Category: Habit of Prayer

Recognize God’s Forgiveness

On By BrianIn Habit of Prayer

In Psalm 32:1-2a, David recognizes his forgiveness:

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity.

These same words are quoted by Paul in Romans 4 in the context of our great salvation through Jesus Christ.  Because Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead, we can be forgiven of our sins through faith in Jesus Christ.  Do you recognize God’s forgiveness as you approach God in prayer?

Psalm 24:3-4 tells us who can approach God:

Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to what is false
and does not swear deceitfully.

And yet none of us on our own can claim clean hands or a pure heart.  Only in Christ are we clean and pure, and so only in Christ can we approach God.  So again, do you recognize God’s forgiveness when you approach God in prayer?  It is only in Christ that you can come.  It is only in the context of salvation can we truly pray. 

As you come before his throne, consider Christ who makes it possible for you to approach God.  Recognize God’s forgiveness in Jesus Christ.

Confession

On By BrianIn Habit of Prayer

Psalm 51 is a great psalm of confession:

Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
(Portions from verses 1-12)

This psalm teaches us to confess our sins to God.  We are to cry out to God about our sins, to seek mercy and forgiveness.  Is confession a regular part of your prayer life? 

Our church encourages people to examine their lives and confess their sins before we celebrate the Lord’s Supper.  But this is clearly not enough.  Who remembers most of the sins they committed several days ago?  And so we ought to daily examine our lives and confess our sins to God.  The more attuned we become to our daily sins, the more grateful we will be for God’s forgiveness and salvation through Jesus Christ.  Along with a daily examination, we should strive to recognize sin in the moment of its occurrence, and immediately confess it to God and repent of it, as well as apologizing to whomever we committed the sin.  Deal with it immediately.  This will help to deter future occurences. 

We need to confess our sins to the Lord, crying out for his mercy.  Is confession a regular part of your prayer life?  This is an area where I need to grow.  How about you?

Recognizing God’s Presence

On By BrianIn Habit of Prayer

Psalm 139 is a great prayer that reminds us that God is intimately involved in our lives.  Part of that involvement is his constant presence.  As David prays, he recognizes God’s presence with him:

Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me. (v7-10)

Do we recognize God’s presence with us when we pray?  Do we consider that he is right there with us?

The address to our prayers should remind us of who we are talking to and that he is right there listening to us.  When we start our prayers with “Dear Lord” or “Our Father” or something similar, these addresses ought to draw all of our attention to our very present God.  And yet I fear we too often zip right through it; we forget who we are talking to.  We just start talking without thinking about what we are doing.  At least I know I do. 

How different our prayers might be if at the beginning of each prayer we simply stopped to consider who we are talking to, if we recognized that we are talking to a great God who is right there listening to us.  We are not talking to the air.  We are not talking to ourselves.  We are not talking to a distant god who may or may not hear us.  We are talking to a very present God who hears every word.  As we recognize his presence, we can really talk to God as we should.

May You Be Strengthened

On By BrianIn Habit of Prayer

May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.  – Colossians 1:11-12 (ESV)

I came across these verses about a month ago, and it has become my prayer for many people I know who are facing trials and struggles.  I believe it might be a helpful model for you too in your prayers for the hurting and weary – maybe even yourself.

Strength – Our strength is small.  And so we pray that God would strengthen us with his power and might each day as we walk through our trials. 

Endurance – Sometimes it is easy to give up, to despair.   And so we pray that God would give us strength to endure, to press on, to persevere, to hold onto him.

Patience – Sometimes it is easy to become impatient with trials that continue on and on, with the things that slow us down or hold us back.  It is easy to get frustrated.  Ando so we pray that God would give us strength to be patient in the midst of our trials. 

Joy and thanksgiving – It can be incredibly hard to be joyful and thankful in the midst of trials.  But Paul points us beyond our circumstances to a glorious truth that will never change.  The Father has granted us salvation.  This is reason to rejoice and give thanks.  And so we pray that God would give us strength to remember our great salvation, and find joy and gratitude in it always.

Inheritance – Life can be hard now, but a glorious day is coming when there will be no more trials, no more tears, no more sickness, no more pain.  We will dwell with our Lord forever.  And so we pray that God would give us strength to remember our glorious hope.

Father, there are so many who are hurting and weary, ourselves included.  Strengthen us with your mighty power so that we may endure with patience, joyfully give thanks for your great salvation, and cling to our glorious hope.  Amen. 

