June 12 – 25, 2017
SCRIPTURE PRAYER EXAMPLE
Scripture prayer for purity of heart using Psalm 101:3 and I John 2:16:
Father, I pray that [insert name] will set no vile thing before his eyes and that he will earnestly guard his heart against the lust of the eyes, the lusts of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life. In Jesus’ Name, Amen
YOUR PRAYER TIME
PRAISE: First take time to praise the Father, Son, and Spirit and bring thank offerings. Psalm 100:4 tells us to “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.”
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Week 1: Read Ephesians 1:15-23. My husband and I drove this past weekend to the cemetery where most of his family is buried (not a great opening line for a devotional, sorry). I listened as he reminisced of childhood memories, of generations going before him. Some stories were sad, two babies his mother lost, one living a day and the other two; two uncles remembered as one drunk and one hobo. But with a strong farming heritage, most were remembered as honest, hard-working men and the women as tough ladies, with strength, grit, and character.
Standing amid a sea of headstones, I wondered – did people achieve their dreams, leave behind (or carry forward to Heaven) a legacy, or were their lives spent without any eternal investment? On a lighter note, permit me to digress and interject what I think is the funniest epitaph I’ve ever read:
Under the sod and under the trees, lies the body of Jonathan Pease.
He is not here, there's only the pod. Pease shelled out and went to God.
I’m shelling out one day too! But for now, in this window of opportunity called life, I’ve got some choices to make – to give God a little here and a little there or to break open the flask and live a poured-out life.
In Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians, we find the secret to living a powerful poured-out life – the power of faith, the power of love, and the power of prayer:
For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.
As we devote ourselves to prayer, let’s ask God to make us the generation of moms that unhinges our faith from what we can ask or imagine and instead tethers ourselves to the limitless possibilities of His ability to respond to prayer – the exceedingly abundantly more than all we can ask or imagine, according to His power at work in us.
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love… may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:16-21)
In Him, Anita
v Home, Chris Tomlin www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIb4NC5ikYo
Week 2: Read Colossians 4:2. The transliterated Greek word kicking off this passage is an action verb, proskartereo, meaning to adhere, give attention to, be faithful. Paul, writing while imprisoned, is instructing believers at Colossae to be intentionally, continually devoted to prayer. What faith – encouraging believers to remain faithful in prayer, while he remained in deplorable conditions! But this was Paul’s lifestyle, wholly devoted to prayer.
Paul’s counsel to the Colossians is truly for all believers, in all times. We know that Jesus modeled this in His own life, withdrawing often to pray (Luke 5:16). He taught and implored his disciples to pray. Remember Jesus’ preface to the parable of the widow’s persistence before the judge?
Then Jesus told his disciples … that they should always pray and not give up. (Luke 18:1)
In the Garden of Gethsemane, knowing His arrest was at hand, Jesus entreated Peter, James, and John to pray. But their eyes were heavy, and they gave in to sleep as if sedated. In the book, “Experiencing Prayer with Jesus,” Henry & Norman Blackaby ponder the ‘what-ifs’ of, had the disciples prayed instead:
Sleeping, the disciples never knew what could have happened if only they had obeyed their Lord and watched and prayed with alertness. They might have started to understand what was happening at this moment in history, in a way that only Jesus and the Father understood it. Had they stayed awake, the disciples could have experienced God’s provision to keep them from entering into temptation, and perhaps they themselves might have been ministered to by an angel.[1]
One thing I desire – to equip and encourage mothers to remain faithful in prayer, avoiding the costly what-ifs. In my own journey, after several years of prayer, God simultaneously answered my prayer and lifted the curtain to show me that He has been at work all along. My son and his family are now in church and excited to be there! My daughter-in-love shared the impact it has made on her life, noting the difference also in the lives of their children. God is at work! God was at work!
Now, I would have preferred God to raise the shade from time to time to let me see Him at work, but instead He kept His work hidden and required of me, faith. Trust me when I say, it wore thin on many occasions. But maybe, just maybe, your story is like mine, and God’s delay in answering my prayer will encourage you to “pray and not give up.” And if my veiled waiting does just that, then glory be to His name!
In Him, Anita
v Song Story – Impossible www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx5BoF1th7Y
v Impossible, Meredith Andrews www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8MxDuzLvQw
THANKSGIVING: Honor God by remembering His blessings and recall answered prayers. “He who sacrifices thank offerings honors me, and he prepares the way so that I may show him the salvation of God.” Psalm 50:23
CONFESSION: Now take time to allow the Spirit to counsel your heart to prepare you to come before the throne. Isaiah 59:2 states “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.” But I John 1:9 states “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
INTERCESSION: Lastly, know that the LORD delights when we come with bold prayers before His throne. He awaits our prayers. Hebrews 4:14-16.
1.
Thank you for your faithful prayers. Revelation 5:8 – “And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.”
PRAY-ERS SCHEDULE
Remember to pray for the other mothers on their prayer days.
Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Friday:
Saturday:
“PRAYER DOES NOT FIT US FOR THE GREATER WORKS; PRAYER IS THE GREATER WORK.”
By: Oswald Chambers
©2017 Isaiah 55 Pray-ers. Used by permission.
[1] Experiencing Prayer with Jesus, The Power of His Presence and Example, by Henry & Norman Blackaby, Page 107