Daily Prayer

 

I’ve been a woman of prayer most of my life. My parents taught me the importance of prayer. I prayed at church, before meals, usually before bed, and whenever I thought I could use God’s help for something. I didn’t practice the discipline of prayer though.

Many challenges too big for me to handle on my own are part of my story. This is true of everyone. My husband and I suffered through thirteen years of infertility before God answered our prayers and blessed us with our daughter. We experienced car accidents, financial pressures, job losses and changes, health crisis, and so much more. Each new threat prompted me to turn to God for comfort, direction, and help.

I only understood the first level of the meaning of prayer. God showed me prayer is conversation with Him. My interpretation primarily involved me doing all the talking. I was treating it more as a step in a process to get what I wanted. When I didn’t like what was going on around me and couldn’t change it, I turned to God to do it for me. It was all about me without regard to my Heavenly Father. This is okay as a starting point for a young believer, but there comes a point when we should realize a conversation means it involves someone other than ourselves. We need to listen to someone else in a conversation, and respond to someone else’s thoughts, ideas, or questions too.

This realization changed my perception of prayer. God created us to be in relationship with Him. Relationships include involvement with and emotional connection with another person. Creating and establishing a relationship with someone requires an investment of our time, energy, and building trust. It’s forging a level of intimacy by building respect. The more important a relationship is to us, the more we open up our heart and share. When we are with a casual friendship, we keep things light and guard our personal feelings and thoughts.

Daily prayer is something I choose to do now. I want to grow and mature in my relationship with my Heavenly Father. I’m intentional about how I approach my prayer time and the way I interact with Him. When we have our time together, I don’t do all the talking. I take time to listen to what He wants to tell me. If I ask Him a question, I expect Him to answer me. Not expect Him as in being in demand of Him, but expect Him as in waiting in anticipation for His answer. I’m still growing in my understanding of this and making adjustments as I learn along the way.

My approach right now for my dedicated prayer time is to put on some instrumental praise music on low to saturate the atmosphere with peace. I spend about ten minutes or so thanking God for the things He does for me and my family and loved ones. Then I like to pray in tongues for at least ten minutes. Praying in tongues is the best way to ensure perfect prayers are offered when I yield myself to the Holy Spirit to pray through me.

I spend time in God’s Word by reading a chapter from Proverbs every day. There are 31 chapters in Proverbs, so I can read the entire book through every month. On the months that have less than 31 days, I read an extra one on one of the days, so I am always ready to begin again on the first of the month at the beginning. I read through the entire Bible by reading at least a chapter a day. I follow a reading plan on Bible.com to help me stay on track where I am. I also ask God if there is something He wants me read other than what I’ve set and read it if He gives me something.

Finally, I read prayers I have written out on a document in my computer. I’m constantly adjusting and changing this as God leads me. It includes passages of Scripture that read as prayers as well as things God brings to my attention as I go through my day. I will share portions of this in future posts here.

There are two passages from Ephesians I read every day. The Bible is God’s Word written down for us to teach us and to share His love for us. He uses His Word as one way He speaks to us. When I read His Word, it is one of the ways I let God do some of the talking in this relationship I am building with Him. Since God showed me these to read, it has had quite an impact on my life. I see Him answering these prayers in remarkable ways. I encourage you to try it. I adapt His Word to make it personal. This is from the Passion Translation, a favorite of mine because it expresses God’s Word with beautiful declarations and sparks feelings and images that inspire my heart.

Ephesians 1: 17- 23

Father of glory, the God of my Lord Jesus Christ, impart to me the riches of the Spirit of wisdom and the Spirit of revelation to know You through my deepening intimacy with You. Light of God, illuminate the eyes of my imagination, flooding me with light, until I experience the full revelation of the hope of Your calling—that is, the wealth of God’s glorious inheritance He finds in me, His holy one!

