The question came out of nowhere.
“How do I know God exists when I can’t see him?” asked my four-year-old son.
My jaw dropped; I had never heard a young child ask such an existential question before. I hemmed and hawed and finally came up with an answer, and later that evening I remained extra grateful for the verse we had been praying over him every night at bedtime.
Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. (Ephesians 3:17-19 NLT)
May Christ make his home in your heart as you trust in him.
My prayer is that the relationship between Jesus and my son would be one of reciprocity. Christ’s job description is to make a home out of my son’s heart, and my son’s job description is simply to trust.
May your roots grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.
God’s love is one of the most crucial aspects of Himself. Without His love, all is lost. It is too easy to focus on the behaviors and attitudes of my son without laying him at the feet of God, where His extravagant love can change the hardened heart. I pray that my son’s faith roots will be entrenched in God’s immense love so that when the strong winds of temptation and doubt begin to blow, he will stand.
May you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is.
God’s love is as wide as His outstretched arms on the cross, as long as the time from creation to salvation, as high as the universe and as deep as our deepest depressions.
All God’s people ought to understand this truth, but many have chosen to brush it off as mundane. God’s love is the farthest thing from mundane, but we need His power to understand it. We cannot understand God’s love without God opening our hearts and minds; all is bound up in Him.
May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully.
The deepest answer to my son’s question resides here: I have experienced the love of Christ. That is how I know God exists. My prayer is that my children would also experience and recognize the love of Christ, even though it is impossible for their human hearts to truly grasp its immensity.
Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
This is the ultimate goal of this prayer: that through understanding and being rooted in the love of Christ, they would experience a life characterized by a completeness, fullness, and power. I pray that they would learn to trust Him no matter their circumstances because they have a deep belief in God’s enveloping love.
I keep a poster of this verse and several others hanging on the wall of my boys’ bedroom. These are all available as free printables on my website! Pop over to snag them for yourself!
To read more about the practice of praying biblical blessings over your child, check out The Blessing, by John Trent and Gary Smalley (affiliate link).
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