From “The Word For You Today” by Bruce Christian

PRAYER (2)

Phillips Brooks said, “Pray the largest prayers.  You cannot think of a prayer so large that God, in answering it, will not wish you had made it larger.”  When we love our children we want to be generous with them.  And that’s how God feels about us: “If you, then , though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will Your Father in Heaven give good gifts to those who ask him.”  Some of us have difficulty accepting the gifts God gives us, particularly material things.  One lady said, “I distinctly remember feeling God must have had His wires crossed.  Why would He do that for me?  In fact I felt guilty, as if I’d somehow acquired something God didn’t really want me to have.”  Think how cruel the following words would sound if they represented your attitude as a parent: “I’m too busy.  I don’t want to hear about your lost bike or your school problem.  Don’t bother me with your personal requests.  I’ll take care of everybody else but you.  If you love me you’ll survive on bread and water.  Sure, I’m rich, but why would I give you anything-back off!”  Good parents don’t talk like that!  They want only the best for their children.  So, take a good parent’s feeling for their child, multiply it exponentially, and you’ll only begin to understand how God feels about you.  Nobody’s voice sounds sweeter to Him than yours.  Nothing in the world keeps Him from directing His full attention to your requests.  So come to Him in prayer.

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My Prayer to the Father, August 20, 2012

Heavenly Father
I come to You, tonight, Father
In gratitude for all that You are,
And for all that You have done.
You, who, have nothing to prove,
Have shown all,
Have given all,
Have offered all
And it is with thankfulness
Of heart
That I bow down in worship
To give praise and honor
To Your holy name.

Heavenly Father
It is my privilege to come before You,
A privilege given to me
By Your great love,
Bought with great price,
With the precious blood of
Your dear son, Jesus.
I have not nor will ever
Earn it, or be able
To pay for it.
I can only take
And accept it.

Heavenly Father
I pray Father that all
Your children might know
This one truth
Above all others.
Your love
Is a gift.
Freely given,
Freely received.

Heavenly Father
I pray Father that You will
Make us all to know
That Your holy word
Must be spoken in truth
But also in love.
That Your love
Should be tender
And gentle
And patient
And kind
And yet steadfast
And strong.

Heavenly Father
I pray that You will not make
Our love weak
Or soft
Or yielding
Full of acceptance
And correctness…
Let our love
Be
As You have decreed;
Narrow
True
And honest.

In Jesus name, I pray,
Amen.

From “The Word For You Today” by Bruce Christian

PRAYER (1)

Mark records, “Very early in the morning…Jesus got up…and…prayed” (Mk 1:35 NIV).  Jesus made deposits each morning so that He could make withdrawals throughout the day.  Many of us don’t and it shows!  R. A Torrey said, “We are too busy to pray, and so we are too busy to have power.  We have a great deal of activity, but we accomplish little.”  The pastor of a mega-church acknowledged that for many years he knew more about prayer than he ever practiced.  One day God interrupted his schedule and told him to explore, study, and practice prayer until he fully understood it.  The results were life-changing.  He writes: “It has been twenty years since I began taking time to pray.  My life has been transformed.  The greatest fulfillment hasn’t been the list of miraculous answers to prayer I’ve received, although that has been wonderful; the greatest thrill has been the quality of difference in my relationship with God.  When I started to pray I didn’t know what was going to happen.  God and I used to be rather casually related to one another.  We didn’t get together and talk very much.  Now,  however, we get together a lot, not talking on the run, but carrying on substantial, soul-searching conversations every morning for a good chunk of time.  I feel as I’ve gotten to know God a lot better since I started praying.”  Martin Luther said, “I have often learned more in one prayer than I have been able to glean from much reading and reflection.”  Do you want to know God better?  Start praying!

My Prayer to the Father, August 17, 2012

Heavenly Father
You, who are the eternal God
Have in Your providence
And love
Given me all that which
Is good and praise worthy,
Even my very life
And the air I
Breath
Are gifts from
Your loving hand.

Heavenly Father
It is in recognition
of who You are,
And all that You are
That I come before Your eternal throne
Of justice, holiness and perfection
To offer You praise and worship,
And to tell You that
I love you
And that there is no one
And nothing
that I desire
To put over You
Or give place
To other than You.

Heavenly Father
It is You, and only You
That is worthy of all I have to give
In the way of love
Honor,
Praise,
Worship,
And any and all things
That have any value
To You
And Your eternal kingdom
That I shall one day
Live in.