I pray I will continually experience the immeasurable greatness of God’s power made available to me through faith. Then my life will be an advertisement of this immense power as it works through me! This is the mighty power released when God raised Christ from the dead and exalted Him to the place of highest honor and supreme authority in the heavenly realm! Now He is exalted as first above every ruler, authority, government, and realm of power in existence! He is gloriously enthroned over every name that is ever praised, not only in this age, but in the age that is coming!

He alone is the leader and source of everything needed in the church. God put everything beneath the authority of Jesus Christ and gave Him the highest rank above all others. Now we, His church, are His body on the earth and that which fills Him who is being filled by it!

Ephesians 3: 14-21

I kneel humbly in awe before the Father of my Lord Jesus, the Messiah, the perfect Father of every father and child in heaven and on the earth. I pray He would unveil within me the unlimited riches of His glory and favor until supernatural strength floods my innermost being with His divine might and explosive power.

Then, by constantly using my faith, the life of Christ will be released deep inside me, and the resting place of His love will become the very source and root of my life. I will be empowered to discover what every holy one experiences—the great magnitude of the astonishing love of Christ in all its dimensions. How deeply intimate and far-reaching is His love! How enduring and inclusive it is! Endless love beyond measurement that transcends my understanding—this extravagant love pours into me until I am filled to overflowing with the fullness of God!

I will never doubt God’s mighty power to work in me and accomplish all this. He will achieve infinitely more than my greatest request, my most unbelievable dream, and exceed my wildest imagination! He will outdo them all, for His miraculous power constantly energizes me.

I offer up to God all the glorious praise that rises from every church in every generation through Jesus Christ—and all that will yet be manifest through time and eternity. Amen!

I still pray at other times during the day as well. I carry on conversations with God all the time. I still immediately seek Him when trials and troubles come up during all the normal life activities. This is perfectly fine. We don’t have to be so rigid we only pray during our set time. After all, we don’t make our other friends and family members wait for a set appointment to talk to them do we? Of course not. That’s what I like about describing prayer as conversation. Conversation can happen anytime we are together.

The Most Important Decision of Your Life

If you ever longed for a new start, you can find your new beginning with God. God’s mercy and forgiveness extends beyond your darkest moments and deepest failures. He will forgive your sins and remember them no more. He is calling you and wants to heal the broken places and give you peace and hope.

The Bible is the Word of God. He gave it to us so we could get to know Him. Reading the Word and spending time getting to know our Creator is food for our soul. God created us to be His family. He wants to spend time with us. He wants us to get to know Him. He wants us to be in relationship with Him. Prayer is simply having a conversation with Father God. Relationships grow when we spend time together and share our feelings, thoughts, and dreams. Father God invites you to come and get to know Him.

God created us in His image, to be His sons and daughters. He created us perfect. He chose to create us because He loves us and wants to fellowship with us. He gave us free will. He gave us the choice to choose to love Him back and live for Him, or to go our own way and live only for ourselves and our selfish desires. When we choose to put ourselves before God, as more important than God, we are being rebellious, and it leads to sin.

Sin separates us from God. It is any action, feeling, or thought that goes against God’s standards and breaks His laws. Sin harms others, damages us, and, most importantly, dishonors God. We live in a sin infested world. The Bible teaches us

For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Romans 3: 23

The Bible also teaches because God is holy and just, He cannot allow sin to go unpunished. The punishment for sin is death.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6: 23

You are not alone in this. Every single person is given the opportunity to choose life or death. God’s plan for you is to choose life. God gave up His Son, Jesus, to die on a cross for us to pay the price for our sins.

For here is the way God loved the world—He gave His only, unique Son as a gift. So now everyone who believes in Him will never perish but experience everlasting life. John 3: 16

I invite you to believe the Bible is true and make Jesus your Lord and Savior. God makes it very simple for us to renounce our past and receive His free gift to us by faith. The Apostle Paul tells us clearly in the Book of Romans.

But the faith-righteousness we receive speaks to us in these words of Moses:

“God’s living message is very close to you, as close as your own heart beating in your chest and as near as the tongue in your mouth.”

