{"id":119941,"date":"2026-11-09T07:07:30","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T12:07:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/?p=119941"},"modified":"2026-11-09T07:07:30","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T12:07:30","slug":"prayer-for-my-son","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/prayer\/prayer-for-my-son\/","title":{"rendered":"Prayer for My Son: The Father Who Prayed for Himself Too"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='booster-block booster-read-block'>\n                <div class=\"twp-read-time\">\n                \t<i class=\"booster-icon twp-clock\"><\/i> <span>Read Time:<\/span>11 Minute, 8 Second                <\/div>\n\n            <\/div><h2>You Typed It Instead of Saying It Out Loud<\/h2>\n\n<p>It is late, or it is early, and the house is quiet in the wrong way. Your son has not answered a message in four days. Or a result came back and it was not the one you were praying for. Or he is a long way from home for work and you cannot even picture the room he sleeps in. You do not really know what you want to ask for, which is why you did not say anything out loud. You picked up a phone and typed <em>prayer for my son<\/em>, because it was the only sentence you could finish.<\/p>\n\n<p>There is a prayer for my son near the bottom of this page that you can pray tonight, word for word. But first there is a father in Mark&#8217;s Gospel who brought his son to Jesus. Three Gospels record that same afternoon. Only one of them keeps the word the father actually used, and it changes what you are allowed to ask for.<\/p>\n\n<h2>A Prayer for My Son Usually Comes After You Have Already Tried Everything<\/h2>\n\n<p>A man pushes out of a crowd to reach Jesus. <em>&#8220;Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit&#8221;<\/em> (Mark 9:17). He describes what happens to the boy, and then he says something that is easy to read past:<\/p>\n\n<p><em>&#8220;and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out; and they could not.&#8221;<\/em> (Mark 9:18)<\/p>\n\n<p>He had already asked for help. He went to the people who were supposed to be able to do something, and nothing happened. By the time he is standing in front of Jesus, he is not at the beginning of this. He is at the end of a list.<\/p>\n\n<p>If you are a parent who has already talked to the doctor, the teacher, the uncle he listens to, the friend who went through the same thing, and the one person at church you trust with the real version, you are standing exactly where that man was standing. Coming to God after everything else failed is not a lesser kind of prayer. It is the one Mark chose to write down.<\/p>\n\n<p>Then Jesus asks him a question that no one else in the crowd thinks to ask:<\/p>\n\n<p><em>&#8220;How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child.&#8221;<\/em> (Mark 9:21)<\/p>\n\n<p>Of a child. His whole life. The first thing Jesus wants to know is not what is wrong with the boy, but how long this father has been carrying it.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"convertkit-form wp-block-convertkit-form\" style=\"\"><script async data-uid=\"6491fb8269\" src=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.kit.com\/6491fb8269\/index.js\" data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" data-no-defer=\"1\" data-no-optimize=\"1\" nowprocket><\/script><\/div>\n\n\n<h2>Three Gospels Tell This Story. Only One Keeps the Word &#8220;Us&#8221;<\/h2>\n\n<p>Matthew, Mark and Luke all record this father. Put their versions of his request side by side and something shows up.<\/p>\n\n<p>Matthew: <em>&#8220;Lord, have mercy on my son&#8221;<\/em> (Matthew 17:15).<\/p>\n\n<p>Luke: <em>&#8220;Master, I beseech thee, look upon my son: for he is mine only child&#8221;<\/em> (Luke 9:38).<\/p>\n\n<p>Mark: <em>&#8220;but if thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us.&#8221;<\/em> (Mark 9:22)<\/p>\n\n<p>Read Mark&#8217;s line again. Not <em>him<\/em>. <em>Us<\/em>. Twice.<\/p>\n\n<p>That is not a translation choice. In the Greek of Mark 9:22 both words are first-person plural: <em>hemas<\/em> for &#8220;have compassion on us,&#8221; and <em>hemin<\/em> for &#8220;help us.&#8221; The father is asking Jesus to have compassion on two people, and one of them is himself.<\/p>\n\n<p>He is not confused about who is ill. He has just spent several sentences describing his son in detail. He includes himself because by now the trouble is not only happening to the boy. It is happening to the house. It has been happening to the house since the boy was small.<\/p>\n\n<h2>The Prayer That Got Answered Was Not a Confident One<\/h2>\n\n<p>Jesus answers him: <em>&#8220;If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth&#8221;<\/em> (Mark 9:23). And here the father says the other thing that only Mark keeps:<\/p>\n\n<p><em>&#8220;And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.