Heavenly Father
I know You have prepared
My heart
And determined the outcome
Of my life.
How great is such knowledge,
Father, to know that
You who have made the stars
shine so bright
Have made the purpose
Of my life
To do the same.

Heavenly Father
You, who, have made all things;
Have made me
For Your own pleasure;
And, I know, Father, that
Even the wicked,
and the evil
With their purposeful intent
Are weaved
into Your intricate design
for good;
So that even what
they try to destroy
Is turned into
perfection,
And Beauty,
And Love.

Heavenly Father
I thank You for showing me
That it is by Your
Mercy and truth
That my sin is purged
From my soul;
And, that it’s by my
great fear of You, the great
God almighty
That I desire, and hasten to depart
the sin
That lies within me.

Heavenly Father
I thank You for making Yourself
Known to me
For I know by Your holy word
I would not have come
To You
Had You not drawn me.
I know Father for You
Have shown me
That those who seek
Righteousness
And pursue peace
Shall find it
Within You.

Heavenly Father
I come to You with just
One plea.
Father I ask You
To impart to
My brothers and sisters
The knowledge You
Have made available
Through Your word
To all who seek You;
To all who desire
To live lives
Of holiness.

Heavenly Father
I ask You to convict their hearts.
Make them realize, Father
That apart from Your word
Living within
There can be no
Desire to live holy;
And, that without
A desire to live
Holy,
There can be no desire
To live without sin.

In Jesus name, I pray,
Amen.

 

My Prayer to the Father, August 2, 2012

Heavenly Father,
I come to You, Father, in humble spirit,
And adoration, for I adore You so.
You, know though that I don’t feel grateful,
And this hurts me so, for I know
I should feel grateful.
Tonight, though, I’m going to confess
That it’s hard to feel grateful
When I’m hurting so.
I am grateful, though, Father
For Who You are,
And all that You are,
And all that You’ve done.
Even though my body is
Screaming inside,
I will not deny, nor turn away
From You even in the
Midst of this storm.

Heavenly Father,
I know You are the Author,
The Composer.
You have written verses across my heart
As You’ve written
The stars in the heavens.
Creation is Yours to own alone;
You sustain it with Your mighty hand.
You and only You
Can uphold it .
You, who made the mockingbird,
Also make the thunder.
You, who gave us the rainbow
Can flash Your anger, and
Cast it across the night.

Heavenly Father,
There is no storm beyond Your control,
No echo of Your thunder,
No flashing fire in the night
No heart break, or loss
Or loneliness or despair
Or physical pain
That is beyond You,
And Your Power.
I know this because I know Your Son;
I know that as He walked across a stormy sea
His disciples in a boat tossed to and fro
Cowered in the bow of their boat
Afraid and huddled in fear,
Crying out as if they had no hope
As if they were doomed to die
To sink beyond
Their Saviors’ love and care.

Heavenly Father,
I know how they must have felt
To see their sweet Savior
Walking on the waves
As if He were walking amidst
A host of friends.
What joy, what happiness
Must have been theirs as
They saw him coming near.
And Peter, oh Peter
To see him so courageous
So fearless, so ready
To step out and walk to his beloved
And doing so, walking on water
And then he took his eyes off
And started to sink;
Yet before his cry could scarcely
Be heard, Jesus was there
Holding him.

Heavenly Father,
I know that as my Savior held Peter
He holds me, and us all;
Ever knowing in our eagerness,
And our excitement to see Him
That at times we will stumble, even fall,
And yet He is there with outstretched arms
To uphold us
Always willing
Always waiting
Always there.
Oh, what a Savior He is
That we can never fall so far,
That we fall beyond His
Love and care.

Heavenly Father,
Forgive me.
Forgive me for thinking that my pain
Is something I cannot bear.
Thank You for reminding me to
“Look to the Cross.”
When I’m hurting, in pain,
When I’m suffering and ashamed,
When I’m lonely and weak,
When all seems so lost,
And the distance to walk so far.

Heavenly Father,
Thank You
For my Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ,
Who gave to me, and to all
Our example
Our model
Who showed us
How to live in the midst
Of suffering,
And not despair.

Updated Prayer Request page

Please pray for the family of Kevin Burdesshaw. Grieving the loss of a family member- Thank you.