And what is God’s “living message”? It is the revelation of faith for salvation, which is the message we preach. For if you publicly declare with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, you will experience salvation. The heart that believes in Him receives the gift of the righteousness of God—and then the mouth confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scriptures encourage us with these words:

“Everyone who believes in Him will never be disappointed.” Romans 10: 8-11

Right now, if you need a Savior, I offer you my Jesus. Simply do as Paul tells us. You can pray by yourself, using your own words. Just pray from your heart to God, and He will hear you and save you. If you feel lost and don’t know what to pray, here’s a salvation prayer you can use:

Dear Lord,

I admit I’m a sinner. I’ve done many things that don’t please You. I only lived my life for myself. I’m sorry. Beloved Father, Your Word says if I confess my sins, You are faithful and just to forgive my sin and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1: 9 Please forgive me of my sins against You and Your creation. May the blood of Jesus wash over me so the accuser can’t speak against me. I confess Jesus is Lord. I believe He died on the cross for me, to save me. I believe He rose from the dead. I accept Him as my Lord and Savior. You did what I could not do for myself. I come to You now and ask You to take control of my life. I submit it to you. From this day forward, please help me live every day for You and in a way that pleases You.

I love you, Lord. Thank You I will spend all eternity with You.

Amen.

So now the case is closed. There remains no accusing voice of condemnation against those who are joined in life-union with Jesus, the Anointed One. For the “law” of the Spirit of life flowing through the anointing of Jesus liberated me from the “law” of sin and death. God achieved what the law was unable to accomplish, because the law was limited by the weakness of human nature. Romans 8: 1-3

Congratulations and welcome to the family of God! Here are a few more passages from the Bible to put in your heart to help you embrace the wonderous gift you just received. These are from The Passion Translation. I love this translation for its beautiful descriptions and the way it paints word pictures to inspire praise to our loving God.

I’ve been buried with Him into His death. My “baptism into death” also means I was raised with Him when I believed in God’s resurrection power, the power that raised Him from death’s realm. This “realm of death” describes my former state, I was held in sin’s grasp. But now, I’ve been resurrected out of that “realm of death” never to return, I am forever alive and forgiven of all my sin! He canceled out every legal violation I had on my record and the old arrest warrant that stood to indict me. He erased it all—my sins, my stained soul—He deleted it all and they cannot be retrieved! Everything I once was in Adam has been placed onto His cross and nailed permanently there as a public display of cancellation.

Colossians 2: 12-14

For it was always in Your perfect plan to adopt me as Your delightful child, through my union with Jesus, the Anointed One, so His tremendous love that cascades over me would glorify His grace —for the same love You have for the Beloved, Jesus, You have for me. This unfolding plan brings You great pleasure! Since I am now joined to Christ, I am given the treasures of redemption by His blood—the total cancellation of my sins—all because of the cascading riches of His grace. Ephesians 1: 5-7

Now, if anyone is enfolded into Christ, he is an entirely new person. All that is related to the old order vanished. Behold, everything is fresh and new. God made all things new, us to Himself, and gave us the ministry of reconciling others to God. In other words, it was through the Anointed One God was shepherding the world, not even keeping records of their transgressions, and He entrusted to us the ministry of opening the door of reconciliation to God. We are ambassadors of the Anointed One who carry the message of Christ to the world, as though God were tenderly pleading with them directly through our lips. So we tenderly plead with you on Christ’s behalf, “Turn back to God and be reconciled to him.” For God made the only One who did not know sin become sin for us, so we might become the righteousness of God through our union with Him.

2 Corinthians 5: 17 – 21

Choose starting right now to spend time praying and reading the Bible every day. Find a Holy Spirit filled church to become a part of where you can be fed and taught about our wonderous God and beautiful Savior. Surround yourself with believers and go forth to love God, live in peace, grow in fellowship with the Holy Spirit, and share the good news of the Gospel to everyone who will listen. God bless you.