Prodigal Prayers: Week 15

Welcome, friend.

If you’re here, it’s likely because you love someone who has wandered—or because your own heart knows what it feels like to wait, hope, and pray through the ache of distance. You’ve prayed. You’ve wept. You’ve waited. And today, once again, you are choosing to press in.

In 2026, we are walking this road together.

Each Tuesday, we gather here to work through Prodigal Prayers: 52 Weeks of Praying Over the Prodigal—one week at a time, one Scripture, one prayer, one promise.

​There is no rushing here and no falling behind. Come when you can. Stay as long as you need. This is a place for steady faith, honest prayers, and hope that is anchored in our faithful God and refuses to give up.

This journey is rooted in the rhythm of Prayer, Praise, and Promise—a reminder that God is our refuge, our joy, and the faithful Keeper of every soul. As we lift our prodigals before Him, we also allow His Word to strengthen our hearts in the waiting.

Your prayers matter, friend. Your faith is not in vain. The Father still calls His children by name, and His arms remain open.

​I hope you'll also join us over in the private Prodigal Prayers Facebook group ​and walk this journey with others who believe in the power of prayer.

Let’s begin again today—trusting God together.

A Prayer for Hope

Do you ever feel like Jeremiah? The people of his day laughed at him. They mocked him. They hated him. They beat him. They threw him in stocks.
 
They were all tired of hearing him preach to them the Word of the Lord.
 
Maybe you have witnessed to someone who’s laughed at the Word of the Lord.
Maybe your friends have mocked you on social media because of your Christian beliefs.
Maybe you’re praying over a prodigal who seems to hate you for your prayers of intercession.
 
"Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord! For He has delivered the life of the needy from the hand of evildoers." Jeremiah 20:13
 
Keep witnessing, friend. Keep letting your life be a testimony on social media. Keep praying for that prodigal. Keep praising the Lord!!
 
"…Thus says the Lord: You have broken wooden bars, but you have made in their place bars of iron." Jeremiah 28:13 Beside this verse, in the margin of my Bible, I have written: "pray over the prodigal."

The God-honoring home, the Christian school, the Bible-preaching church—these things are all like bars of wood to the prodigal. He sees them as bars that keep him from doing what HE wants to do when in reality they are fences of protection placed in their life by a loving Heavenly Father.
 
The prodigal doesn’t view them this way, so they leave these bars of wood, and they go out to make for themself bars of iron. They create a lifestyle that hems them in on all sides with sin.
 
I love these reminders from Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles: "Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: ‘Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare …
 
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will hear you. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.’" Jeremiah 29:4-7, 11-14
 
God KNOWS the plans He has for the prodigal, friend, plans for welfare, to give them a future and a hope. God has plans to give the prodigal a future and a Hope, and that HOPE friend is Himself!

Heavenly Father,

Today, I come before you with a heavy heart, lifting up my prodigal to you. Like Jeremiah, I have felt the sting of ridicule and rejection for proclaiming Your Word. Yet, I stand firm in my faith, knowing that You are my refuge and strength in times of trouble.

Lord, I pray for those who have scoffed at Your Word, for those who have mocked me for my beliefs, and for those who have turned away from You. May Your love and truth penetrate their hearts, softening them to receive Your grace and mercy.

As I intercede for my prodigal, help me to keep witnessing, to let my life be a testimony of Your goodness and faithfulness. Give me the strength to persevere in prayer, even when it seems like my prayers are falling on deaf ears.

I thank You, Lord, for Your promise in Jeremiah 29:11. Though the prodigal may have broken the wooden bars of Your protection and replaced them with bars of iron hemming themselves in with their sinful choices and lifestyle, You have a future and a hope planned for them. Help me to trust in Your sovereignty, knowing that You are working all things together for good in your perfect time.

Lord, I cling to the assurance of Your plans for my prodigal, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give them a future and a hope. May they call upon You and seek You with all their heart, knowing that You, in Your mercy and grace, will be found by them and restore to a life of hope in Jesus Christ.

In Jesus' name, amen.

If God’s plans for the prodigal include a future and a hope, how might that change the way you pray and persevere—even when you don’t yet see any signs of turning back?

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