&#8221;<\/em> (Mark 9:24)<\/p>\n\n<p>That is a man asking for help with the part of himself that is failing, in the middle of asking for help for his son. He does not clean it up first. He does not get his faith into working order and then make the request. He hands over the request and the broken faith in the same breath.<\/p>\n\n<p>Notice that Mark&#8217;s two extra details point the same direction. The plural <em>us<\/em>, and the admitted unbelief. Both of them are the father including himself in the prayer. And this is the version of the prayer that Jesus answers. The boy is healed in the next three verses.<\/p>\n\n<p>Here is what that means for the sentence you typed into your phone. Most parents pray for a son as if they were a pipe, not a person. Nothing in the prayer is for them. They ask for the son&#8217;s health, the son&#8217;s safety, the son&#8217;s choices, the son&#8217;s future, and then they stop, because asking for anything for themselves in a prayer about their child feels like stealing from him.<\/p>\n\n<p>The father in Mark 9 did not pray that way, and nobody corrected him. You are allowed to say: this is wearing me out. I am frightened. I am angry with him and I love him and I cannot hold both. I do not know if I still believe this will change. Help us.<\/p>\n\n<h2>What David Asked For When He Prayed for His Son<\/h2>\n\n<p>There is one more prayer worth having in your hand, from a father at the other end of life. David is old, and he is handing the building of the temple to Solomon. He has already given his son the plans, the materials, the gold, the stone and the workforce. Then he prays:<\/p>\n\n<p><em>&#8220;And give unto Solomon my son a perfect heart, to keep thy commandments, thy testimonies, and thy statutes, and to do all these things, and to build the palace, for the which I have made provision.&#8221;<\/em> (1 Chronicles 29:19)<\/p>\n\n<p>David asks for a heart. Of everything he had, that was the one thing he could not hand over himself. He had made provision for the whole project and could not make provision for his son&#8217;s character.<\/p>\n\n<p>Most of us pray the opposite way round. We ask God for the outcome, the exam result, the job, the clean test, the phone call, and we try to supply the heart ourselves through conversations and warnings and well-timed advice. David did the reverse. He supplied what he could supply, and he asked God for the thing no parent can install in another person.<\/p>\n\n<p>So when you pray for your son tonight, ask for both. Ask for the circumstance, plainly, because the father in Mark 9 did. And ask for his heart, because David knew that was the part that was never his to give.<\/p>\n\n<p>If your son has stopped speaking to you altogether, there is a prayer written for exactly that in <a href=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/prayer\/prayer-for-an-estranged-child\/\">a prayer for an estranged child<\/a>. If what you are actually asking for is bigger than anything you can see a way to, read <a href=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/prayer\/prayer-for-a-miracle\/\">prayer for a miracle<\/a>. And if the fear is about his safety rather than his choices, <a href=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/prayer\/prayer-for-protection-from-evil\/\">a prayer for protection from evil<\/a> was written for the nights you keep checking the locks.<\/p>\n\n<h2>Actions to Take Tonight<\/h2>\n\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Say the plural out loud.<\/strong> Pray one sentence that includes you in it: &#8220;God, have compassion on us.&#8221; Not instead of praying for him. Before it.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Write the two asks down.<\/strong> On one line, the circumstance you want changed. On the next line, the thing about his heart you cannot reach. Keep the paper and pray both lines for a week.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Send him six words.<\/strong> Something with no advice, no question and no hook in it. &#8220;Thinking about you today. Love you.&#8221; If he does not reply, you have still done the thing the father in Mark 9 did, which was close the distance from his side.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n<h2>Journal Prompts<\/h2>\n\n<ul>\n<li>What have you been carrying about your son that you have never said to God in plain words?<\/li>\n<li>Where have you been trying to supply your son&#8217;s heart yourself instead of asking God for it?<\/li>\n<li>If you prayed honestly about your own unbelief tonight, what would you have to admit?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h2>A Prayer for My Son<\/h2>\n\n<p>God, I am bringing you my son, and I am bringing you me, because I cannot pretend this is only happening to him. You know what he is facing better than I do, and you know the part of it he has never told me. Go where I cannot go, and give him a heart that wants what is good, not just a way out of what is hard. I have run out of things to try, and some days I have run out of believing this will change, so help my unbelief too. Have compassion on us, and help us. Amen.