Category: Prayers

Prayer for God to Be Glorified through My Life

And in this regard we pray for you always, that our God will make you worthy of his calling and fulfill by his power your every desire for goodness and every work of faith, 12 that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 (NET1)

Insight

God ordains the means as well as the end. In His eternal wisdom, our Lord has chosen to make us co-laborers with Him. One way this happens is when we earnestly pray for what He intends to do through us to bring glory to his name.

On the one hand, our salvation may be considered a finished work. Believers will never be more judicially righteous than they are the moment they place their faith in Christ. Our right standing with God is based upon Christ’s right standing. Our relationship as beloved sons is based on Christ’s perfect sonship. However acting in a manner that is worthy of this high calling is something that must be lived out every day. This is where we must engage God in prayer.

It takes faith and perseverance coupled with agape love and unswerving hope for us to fulfill our high calling in God. We can only do it by relying on the enabling power of God’s grace in the person of His indwelling Holy Spirit. God wants to impart to us a godly fear of falling short of that grace and high calling.

Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. 2 For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard. Hebrews 4:1-2 (NASB)

Prayer

Lord, my desire if for my life to glorify your name. There is no higher calling. I ask you to make me worthy of your high calling by daily filling me to overflowing with your Spirit and power. By grace help me to serve you and my neighbor by doing works of faith and love in order in obedience to your teachings and the Spirit’s promptings. I believe you are working in me both to will and to do of your good pleasure, and that you will finish what you started in my life. Amen.

For I am sure of this very thing, that the one who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6 (NET1)
Share this post...

Prayer for Forgiveness and Cleansing

Anyone who touches its flesh will become consecrated; and when any of its blood splashes on a garment, in a holy place you shall wash what was splashed on. Leviticus 6:27 (NASB)

When Jesus walked the streets and roads of Israel, unclean people regularly touched him, but, instead of his becoming unclean, as the Law demanded, contact with him made the unclean person clean. What an amazing thing! How could this be?

We get a wonderful hint from the verse in Leviticus quoted above. Jesus came to this planet to die as sin offering for us. He is the Lamb of God, a title ascribed to him by John the Baptist, which he fulfilled by his crucifixion. Whoever touched the sin offering became holy, which means consecrated or set apart to God. The sin offering had the power to make the unclean clean!

One Perfect Sacrifice – Past, Present, and Future

Jesus made advance draws on the “paycheck” of Calvary. This is because, from God’s perspective, Christ’s atoning death was a done deal, even before it happened. Its benefits extended back into the past and into the future. Consider the following Bible verses.

(as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”). He is our father in the presence of God whom he believed — the God who makes the dead alive and summons the things that do not yet exist as though they already do. Romans 4:17 (NET1)

All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast–all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world. Revelation 13:8 (NIV)

But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. 13 Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, 14 because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. Hebrews 10:12-14 (NIV)

What do we learn?

  • God is not bound by time. He sees the end from the beginning, and that which is still in our future is already accomplished from his perspective. That is why he says that we are already glorified, even though it remains in our future. (Romans 8:30)
  • The benefits of Christ’s death and resurrection are eternal. Depending on how the second verse above is translated, either Jesus death on the cross is eternal or our being included in the benefits of his death is eternal. Practically speaking, for us, it does not matter. That means before the foundation of the world and before we were ever born, we were included as a beneficiary of Christ’s sacrifice. This agrees with Ephesians 1:4.
  • Christ’s perfect sin offering eternally perfects its beneficiaries. Since all of our sins were future when Jesus died, we must acknowledge that they were covered before they were ever committed. Therefore, every future sin already has been cleansed. This gives us great confidence when we confess our sins to the Lord. He is continually transforming those he has already perfectly cleansed.

When Jesus offered forgiveness and cleansed the unclean, he drew on his future death on the cross. He gave freely, but knowing that it would cost him everything. What an amazing Savior!

Making the Unclean Clean

The Old Covenant Law strictly required anyone who touched something unclean to go through proper rituals to re-establish his or her cleanness. This Law did not apply to Jesus, because he was God’s Lamb, the perfect sin offering.

