior partner, for sure! But partnering with Him in this incredible undertaking—this impossible undertaking—we are co-laborers with Him. We watch under His watchful eye. We build under His instruction and leadership. We are linking arms with Him and doing what is important to Him and what is on His heart.

No matter how much we try to do everything right . . . And by the way, any person who has children or any person who doesn't have children is a sinner. Our efforts at best are flawed. We are fallen. We are weak. We are sinful. We do make mistakes. We make wrong choices. If it depended on our doing it all right, we'd never have children who have a heart for God. Even with our best efforts, we are still dependent upon the Spirit of God and the grace of God to make it click in our children's lives.

That's why I think every mother realizes—and why we need to be reminded—that our greatest resource is prayer. Unless the Lord does it, it's not going to happen. The house isn't going to get built. The city is not going to get guarded, unless God is the workman, unless God is the watchman, unless God is the warrior.

So moms, I ask you this: "If you don't cry out to God on behalf of your children and your grandchildren, who do you think is going to?" Now, we all need to be crying out to God on behalf of the next generation, but I don't know that anyone has as much of a reason or vested interest to do so as a mother, a grandmother. Some of you, your children are grown and you think, My task is done." No! Your task is not done. You have grandchildren. There will be great-grandchildren. And if the Lord tarries, great great-grandchildren.

I have prayed numerous times over my brothers and sisters and their mates and their children and their children who aren't even thought of yet. Down to four generations, I pray that every one will know God, will love God, will walk with God, will have a heart and a hunger for God.

When we pray, when we cry out to God on behalf of our children, we acknowledge our need for God and our absolute utter dependence upon Him.

Dananh: Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth has been reminding us about our need for women to pray on behalf of the next generation.

Over the years on Revive Our Hearts, we’ve heard from several moms and grandmoms who have cried out to the Lord for the next generation. Let’s follow up Nancy’s teaching from Psalm 127 by hearing from some of them.

Our first praying mom is Rhonwyn Kendrick. Her sons are the filmmakers behind movies like War Room, Facing the Giants, and Fireproof. Her son, Stephen, remembers the prayers of his mom.

A lot of Mrs. Kendrick's life is about planting seeds, seeds of faith that something beautiful will grow. That's true for prayers, and it's also true for literal seeds.

Rhonwyn Kendrick: I love being outdoors. I guess it’s part of growing up on the farm . . . planting something and then just watching it grow.

Dannah: This is Rhonwyn Kendrick’s son, Stephen. 

Stephen Kendrick: You can take the girl off of the farm, but you can’t take the farm out of the girl. She goes out and works outside all the time.

Mrs. Kendrick: For the spring garden, we planted green beans . . .

Stephen: It’s therapy for her.

Mrs. Kendrick: . . . sweet potatoes . . .

Stephen: It’s a joy for her . . .

Mrs. Kendrick: . . . squash . . .

Stephen: . . . to get her hands dirty and see something bloom.

Mrs. Kendrick: . . . zucchini . . .

Stephen: She has transformed her back yard from an ugly backyard into something very beautiful over the years.

Mrs. Kendrick: Last year I tried corn. That didn’t work!

Dannah: Mrs. Kendrick not only cultivates her garden every day. She also cultivates a close relationship with the Lord.

Mrs. Kendrick: In the mornings I like to take my Bible and I go to my kitchen table. I put my Bible on the table, and I stand. If I stand, I don’t doze off. And I just start praying.

Dannah: Mrs. Kendrick uses a lot of Scripture when she prays.

Mrs. Kendrick: In the mornings I like to read Psalm 23: “The Lord is [our] Shepherd, [we] shall not want . . .” And then, Psalm 25: “Show [us] Your ways, O Lord; teach [us] Your plans” (v. 4). Deuteronomy 28: “We’re blessed in the city, blessed in the field; blessed is the fruit of our body . . .” (vv. 3–4 paraphrased).

The verses in Psalm 34: “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. . . . They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing” (vv. 1, 10). Psalm 37: “Delight thyselves in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart” (v. 1).

