It’s officially spring and it is also the time of year when some of us are either knee-deep in spring cleaning or working on revamping our routines (I fall into the second option) 😉
I don’t know what it is about the changing seasons but it always seems that when the snow finally melts, the brown grass starts to turn green and the temperature begins to warm up, we all seem to get into a cleaning, organizing and purging frenzy!
I’ve been sharing with you how I have been reviewing my daily and weekly routines to help myself get it together {again!}, as well as my monthly and annual cleaning routines, but today I wanted to take a pause in the actual cleaning part of spring cleaning and focus on something that is a little more important…
Prayer.
More specifically praying over our homes
Something that has been on my heart a lot recently is how I spend most of my prayer time focusing on prayers that happen outside of our home like praying for my husband at his job or praying that the truth being planting in my kid’s hearts will form and take root.
While these are great prayers to have for our family, and we should be praying these things on a daily basis, let’s not forget to pray for the most important part of our ministry as wives, mothers, and creative home keepers… our actual, physical homes.
As the coldness and dreariness of winter start to fade away, and the warm and colors of spring start to spurt forth, it’s time to start thinking about spring cleaning.
If your home is like mine, it’s taken a little bit of a beating this winter season. With three kids running around, a dog with snowy paws, my husband’s boots who track in just about everything and all the day to day grim, my home is in need of a good top-to-bottom deep cleaning.
While I don’t need to do a massive purging to get rid of any excessive clutter, I do need to make a plan to go back through my home and deep clean every room again. But something that I have been thinking about is adding prayer to my cleaning routine.
Why add prayer?
We spend time making sure each room in our homes are dust free, picked up, floors swept, linens washed and smelling good, but do we spend the same amount of time praying over our homes?
Praying for the people inside?
Praying for our homes to be a haven to those we love?
Do we allow God to take up resident in our homes?
I’ll be honest in sharing that I don’t always, at least not on a regular basis anyway.
I pray for my family, but something I have realized is a lot of times I’m praying for events that happen outside of the home.
For example, I pray for my husband to be a man of integrity at work and for him to be a faithful leader in the business world, but I haven’t necessarily been praying for him in his role inside the home.
It seems obvious, but I have really been convicted of my prayers recently. So that is why I’m adding praying over my home to my cleaning routine.
While this should be a normal occurrence, I’m going to start by focusing on praying over each room while I clean then as the habit develops I plan to add pray walking through my home on a regular basis.
To help get you started, I’m sharing some simple prayers I have been using. Like most prayer prompts, I pray that these may lead you into more deeper prayers for your home and family.
Prayers for Your Kitchen and Dining Room
Father thank you for a place to prepare and enjoy the food. I pray that You may use this food to nourish us, but that we may realize true nourishment comes from You alone. Allow our conversations around the table to be a reflection of You. Open our eyes to see where we may share our abundance with others.
Prayers for the Living Room
God, I pray when we gather here for entertainment, learning and play we may remember we need to turn to You and Your Word for all knowledge and wisdom. Give us a heart and mind to discern what is appropriate to fill our homes with when it comes to allowing TV programs, movies or games to enter in. May we fully proclaim that our households will serve the Lord!
Prayers for the Bedrooms
Father thank you for a place of rest. Thank you for the gift of sleep to restore our bodies. Remove any anxious thoughts that may hinder our rest. I pray that as we dress for the day, that we would remember to put on the full armor of God so that we will be ready for the daily battles ahead of us.
Prayers for the Play Areas
God teach me to teach my children in Your ways. Allow their hearts to be transformed by Your grace so they may selflessly share their toys and belongings without a second thought. Lead me as I share with them about You so that they may grow in the knowledge of You and learn to love You with their whole heart.
Prayers for the Outside of Your Home
Lord may our home be an example of Your love and grace to our neighbors and all who we welcome in. Let our home be a beam of light, a shelter of rest, a quiet haven. Send your angels to surround our home from the evil one’s attempts. Let Your truths be spoken freely among us as we enter and dwell in our home.
By praying these short, simple prayers over the rooms in our homes, we are allowing God to be a part of our daily comings and goings. Fixing our eyes on Him and allowing His hands to work through us, we will become more God-focused in our homes.
Do you regularly pray over your home? What prayers have you found beneficial to your family and home?
Head here to download FREE prayer cards to print out and place in your cleaning basket to pray while you clean!
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Learn how to love your home in this 31 day series about making small improvements to,
being grateful for and seeing the beauty in the home you have.
Welcome back to day 8 of our HOME SWEET HOME – 30 Days to Love Your Home series!
When we bought this house last year, before we even moved in, we very consciously decided that we’d ask our best friends to come over the night we took possession of the house to assist us in praying through it.
We had very generally prayed through some of our past houses (since Dean and I both became Christians in 2002) and we’ve always been fond of Bible verses as wall art. But this time, we just felt we needed to do a bit more.
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So one night last November, four of us gathered in our new-to-us and entirely empty house and prayed through each and every room, starting in the basement furnace room and working our way all the way through each floor until each and every room had been bathed in prayer. Our friends spoke up if they felt something needed to be addressed in a particular space or if they felt a certain room needed a bit of extra prayer. We prayed over bedrooms and bathrooms and stairwells. Dean anointed each of the outer walls with oil and we dedicated our home to our God.
I have no doubt that that has so very much to do with the constant comments we get from friends and family that our home feels very serene and peaceful.
Table of contents
3 Bible verses to pray over your home
Your home may not be empty or even new to you. You may not have a best friend who’s a prayer pastor. But you can most certainly pray through your home, renouncing anything not of God and dedicating (or rededicating) it to Him. Your prayers don’t have to be eloquent or complicated. God will understand your simple prayers and the heart behind them.
Here are 3 verses to give you a head start praying over and through your home.
Welcome God into your home:
2 Chronicles 7:15-16 “Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that my name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time.”
Pray that God keeps your home safe:
Numbers 6:24-26 “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.”
May your home be peaceful:
Luke 10:5 “Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house!’”
Today’s Takeaway:
Pray these verses through your home. Ask God to protect your home, to shut down and shut out anything that’s not of Him. Thank Him for your home.
Prayer and blessing are incredibly powerful ways to say that your home belongs to God and that you’ve dedicated that space to Him.
Also, if you have trouble remembering and getting into your Bible regularly try a Bible Journal. I’m a very visual person by nature. So one of the ways that I remember Bible verses is to use my Bible Journal. When I put pen/marker to the page, I can much better visualize the Bible verses. 🙂
xo,
Shannon
homemadelovely.com
