“And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind. For the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever.”
– 1 Chronicles 28:9
1 Chronicles 28:9, what an exhortation from David to his son Solomon that summarizes the main things in a sense that we should pray for each other. Yes, much as we have prayed recently in this podcast for the next generation, as we think about David exhorting his son Solomon in this way. So yes, I want to pray this for my kids, but I can’t think of anybody I don’t want to pray this for including my own life.
Just hear these phrases that Solomon may know God. That Solomon might serve God with a whole heart and with a willing mind. What a picture. Don’t we all in our own lives, in others’ lives, in our children’s lives want for them to serve God with a whole heart, with a willing mind, knowing the Lord searches all hearts, understands every plan and thought and that if we will seek him, he will be found by us. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart God later says to his people in Jeremiah 29.
God, help us to serve you with a whole heart and with a willing mind. With minds that are captive to your word and obedient and willing to obey all your ways.
So let’s pray this. Let’s pray this over our own lives. Let’s pray this over others around us, just intercede for people that come to your mind right now and yes, specifically for the next generation. For those in your family and those in the church who come after us. God, we pray that you would help us all to know you.
God, I want to pray this over every single person who’s listening to this right now. That they might know you, like truly know you. Let him who boasts, boast not in his wisdom or his might or the things of this world. Let him boast that he knows and understands you. God, I pray that you’d help me, that you’d help us to know you. To truly know you and to serve you with a whole heart. God, with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind, all of our strength.
Prayer To Serve God with Our Whole Heart as 1 Chronicles 28:9 Describes
So God, help us to serve you with a whole heart and with a willing mind. With minds that are captive to your word and obedient and willing to obey all your ways. God, don’t let us have stubborn minds, prideful minds that think our ways are better than yours. God, we pray this over our lives, over others’ lives. Help us to serve you with a willing mind. Knowing that you search our hearts and you understand our every plan and thought, that nothing is hidden from you.
Help us, God, to seek you with all of our heart and all of our soul and all of our mind and all of our strength. And to know that when we seek you, you will be found by us. That we can indeed know you and enjoy you and experience life in you to the full. God, we pray for this in our lives. God, we pray for this in others’ lives around us and the people who are closest to us.
Prayer For More People to Know You, And Specifically for the Sunar People of India
God, we pray this in people who are far from us. God, we think about people who don’t know your grace and your love in Jesus. Lord God, we pray for unreached people in the world like the Sunar people of India. God, please, please, please cause these hundreds of thousands of people to know you. To seek you, to find your love in Jesus that they might know you and serve you with all their hearts and with willing minds that they might be found by you. God, we pray for that over the Sunar. We pray for that for people around us who don’t know you, that you would help us to proclaim you to them today, in this week, to lead others to be found by you. God, we pray all of this according to your word in 1st Chronicles 28:9, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