“This is the day the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24). Isaiah 54: “All of your children shall be taught of the Lord” (v. 13). I have quoted this for years. Galatians 3: “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law” (v. 13). Psalm 91: “[We] will say of the Lord, He is our refuge . . . He covers [us] with his feathers, and under his wings [do we] trust” (vv. 2, 4).

Dannah: At a young age, Mrs. Kendrick discovered the power of prayer in a very dramatic way. 

Mrs. Kendrick: I was six years old; this was on April 1, 1948.

Stephen: A tornado came, and it hit their property where there was a farm.

Mrs. Kendrick: I remember Mother taking my sister Carol and my sister Bonnie and me, and she put us under the kitchen table.

Stephen: She says she remembers looking up and watching her mother cry out to God!

Mrs. Kendrick: I remember her just crying out to the Lord; she was just crying at the top of her voice, asking the Lord to protect us! 

Stephen: A few minutes later, the sound died down. They walked outside, and all around them there was devastation!

Mrs. Kendrick: The roof to our barn, which was next to the house, was blown off.

Stephen: And they never found that roof!

Mrs. Kendrick: Two huge oak trees in front of our house, across the highway, had fallen down.

Stephen: Power lines were down in the front yard. The church across the street was rocked off of its foundation, but their house was left intact—and preserved.

Mrs. Kendrick: Our house was not touched! I think I learned from that that we need to be able to call on God anytime, in any circumstance and that God is near, that He loves us. I saw a very quick answer to prayer!

Dannah: When Rhonwyn married Larry Kendrick and began a family, prayer was a big part of their daily lives.

Mrs. Kendrick: Before our children were born, my husband and I prayed over them, that the Lord would have His will, His way with them.

Stephen: We heard the Word of God growing up. Some of it we would memorize in Sunday school, some of it was at Christian school that we went to in our later years, and then at home we were hearing God’s Word quoted.

Our mom often would say, “Our children will be taught of the Lord; and great will be the peace of our children. No weapon that is formed against them shall prosper, but their righteousness is of the Lord . . . and whatever they do will prosper, for they will be like trees planted by the rivers of water” (see Isa. 54:13 and 17, and Ps. 1:3).

They would just incorporate Scripture into their prayers over our lives.

Dannah: Stephen Kendrick remembers the way his mom used to pray for him and his brothers before school.

Stephen: We heard Psalm 91 just about every day, it seemed, going to school, growing up. We would be in the car, and she would make it personal. When Mom would personalize the chapter, she would say, “We dwell in the secret place of the most High: we shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. We will say of the Lord, He is our refuge, our fortress: our God; in Him will we trust. Surely he shall deliver us from the snare of the fowler, from the noisome pestilence. He will cover us with His feathers; under His wings we will trust” (see Psalm 91:1–4).

And then, she would go through the whole chapter, as we’re in the car: “Only with our eyes will we behold and see the reward of the wicked. A thousand may fall at our side, ten thousand at our right hand; but it will not happen to us” (see Psalm 91:7–8).

At the end of the passage it talks about the Lord’s blessing and protection over our family. Having sons caused my mom to pray for protection a lot. She would pray Psalm 91 protection over us as we would be out in the woods—swinging on vines, trying to be Indiana Jones as kids.

A mom could look at her children saying, “I’m trying to protect them and keep them safe”—but your prayers will go with them. There were many times where we almost died as kids, growing up—running the car out into the street, driving it as a three-year-old. I backed the car out in the street two different times.

Over the years, the things that we have experienced . . . But Mom was always praying for us behind the scenes, asking the Lord to put His angels’ charge over us and keep us safe. And so you may be looking at your kids thinking, I’m so worried or fearful about them because I can’t always be with them wherever they go.

Well, the Lord is with them, and His guardian angels can be charge over them. When you pray for their protection, they’re in the Lord’s hands, and you can rest at night knowing that He has a better plan than you do for their lives.

Mom and Dad made prayer a part of everything they did. We’re not only praying before meals, but we’re praying before major decisions. One thing that we would see in our parents was, they wouldn’t hold back in their prayer lives.

