Our week of prayer continues on Friday with this prayer focus—
Give thanks that because of God’s care, you can be at peace regardless of the circumstances you face.
I love to pray the Scriptures during my times of prayer. Perhaps today you could pray something like this:
Heavenly Father, I am learning not to be anxious about anything, but to turn every stressful situation over to You in prayer, and to be thankful for what You’re going to do. I am also learning to turn everything that bothers me into a prayer request to You. When I do this, Your peace, which transcends my human understanding, guards my heart and mind in Christ Jesus.
I am also learning to be content whatever my circumstances are. I certainly know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have enough. I am learning the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through You, Jesus, because You give me strength. I know that You will meet all my needs according to the riches in Christ Jesus [Philippians 4:6-7, 11-13, 19]. I know that when I pray this in Your name, Jesus, I can say a confident “amen!”
Our week of prayer continues today with this prayer focus for Thursday—
Pray that with absolute trust in God you will say yes in obedience to His direction in your life.
We have been praying the Scriptures all week. For today’s prayer focus, perhaps you could pray something like this:
God, I trust You. Completely. Although at times I have questions, I still trust You. How long, Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemies triumph over me? Look on me and answer, O Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death, and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall. But I trust in Your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in Your salvation. So I will sing Your praise, for You have been good to me [Psalm 13].
But I will extol You at all times; Your praise will always be on my lips. I will glory in You; let anyone around me who is afflicted hear and rejoice. I call out to them, “Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt His name together.” Because when I cry out to You, You answer me; You deliver me from all my fears. When I keep my eyes on You, my face is radiant. When I call to You, You hear me, and You save me out of all my troubles. Your angels encamp around me, and You deliver me. I have tasted and now I know for myself that You are good. I am blessed when I take refuge in You. Listen to what I have learned: Fear the Lord, you His holy people, for those who fear Him lack nothing [Psalm 34:1-9]. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
This is a weekly series with things I’m reading and pondering from Oswald Chambers. You can read the original seed thought here, or type “Thursdays With Oswald” in the search box to read more entries.
The Long Trail
When we are busy with our own outlook on life, it seems as if God were indifferent. Our human patience, as well as our impatience, gets to the point of saying—‘Why does not God do things?’ Redemption is complete; we believe that Our Lord has all power in heaven and on earth, then why is it such a long while before things happen? Why is God so long in making actual His answers to our prayers? When in such a state of mind we are capable of becoming bitter against God unless we are led into the inner secret of Our Lord’s own attitude. …
Each of the temptations presented to Our Lord by satan had this as its center: ‘You will get the Kingship of men and the Saviorhood of the world if you will take a “shortcut”—put man’s needs first, and he will crown You King; do something extraordinarily wonderful, indicative of Your power, and man will crown You King; compromise with evil, and You will get the Kingship of men.’ Jesus could have brought the whole thing about suddenly (cf. John 6:15); but He did not. He withstood satan and took the stupendously long way. …
It takes a long time to realize what Jesus is after, and the person you need most patience with is yourself. God takes deliberate time with us, He does not hurry, because we can only appreciate His point of view by a long discipline.
From The Place Of Help
Do you trust that God knows what He’s doing? He has something great in mind for your life, something that will bring Him glory. That is the reason He created you(see Ephesians 2:10).
Hang in there … something good will come of this long trail (see Romans 5:3-5).
Our week of prayer continues today with this prayer focus—
Give thanks that even in the midst of brokenness God can shape His purposes in your life to bring fulfillment and joy.
All week long we’ve been praying God’s Word for each of these prayer points. Today, perhaps you could pray something like this:
Heavenly Father, I know that in everything that is happening to me, You are working circumstances for the good. I know that You love me, and that You have a distinct purpose for my life [Romans 8:28].
Sometimes, in order to keep me from becoming too reliant on my own abilities, You send “a thorn in the flesh” to me. But even in the midst of that You say to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in your weakness.” Therefore I will boast about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in my weaknesses, in insults hurled at me, in all my hardships, in my persecutions, in my difficulties. For when I am weak in my own ability, then I am strong in You [2 Corinthians 12:7-10].
Even though this is a difficult time for me, I still rejoice in what You are going to accomplish in my life. I pray this Jesus’ name, Amen.
I am so proud of a group from our Sunday School class who went out into the cold, snowy streets to share the love of Jesus! Not content with merely talking about being disciples of Jesus, this group wanted to be disciples of Christ.
On New Year’s Day, they walked the streets of downtown Grand Rapids to find those who needed to keep warm. They handed out gloves, hats, blankets, candy, Bibles, hugs and prayer to those in need. After they returned home, my favorite comment from the group was this: “When can we do this again?” I love it!
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This group meets for their Sunday School class every Sunday morning at 9:30am. If you’d like to spend some time with a really great bunch of folks, this is the group for you!
Perhaps a New Year’s resolution you made was to stop viewing pornography. That’s a great first step! I like these tips from CovenantEyes for helping you stick with your no-porn goal.
Develop a game plan. Instead of retreating to porn, have a book to read or another activity planned.
Get outside of yourself. When you focus on your circumstances, the temptation to escape comes calling. Serving others is the best antidote to a self-induced pity party. Ring a bell for the Salvation Army, visit a nursing home or work in a soup kitchen.
