Keep Praying with Hope for Your Prodigal Child

Keep Praying with Hope for Your Prodigal Child

Posted on by Michele Morin

I did something I’ve never done before at a recent women’s conference. In a session on prayer, I asked the women to write their most pressing prayer request on a Post-it Note so they could see it and acknowledge the reality of that desire by pinning it to paper. Then, I offered to join them in prayer for that request if they wanted to share it with me.

Believe me, that’s an offer I thought through pretty carefully, and I issued all the necessary caveats about my prayers being no more efficacious than their own. However, I wanted to affirm the communal nature of prayer, so I risked the commitment. The response was overwhelming, but here’s the biggest surprise: fully one fourth of the prayer requests I received from that group of women were for the spiritual rescue and return of a prodigal child.

If you are praying for a son or daughter whose life has gone off the rails, let me encourage you to persevere in prayer. You’ve likely had seasons of discouragement in which you felt as if your prayers were fruitless and the situation was hopeless. You are not alone, and Patsy Burnette has created a new resource to encourage your prayers, strengthen your faith, and renew your hope in God’s faithfulness.

Our hope is not in prayer, but in the God who answers prayer in his own good time.

Prodigal Prayers is a collection of prayer prompts to carry you over fifty-two weeks of faithful intercession for the prodigal child who is on your heart. With deep roots in scripture, every devotional entry provides a roadmap leading back to the faithful heart of a Heavenly Father.

Each weekly prayer has a specific focus, along with a guided meditation to reinforce that focus. The spacious workbook style leaves plenty of room to encourage the reader to journal a personal prayer response and to write out and meditate on the scripture verse for that week.

Burnette is clear on the reality that loving a prodigal is both heartbreaking and spiritually taxing. It takes a sinewy faith to persevere in prayer for a transformative outcome when all evidence points to the contrary. Our hope is not in prayer, but in the God who answers prayer in his own good time, and each lesson puts a laser focus on the character of God as the object of our hope.

Prodigal Prayers offers sustenance for the long-haul journey through the wilderness of waiting.

Prodigal Prayers by @PatsyBurnette offers sustenance for the long-haul journey through the wilderness of waiting. @InstaEncourage #ProdigalPrayers

Holding You in the Light,

A New YouVersion Devotional!

I’ve got a new devotional plan ready for you on the YouVersion app. Click HERE to start The Meaning and the Method of True Rest, a ten-day plan that I pray will encourage and challenge you to seek intimacy with God every day.

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Published by Michele Morin

Michele Morin is a Bible teacher, writer, reader, and gardener committed to the truth that women can become confident Christ-followers and students of God's Word. She has been married to an unreasonably patient husband for thirty-plus years, and together they have four married sons and a growing fleet of adorable grandchildren. Michele loves hot tea and well-crafted sentences, poems that stop her in her tracks, and days at the ocean with the whole family. She laments biblical illiteracy and advocates for the prudent use of “little minutes.” She blogs at Living Our Days, and you can connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.

18 thoughts on “Keep Praying with Hope for Your Prodigal Child”

  1. Thank you, Michele for this timely and encouraging post, and book review/recommendation. I have an adult prodigal daughter and son, neither of whom I have seen or heard from in over 5 years and don’t even know where they live. They were prodigals even before they cut off communication, so it’s been a journey of many years. Sadly, it seems pretty “common” these days and my heart goes out to all who desperately pray for the rescue and redemption of their prodigals.

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  3. Michele, thank you so much for this beautiful and heartfelt review of Prodigal Prayers. I am especially in love with these two lines you wrote: “Our hope is not in prayer, but in the God who answers prayer in his own good time.” and “Prodigal Prayers offers sustenance for the long-haul journey through the wilderness of waiting.”

    Those words capture the heartbeat behind this resource. It’s not about formulas or quick fixes—it’s about clinging to the God who sees, hears, and moves in His perfect timing. I am deeply grateful for your encouragement and for reminding us all that we are not alone in this journey of praying for our prodigals.

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    1. Thank YOU for putting your heart into this beautiful resource. I’m grateful to be able to recommend it to women I meet in my ministry travels. And what a gift to reassure women that they are not alone in their sorrow or in their prayers.

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  6. Sadly, prodigals are common to most families or extended families today. I have learned how to pray in a way I never knew before and to empathize where I never could before. Being a ministry family, we have encountered many, many others with similar heartache. May we hold each other up . . .

    “Our hope is not in prayer, but in the God who answers prayer in his own good time.” and “Prodigal Prayers offers sustenance for the long-haul journey through the wilderness of waiting.” Loved these two sentences. Blessings.

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  8. Thanks so much for sharing this recommendation Michelle. Both of my adult daughters have disengaged themselves from me. I haven’t talked to my oldest in 8 years and only talk with my youngest very rarely over text message. I’ve been praying for reconciliation, I know they were his before they were mine, and the wait has become easier because of my maturing on Him. I know he is working behind the scenes for our good and His glory. Though I do get teary every now and again, I go straight to Him and sing songs of praise to him. Thanks for letting me be long winded. It helps me to talk sometimes. Thank you.

    Visiting today from Joanne’s

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  9. This resonated with me, as I pray daily for my oldest who says he doesn’t believe in God right now. I am thankful he still lives a good life and is making good choices, however it is sometimes hard to have hope and faith that God will hear my prayers that he will return to his faith.

    http://www.chezmireillefashiontravelmom.com

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    1. I would encourage you to keep on praying and trusting while at the same time acknowledging that you are walking a hard and discouraging road that I have not yet experienced. Thank you for your example of perseverance.

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