They wouldn’t pray just small prayers, but they believed that God could provide, He could protect, He could do things. So, there was a sense of, “The Lord is able to carry us through this and provide what we need.”

Dannah: Today, all three of the Kendrick brothers—Shannon, Alex, and Stephen—are involved in filmmaking. Their films include Overcomer, Fireproof, and Courageous. On the set of each film prayer has been a crucial part of their process.

Stephen: All the films that we have produced have really been a string of one answered prayer after another. We’re praying as we’re writing. We haven’t had the script writing training so we’re laying it before the Lord, saying, “Would You enable us to develop these characters?”

As we’re casting, we’re praying over the casting process. Every day on set, we’ll have a prayer team be part of that: “We’re dedicating today to the Lord.” And then, we have prayer warriors that we will email each week and say, “Here’s how you can pray for us; here’s what’s coming up.”

We have seen again, consistently, that when we bathe things in prayer, when we fight our battles in prayer first, the Lord is faithful to answer those.

Dannah: Their 2015 film, War Room, went to number one at the box office. It was specifically about prayer.

Stephen: We didn’t know what was going to happen with it, but War Room was more successful, the impact has been even more far-reaching than the other films. We can see now that the timing was perfect for a call to prayer to the church!

Dannah: War Room shows the relationship between a younger woman learning how to pray and her mentor—Miss Clara.

Stephen: I think the character, Miss Clara, was the combination of many godly elderly women that we’ve known over the years, and our mother is definitely one of those who helped inspire that character. Oftentimes, we’ll call and we’ll say, “Mom, here’s what’s going on. Here’s how we need your prayer support.”

As we’re travelling, as we’re working on production, she’s praying for us—and we consistently see the rewards of that. You can sense sometimes, “There’s somebody who’s been praying for me.” I am so grateful for a praying mom!

Alex and I had been praying for the Lord to be glorified through our lives; our parents were praying over us as we were growing up. He had a vision for making Christian movies one day—a dream that he wanted to do that. But it was over a decade later, after he was praying, before the Lord answered that prayer and enabled us to make Christian films.

When we look back now, we weren’t ready when we were young to do that. But God’s timing is perfect, and we can see that all the years of ministry, serving in the local church, studying the Word of God was helping to prepare us to be able to make movies that hopefully demonstrate biblical accuracy but also a sense of a love towards God and a fear of the Lord, and the discernment of what is appropriate, in the film.

I would say to young moms that if you know Jesus and you will get right with Him and be in a daily abiding relationship with Him, you are positioned through Christ to approach your heavenly Father with boldness and with freedom. 

Ask for the moon for your children. Ask the Lord to do more than you can ask or imagine. Whatever is in your heart, lay that before the Lord. Pray for their protection, pray for wisdom. And find Scriptures that you can stand on, and pray those before the Lord.

Just keep knocking on heaven’s door with those requests. God loves your children more than you do, and He will be with them throughout their lives, beyond your influence and beyond your control. But your prayers will go with them.

The Lord can do wonderful, mighty things through your kids, if you will trust the Lord with them. I am so grateful for a praying mom! We don’t deserve it. We don’t deserve all that she has done for us, but we are grateful for her.

Oftentimes we will call and we’ll say, “Mom, here’s what’s going on. Here’s how we need your prayer support.” Or, "Will you pray for our protection in this situation?”—and she will. We’re very grateful for what God has done through her!

I believe the enemy is attacking in a greater degree. Evil is upon our generation. We cannot rely upon our best efforts or just the human counsel that we have around us. We have to be relying completely upon the Lord for our children and for our grandchildren—watching God take them and do with them more than we could ever imagine or do on our own.

Dannah: That’s Rhonwyn Kendrick. To hear more about how she prays for her family, I hope you’ll watch the video the Revive Our Hearts team made called, “The Mighty Influence of a Praying Mom.” There’s a link to it in the transcript of today’s program at ReviveOurHearts.com.

Let’s hear from another mom and grandma who has a lot to share about praying for the next generation. Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth recorded an interview with Evelyn Christensen before this prayer warrior went to be with the Lord in 2011.