Daddy’s Home!

On By BrianIn Habit of Prayer

When I used to work for a Christian bookstore a few years ago, I would drive home from work and pull into the driveway.  At that point, the front door would burst open, and my two young children would come racing out, jumping up and down, crying “Daddy’s home, Daddy’s home!”  They were so excited that I was home and with them.

As God’s children we too can’t wait to be home with our Father.  And so we cry out, “Your kingdom come.”

My Dad Is The Best

On By BrianIn Habit of Prayer

I saw a Peanuts comic strip recently.  Snoopy is sitting next to one of the girls, and the girl tells him, “My Dad is a better hunter than your Dad!”  She walks away with a big grin on her face.  Snoopy looks after her and thinks, “My Dad gets fuzzier in the winter than your Dad!”

Many kids (and apparently dogs) think and want others to know that their Dad is the greatest.  Their Dad is the strongest.  Their Dad is the smartest.  Their Dad is the best.

As God’s children, we know and want everyone else to know that our Father is the strongest, the smartest, the best.  We want everyone to honor our great Father.  And so we pray, “Hallowed by your name.”

Freedom Prayer

On By BrianIn Habit of Prayer

Father,

Thank you for our country, and the freedoms we enjoy as Americans.  Thank you for freedom of speech, press, and travel. Thank you for the freedom to gather to worship you, and the freedom to scatter to share the good news with others.

Even more we thank you for Jesus, and the freedoms we enjoy as Christians.  Thank you for freedom from the penalty of sin, freedom from the power of sin, and the promise that one day we will have freedom from the very presence of sin.

Thank you for the wonderful freedoms you have blessed us with in this country and in Christ.  Amen.

Rely On God

On By BrianIn Habit of Prayer, Virtue of Humility

I was listening to part of a message about John Bunyan by John Piper this morning which referenced II Corinthians 1:9 – “Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death.  But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.”

How easy it is for us to get this wrong.  We try to rely on ourselves or on our bank accounts or in our own cleverness or…you fill in the blank.  This is a huge issue in ministry as well.  Am I relying on God or trying to do it myself?  Of course, we have to minister, to do the work.  But God is the one who blesses our ministry, who makes it effective…or not.  We always need his grace, his help, his Spirit to be at work, or we labor in vain.

We know this, yet that self-sufficiency can creep in.  We can get so excited and impressed with our newest sermon, program, idea, whatever.  We think, “Certainly this will make a difference!”  But if God doesn’t bless it, it amounts to nothing.

Perhaps God doesn’t bless our churches more because we simply couldn’t handle it.  We would start to think too much of ourselves, begin to rely too much on ourselves.  We would forget that we need God, and that it is all of God, not of ourselves.

I think this is where prayer comes in, though that too can become a mere formality tacked on to our own self-reliance.  But if we truly believe we need God’s help, we will pray.  We will plead with God to work through us.  We will pray with fervor – “Your kingdom come.”  We will join the Psalmist in praying, “Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yea, establish the work of our hands!” (Psalm 90:17)

May this be our prayer as we rely on him.

The Coming of the Spirit

On By BrianIn God & His Glory, Habit of Prayer

Before ascending into heaven, Jesus predicts the coming of the Holy Spirit.  He tells the disciples, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8).  The Spirit will come with power, and in that power they will witness.

We see this play out in next few chapters of Acts.  In Acts 2, the Spirit comes upon them, empowering them to speak different languages to share the good news with Jews from many nations.  In Acts 4, Peter is filled with the Spirit and boldly witnesses to the same people who had Jesus crucified.  Later in the same chapter, the church prays for boldness to witness, and the Spirit powerfully comes upon them, giving them boldness to declare the gospel.

The Spirit empowers us to witness – giving us boldness and courage.  It is of course also the power of the Spirit that changes lives, making our witness effective.  We need the Spirit’s help to witness.  Do we seek it?  Are we praying for the Spirit to give us boldness.  Are we asking him to change lives?

Your Will Be Done

On By BrianIn Habit of Prayer, Heart, Revival1 Comment

The third request in the Lord’s Prayer is “your will be done.”  What does this mean?  First, we are praying for God’s moral will to be done, that his commands would be obeyed.  We want God to help us do his will.  Second, we are praying for God’s providential will to be done.  We are expressing our trust in God’s plan for our lives as Jesus did in the garden before the cross.

Do our prayers look like this?  Is this our heart’s desire?