My Prayer to the Father, July 31, 2012

Heavenly Father,
I come to You, Father, with praise in my heart,
To worship You, to give You honor and glory,
To give You all I have in the way of love and adoration
For all the many wonderful blessings
You have given to me.
You who have given me so much;
You who have taken me into Your bosom
Into Your very heart
And loved me so profoundly
That I cannot find the words to truly express
All that I feel and all that I know
Because of You.

Heavenly Father,
You have given me the Word of life.
You have given Him to me
In Truth, in Love, in Word, in Spirit
In Flesh.
You have given me all these
In the incarnation of Your beloved Son,
In the birth. Life, death, and resurrection
Of my Lord, my Savior
Jesus Christ.

Heavenly Father,
I know that You are God Almighty;
That You are the Maker
The Creator
The Sustainer
The Revealer
That You are the Beginning
And the End
And that All things, All life
All knowledge
Everything
Came from You, is in You, and is fulfilled
In You.

Heavenly Father,
I come before You knowing that I’m not worthy;
That in no way am I deserving;
Of this privilege.
I am nothing more than dust,
A speck, a tiny dot
In whom there is nothing of value;
Nothing to be looked upon
Nothing to be given so much;
Nothing to have been given everything
By such sacrifice, such Love.
You, who didn’t have to do anything;
Who owed me nothing except
Condemnation
Chose to give me All
You held dear
In the life of Your Son.

Heavenly Father,
How can I live with this knowledge;
Understand it with my heart
And not cry knowing the price You paid for me?
How can I know this,
knowing that even today, and
Everyday that I have lived and drawn breath,
That I have done that which
Put my precious Lord,
Your Son
On the cross to bleed and die?

Heavenly Father,
I come before You, Father, and I offer You
the only thing I can; me.
Not just the little me, the sometimes me,
The maybe me, the once in a while me.
No, Father. I offer You all of me.
I give You all that I’m capable of giving,
And I’m ashamed that it’s so little.
I beg You, Father, to grow me;
Not for my own vanity, Not for anything I may gain,
But so that I might have more to give;
More to give You,
More to give my family,
More to give my friends,
More to give my neighbors,
More to give to the stranger,
More to give to the poor,
More to give to the oppressed,
More to give to the persecuted,
More to give…

Heavenly Father,
I come to You with a plea in my heart;
A request that only You can give;
Father, I pray for Your children,
For those who are like myself,
For those who have spent the majority
Of their lives in uselessness.
Who have spent their days,
Their precious time
In the pursuit of pleasure and gratification.
Who have taken the gift,
Who have seen and beheld it’s beauty,
Who know it’s true purpose, and
Who have left it on the shelf
Only to be admired,
And spoken of.

Heavenly Father,
I pray, I plead with You to make me useful.
Not in the way of the world,
But in the way of Your Kingdom.
Empty me of all that is petty and worthless,
Of all that is dross and poor,
Until there is nothing left except that which
Is useful and pleasing to You;
That leaves only that
Which brings You great honor and glory
And magnifies Your name above
Every other name.

In Jesus name, I pray,
Amen.

From “The Word For You Today” by Bruce Christian – Standing in the Gap

How about you?  Are you…

STANDING IN THE GAP

Someone has said, “Prayer moves the hand that moves the world.”  So you must give prayer it’s rightful place in your life-first place.  In Glorious Intruder, Joni Eareckson Tada writes about Diane, who suffers from Multiple Sclerosis: “In her quiet sanctuary Diane turns her head slightly on the pillow towards the cork board on the wall.  Her eyes scan each thumb-tacked card…Each photo.  Each torn piece of paper, carefully pinned in a row.  The stillness is broken as Diane begins to murmur.  She’s praying.  Some would look at her, stiff and motionless, and shake their heads, ‘What a shame, her life has no meaning.’  But Diane is confident, convinced that her life is significant and that her labor of prayer counts.  She moves mountains that block the paths of missionaries.  She helps open the eyes of the spiritually blind in South East Asia.  She pushes back the kingdom of darkness that blackens the dark alleys and streets of the gangs in east L.A.  She aids homeless mothers, abused children, despondent teenagers, and dying forgotten old people in the nursing home down the street from where she lives.  Diane is an intercessor!  She has heard the call of God, ‘I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land.’  So Diane is on the front lines advancing the gospel of Christ, holding up weak saints, inspiring doubting believers, and delighting her Lord and Savior.”  Are you “standing in the gap” for someone today?  Be encouraged.  Your prayers will move God and He will come through for you.