Let’s listen to a piece of that conversation.

Evelyn Christenson: For those whole thirty years my brother said, "There is no God." Finally, my mother prayed a prayer that's a very hard one to pray. She had prayed everything possible. My brother had gone through three wives, three swimming pools, and everything else that was in the lifestyle he was in. She finally prayed, "Lord, do anything you have to do to my son to bring him to Jesus."

A very short time after that, he was in Detroit, Michigan. He was walking across a highway, and a car traveling fifty miles an hour hit him broadside. They peeled him off the car (the windshield) and put him in intensive care and put all the pumps on him. They wouldn't let us see him. We all flew in and gathered at a motel, and they said, "There is no point in seeing him. He's just dead; there is no life there. It's only the pumps working."

Nancy: How long was this after she prayed that prayer?

Evelyn: Oh, very shortly after that. It wasn't a long time at all. I can see my little mother when we gathered in the hospital, when they wouldn't let us in to see him, she just dropped her head down in her knees and she shuddered. And she said, "Is this my fault? Is this my fault?"

Sometimes I wonder that [same thing] when I pray this for my children, "Lord, do anything that You need to do to bring them back to Jesus." That's not an easy prayer.

Then we all gathered as a family; we were a praying family. In that motel room, we all gathered around a bed. We wept and sobbed before God. We said, "Lord, give us one more time to talk to Bud." We had talked to him. We had loved him. We had done everything we knew how to do and prayed for him and everything. We had done everything, but we asked for one more chance.

The next morning they wouldn't let any of us go in to see him, but we all gathered in the hospital. Then they decided to let two of us go in to see him. One would be mother, of course, and then they chose me.

I leaned over him and I said, "Bud, can you trust Jesus today."

And my brother instantly came alive. He smiled and he grinned through all those pumps going down his throat, and he said, "Uh, huh!" And he lived. He died from cancer two years later, but he lived as a Christian for two years.

So don't give up if you're praying. Some people say, "I've been praying for a whole year and this one hasn't found Christ yet. I'm giving up on my children. I'm slamming the door. They can go out and live their own life." Don't ever give up.

Dannah: That’s Evelyn Christensen, who’s with the Lord now. To hear more of her interview with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, visit ReviveOurHearts.com and find a link in the transcript of this program.

We’re bringing you that segment as part of a series called “Leaving a Godly Legacy, based on Psalm 127. If you’ve missed any of it, you can hear it at ReviveOurHearts.com or on the Revive Our Hearts app.

And if you know some moms or grandmoms who would be encouraged by this series, would you send them a link? 

As a listener-supported program, Revive Our Hearts depends on donations from friends like you—donations that help us produce this program, and that fund our growing list of international outreaches. We also depend on your prayers! Just like Nancy’s Yaya and Evelyn Christenson and Rhonwyn Kendrick, we understand the power of godly prayer. 

Thank you so much for praying. And thank you for giving. Don’t forget, when you make a donation, to request your copy of Juli Slattery’s countercultural book Rethinking Sexuality: God’s Design and Why It Matters. We’ll send it to you as our way of saying, “Thanks for your donation!” To do that, simply head over to ReviveOurHearts.com, or call us at 1-800-569-5959.

Do you need any suggestions for summer listening? Friend, look no further than the Revive Our Hearts podcast family! In fact, on the upcoming edition of Revive Our Hearts Weekend, we’ll have a veritable cornucopia, an audio sampler, shall we say, of snippets from our podcasts. They’re all great ways you can listen and get God’s Word into your heart through your ears. Tune in to Revive Our Hearts Weekend for more.

And then on Monday, we’ll turn our attention to asking ourselves where we find our meaning, our identity. Bob Lepine and Kelly Needham will discuss the ways we can inadvertently attach a sense of fulfillment and purpose to the things we do, rather than basing it in our relationship with God. You won’t want to miss this helpful conversation.

Have a great weekend! We’ll see you next week, on Revive Our Hearts.

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth is calling you to effective, fervent prayer that results in freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

All Scripture is taken from the New King James Version unless otherwise noted.

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