Prodigal Prayer Day 2026: Transformation—Grace

Worldwide Prodigal Prayer Day yields double benefits: We beseech God to pursue, to reach out to, to show love to, to redeem our loved ones. But the other benefit is that God does beautiful work in each of us in the process.

When, with some fear and trembling, we adopted our son, the Lord gave me a strong instruction:  “Judy, when you make mistakes with this boy, and you will (and I did), make them on the side of grace.”

Though I did not understand the full implications of those words, they became guiding reminders for the tumultuous years to come.

Gratefully, God gave me Scripture to make it possible: “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of grace.” (Hebrews 4:16)

And He promises so much more:

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’"  (2 Corinthians 12:9)

It's all grace. The longer I walk with the Lord, the more I realize that it's all by God's grace. Grace is an undeserved free gift, undeserved favor, and undeserved love.

And it is more than enough for any person, circumstance, tragedy, need. God’s grace has made His love and salvation and provision—everything He offers—available to us.

There is a catch. In order to live in it, we must receive it. And he gives us a little understanding of who will be able to truly access and experience that grace:

Those who are humble. But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6) This truth is repeated several times, and it is the first step toward accepting God's grace--to understand that you don't deserve it. But that grace is abundantly sufficient.

We are saved by grace. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

God freely gives the grace that saves us—we cannot earn salvation. And it is that same freely given grace that will save our prodigals. Keeping the rules, doing the right things, not doing the wrong things—none of this will save us or them. Only grace is sufficient to save us.

Grace enables good works.  And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. (2 Corinthians 9:8) The good works, doing the right thing, not doing the wrong thing—these all matter and are desirable. We can “make our mistakes” and choose to respond to our wanderers as Jesus would—with grace.

But we can’t live that perfect life ourselves. Only grace is enough to enable us to live like Jesus.

May God be doing a beautiful grace work in each of our lives as we live day by day and prepare for our June 2 day of prayer. Begin to connect with others who might want to pray with you. And share the (first) names of any you would like the world to join you in prayer for: Worldwide Day of Prayer for Prodigals - Prayer List.

And for a You Version 9-week study on Grace, check this out:

c2026 Judy Douglass