Burn off steam and calories. Go for walks. Get some exercise in. Hit the gym with a friend.
Reach out. Call a friend. Be open and honest about your feelings and temptations. (Keeping secrets breeds failure.)
Avoid Facebook and social media. Comparing your life to the façade on Facebook only leads to more stress and loneliness.
Don’t throw in the towel. If you have a setback, get back up and start over!
And I’ll add one more of my own:
7. Learn your triggers. Do you usually feel the urge to look at porn at night? when you’re tired? when you’re lonely? Know when your temptation is at its strongest, and be ready with one of the above strategies before the temptation flares up.
CovenantEyes has some great ebooks and other resources you can check out here. You also might want to add their accountability software to your devices.
Our week of prayer continues today with this prayer focus for Tuesday—
Seek God for strength to keep moving forward even in the midst of discouragement or suffering, knowing that faith to persevere strengthens character and kindles hope.
I love to pray God’s Word. Perhaps today you could pray something like this:
Heavenly Father, this time of life I’m in right now is tough. But I trust You. In fact, I also glory in my suffering, because I know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance produces character; and character produces hope. And hope does not put me to shame, because Your love has been poured out into my heart through Your Holy Spirit [Romans 5:3-5].
So I trust in You entirely, the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. You will never grow tired or weary, and Your understanding is higher than mine. You give strength to me when I’m weary and You increase my power when I’m weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young people stumble and fall; but when my hope is in You, You will renew my strength. In You, I will soar on wings like eagles; I will run and not grow weary, I will walk and not be faint [Isaiah 40:28-31].
While I’m in this difficult time, Father, I place my trust and my hope in You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Our week of prayer continues today with this prayer focus—
Pray that in the midst of impossible circumstances, doubt will be replaced by absolute trust in God’s promise to intervene in your need or circumstance.
When I pray, I love to pray God’s Word. Perhaps on Monday you could pray something like this:
Jesus, You said if I have faith as small as a mustard seed, I can say to this mountain—this “impossible thing” in my life—“Move from here to there,” and it will move. Nothing will be impossible [Matthew 17:20]. It was impossible for death to hold You, Jesus, so I know that no word from You will ever fail [Acts 2:24; Luke 1:37].
I have some seemingly “impossible” situations in my life. There is a relationship that seems beyond repair … there is a doctor’s diagnosis that seems terminal … there is a financial debt that seems like a bottomless pit … there is a situation that seems hopeless. But things that seem like they’re terminal, impossible and hopeless to man are perfect opportunities for You to do what only You can do. I put my absolute trust in You. I believe that You are going to do what others say is impossible, so that all will see Your unequaled greatness. In Jesus’ mighty name I pray, Amen.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
One of the best ways to learn how to pray is not to read about prayer. It’s not even to listen to other people pray. The best way to learn how to pray is … to pray!
Can you imagine a baby thinking to herself, “I’m not going to start talking until I’ve got the English language nearly mastered. I need to brush up on my vocabulary and have a few tongue-twisters handy, and then I’ll start talking”? Of course not!
Babies learn to talk by talking!Well, perhaps they learn by babbling first. But ask any parent, and they will tell you that those first da-da, ma-ma, ba-ba sounds are like music in their ears!
It’s the same way with our Heavenly Father. He’s not waiting for you to be a prayer expert (whatever that is!) before you start talking with Him. Even if your attempt at praying sounds like a baby’s babbling to you, those attempts are sweet sounds to our loving Heavenly Father.
One verse about Jesus gives us four practical prayer tips to help us practice praying—
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where He prayed. (Mark 1:35)
Check out these four prayer tips:
1. early in the morning. This speaks to me of priority. I want to talk with God before I talk with anyone else—before I make my plans for the day, or even before I have any major decisions to make.
Practical application: I need to go to bed on time.
2. Jesus got up. This was a physical change of position to make sure He was alert.
Practical application: Don’t try to pray laying in bed, but find a posture where I am most alert; maybe even go for a walk while I pray.
3. left the house [and] went to a solitary place. He left the familiar and left any distractions behind. Some translations of Matthew 6:6 say we should go into our prayer closet.
Practical application: Find a place that’s just for prayer, then eliminate the distractions (like turning off my phone).
4. He prayed. This Greek word is used 87 times in the New Testament and it means … PRAY. There’s nothing wrong with reading the Bible, or listening to worship music, but I shouldn’t allow these activities to substitute for prayer.
Practical application: My mind can wander when I’m praying unless I’m intentional about staying focused. So I keep a list of things I want to pray about, and I keep a blank piece of paper ready for things that come to my mind. Both of these things keep my mind from wandering away from prayer.
How about you: Can you make prayer a priority? Can you find a place and posture that will help you pray? What can you do to stay focused while you’re praying?
Remember: the best way to learn how to pray is to pray. Get started today! Your Father is waiting to hear your sweet voice!
I’ll be continuing our series on Practical Prayer this Sunday. If you don’t have a home church in Cedar Springs, I’d love to have you join us. Otherwise, you can tune in to our live broadcast via Periscope.
Our week of prayer continues on Friday with this prayer focus—
Perhaps a New Year’s resolution you made was to stop viewing pornography. That’s a great first step! I like these tips from 
Craig T. Owens 