Think of those persons who were cleansed through making contact with Jesus: the woman with the issue of blood, the lepers, the Samaritan woman (Jesus was not defiled by drinking from her cup.), the widow’s dead son, and the daughter of Jairus. Those are the ones who come to mind. There are probably more. Jesus was a walking, talking manifestation of God’s cleansing power. He was not afraid to touch what others regarded as untouchable. By doing so, he transformed their lives.

Jesus freely forgave sins, which offended the Jewish leaders, who knew that only God could do that. They did not recognize God’s Lamb when he stood in their presence. All who come to Jesus can find forgiveness and cleansing, even today.

Will you come to him?

Prayer

Jesus, I thank you that you came as God’s perfect sin offering, as the Lamb of God. Thank you that you died to make me clean and to forgive my sins. I receive your forgiveness and cleansing right now, and I give you my life in return. I acknowledge your lordship over my life and dedicate myself to serving you as long as a I live. Amen

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 (NIV)
Share this post...

Disciple’s Prayer

Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:25-33 (ESV)
Jesus deliberately narrowed the gate and path for his followers, and he cautioned his listeners, including us, that following him carries a rather large price tag. We need to ask for the Lord’s help to be a disciple.

Prayer

Jesus, I choose to be your disciple and, with your help, I embrace the cost. I choose my relationship with you over all my other relationships. I am willing to be rejected by people who may misunderstand or hate my loyalty to you. My desire is for my family and friends to walk together with me on this journey of faith, but, if need be, I choose to put you ahead of them, no matter how much it hurts to do so. Lord, forgive me for loving myself more than you. I purpose to put you first from now on. Help me to embrace any persecution or suffering which may accompany boldly witnessing to you and sharing the gospel. I choose to carry my cross daily and put your will over mine whenever there is a conflict. Lord, I give you my finances. All I have came from you and belongs to you, and I give it back to you. Help me to never back away from any cost associated with following you, even if it means death. Help me never to retreat or surrender to the attacks of Satan and the people who serve him. I renounce everything I have – my relationships, my choices, my money, my right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, my comfort, my time, my peace – so that I can please you. I know that you will give me back more than I can ever give you. I totally depend on your grace and the Holy Spirit to enable me to follow you as a disciple. Allow me to be an encourager to all those who call on your name. Amen.
Share this post...

Prayer for Clarity of Purpose

For this reason we also, from the day we heard about you, have not ceased praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so that you may live worthily of the Lord and please him in all respects — bearing fruit in every good deed, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for the display of all patience and steadfastness, joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light. 13 He delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:9-14 (NET1)
Before we can do God’s will, we must know what it is. Paul’s prayer above asks God to fill us with the knowledge of God’s will and purpose. It’s one thing to catch of glimpse of something God wants to do, and another thing altogether to be “filled” with the knowledge of his will. God wants us to be immersed in his will and overflowing with the desire to fulfill it. We need spiritual wisdom and understanding to adequately comprehend what God is doing and plans. The purpose of such wonderful knowledge and understanding is to make us fully obedient. Knowledge without obedience sadly is grounds for a stricter judgment. It would be better not to know what God wants from us than to know but not obey. However, if we choose to obey, God’s grace comes alongside us (in the Person of the Holy Spirit) to enable us to bear lasting fruit and grow even more in our knowledge of God and his will. Lastly, the character of Christ will be further developed in us as we obey and grow in our knowledge of God. Our thanksgiving will bring God even more glory!

Prayer

Lord, fill us with the knowledge of Your will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that we may live worthily and please You in all respects. Please give us lasting fruit as a result of every good thing we do through faith and obedience. Help us to grow in our knowledge of You and be strengthened with all power according to Your glorious might, so that your patience and steadfastness will be on display. This will lead everyone to joyfully give thanks to You, Father, Who have qualified us through Christ to share in your inheritance. You delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son You love, our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, and life everlasting. Thank you! Amen.
Share this post...
Share this post...