<\/p>\n\n<h2>Discussion Question<\/h2>\n\n<p>Matthew and Luke both write this father asking for his son. Mark is the only one who keeps him asking for himself as well. Why do you think that word survived in one Gospel and not the others? Share your thoughts in the comments.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"convertkit-form wp-block-convertkit-form\" style=\"\"><script async data-uid=\"6491fb8269\" src=\"https:\/\/bgodinspired.kit.com\/6491fb8269\/index.js\" data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" data-no-defer=\"1\" data-no-optimize=\"1\" nowprocket><\/script><\/div>\n\n\n<h2>Share This<\/h2>\n\n<p>A father brought his sick son to Jesus and said &#8220;have compassion on us, and help us.&#8221; Not him. Us. If you are praying for your child tonight, you are allowed to be in the prayer too.<\/p>\n\n<p>&#8220;Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.&#8221; The father who prayed that got his son back. You do not have to sort out your faith before you ask.<\/p>\n\n<p>David gave Solomon the plans, the gold and the workforce, then prayed for the one thing he could not hand him: a heart. Pray for your son&#8217;s heart, not only his circumstances.<\/p>\n\n<p>#PrayerForMySon #Mark9 #PrayingParent #ParentsPrayer<\/p>\n\n<h2>Q&amp;A: Prayer for My Son<\/h2>\n\n<h3>What is a short prayer for my son?<\/h3>\n\n<p>A short prayer for a son can be honest rather than polished: &#8220;God, I bring you my son. Go where I cannot go, give him a heart that wants what is good, and have compassion on us both. Amen.&#8221; It names the son, asks God to reach the part of him a parent cannot reach, and includes the parent in the request, which is how the father in Mark 9:22 prayed.<\/p>\n\n<h3>Who in the Bible prayed for his son?<\/h3>\n\n<p>Several fathers in the Bible pray for a son. In Mark 9:17-24 an unnamed father brings his son to Jesus and says, &#8220;if thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us.&#8221; In 1 Chronicles 29:19 David prays, &#8220;And give unto Solomon my son a perfect heart, to keep thy commandments.&#8221; Mark&#8217;s father prays about a crisis; David prays about his son&#8217;s character.<\/p>\n\n<h3>What does &#8220;Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief&#8221; mean?<\/h3>\n\n<p>It is what the father in Mark 9:24 cried out after Jesus said, &#8220;If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.&#8221; The father is admitting that his faith and his doubt are both real at the same time, and asking God to deal with the doubt rather than hiding it. Jesus healed his son immediately afterwards, in Mark 9:25-27, so the prayer was answered despite the admitted unbelief.<\/p>\n\n<h3>Why does the father in Mark 9 say &#8220;us&#8221; instead of &#8220;him&#8221;?<\/h3>\n\n<p>Mark 9:22 records the father asking Jesus to &#8220;have compassion on us, and help us,&#8221; and in the Greek both pronouns are first-person plural, hemas and hemin. The father includes himself because his son&#8217;s condition had affected the whole household since the boy was small, which is why Jesus asks him in Mark 9:21 how long it had been going on. Matthew 17:15 and Luke 9:38 record the same event with the request made for the son alone.<\/p>\n\n<h3>What Bible verse should I pray over my son?<\/h3>\n\n<p>1 Chronicles 29:19 is a strong verse to pray over a son, because it asks God for the one thing a parent cannot give: &#8220;And give unto Solomon my son a perfect heart, to keep thy commandments, thy testimonies, and thy statutes.&#8221; For a son in immediate trouble, Mark 9:22-24 gives the words for a parent who has run out of options and is not sure what they still believe.<\/p>\n\n<h2>Back to the Quiet House<\/h2>\n\n<p>The message is still unanswered. The result still says what it says. You still do not have perfect words, and the father in Mark 9 did not either. His prayer was a conditional, a plural and a confession: <em>if thou canst do any thing<\/em>, <em>help us<\/em>, <em>help thou mine unbelief<\/em>. It was enough.<\/p>\n\n<p>Luke adds one line to the end of this story that the other two leave out. After the boy was healed, Jesus <em>&#8220;delivered him again to his father&#8221;<\/em> (Luke 9:42). He gave him back. That is the picture to fall asleep on tonight.<\/p>\n\n<p>Say your son&#8217;s name to God, out loud, once. 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It changes the ask.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":119940,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"0","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-prayer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119941"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":119942,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119941\/revisions\/119942"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bgodinspired.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}