Can I pray in faith for my children to be saved and be sure that they will be saved?

This text is from a transcript of a talk by David Gooding, entitled ‘Unity, Origin and Victory’ (1987).

That is talking about confidence. We can have confidence before God in prayer. Well I haven't got any children so I must hear what the parents say. I can tell you what my own parents did. My own father used to tell us, his children, that when we were born, each time he kneeled down by our cradle he claimed the verse given in Acts 16 to the jailer: 'believe on the Lord Jesus Christ 'and thou shalt be saved and thy house' (Acts 16:31). And he claimed it for us and asked the Lord that if we were ever going to grow up not to be believers, rather than that, to take us home before we came to the age of responsibility, and he meant what he prayed. And I can tell you all his children are believers.

For my own part, it seems to me that as far as knowing what the will of God is, God has declared himself. He does not will that any should perish. That's not his will. I personally, if I were a parent, would take my stand on that and, on the positive side, that he would have all to be saved. Now for my own part, I take the words of Scripture that 'God would have all men to be saved' (1 Timothy 2:3–4; 2 Peter 3:9) not to mean simply that he would have men of all kinds to be saved, but that he means what he says when he said he would have all men to be saved, and would stretch out his hands even to the disobedient. It wasn't our Lord's fault that Jerusalem wasn't saved. 'Oh, Jerusalem, I would,' he said, and presumably he meant what he said and presumably he wasn't misrepresenting the Father when he said, 'I would, and many times I would have gathered your children' (see Matthew 23:37). If they're not gathered, if they're lost, it's their fault.

Is it right to rely on the promise of God as far as your children are concerned (see Acts 2:39)?

In that chapter, strictly speaking, Peter is addressing the Jewish nation and therefore quoting from the Old Testament prophecy and promise to the Jewish nation, 'To you and your children.' It doesn't do away with the fact that many of those children chose to reject the promise, and certainly they had free will. But as far as God is concerned, I was merely asking the question, if we know that we pray according to his will, well, in praying for our children surely we pray according to his will? But I'm not a parent and so I'd better cease.

Christian parents' duty to children

My father, I must say, prayed on the one side, and on the other, he had us taught Scripture. By the time I was ten, I knew all about Ahab and a good deal about Jezebel as well, and all sorts of things. He had my mind stored with holy Scripture long before I came to personal faith.