Hunger for God
Key Scripture: Matthew 5:6 (NIV)
6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
General Prayer Focus: Personal
Specific Prayer Focus: Hunger for more of God
Prayer: Father, sometimes I feel so spiritually dull and apathetic, realizing that I too easily turn to the temporary pleasures of this life to try and satisfy me. I know that there is nothing that can truly fulfill the longings and desires of my heart, and yet I still seem to run to everything else other than You before I finally turn to You to fill me. I pray that today You would increase my hunger for more of You and that You would show me again that nothing else can satisfy. I pray that You would put a longing deep inside that would propel me into seeking after You. I ask that You would stir up a desperation within that would cause me to yearn for Your presence more than anything else. I pray that I would be like the psalmist who wrote, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” May my soul thirst for You and may You quench that thirst by filling me with Your word, Your life, Your joy, and the presence of Your Spirit, in Jesus’ Name. Amen!
Joy!
Key Scripture: John 15:9, 11 (NIV)
9“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love…11I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”
General Prayer Focus: Personal
Specific Prayer Focus: Joy!
Prayer: Father, I cannot begin to comprehend how incredible it is that You would love me, even as You love Your Son Jesus! And Jesus loves me with that same love that He receives from You! I want to experience Your love more and to discover how to remain and abide in Your love, that I may also experience the joy of Jesus. Father, I pray that You would fill my heart to overflowing with Your love and that You would simultaneously pour the joy of Jesus’ heart into mine! I ask that I would experience what it means to have complete and full joy in my life – a joy that is found not in the pleasures of this world, or by looking to my circumstances, but a joy that is divine, supernatural and eternal. I want to know the joy that Jesus has as He communes with You and the Holy Spirit in perfect union and love. I want to know the joy that surpasses whether I’m having a good or bad day and that it would be so deeply rooted in my heart, that nothing could steal it! Father, help me to be a joyful person – at home, at my job, with my family, with my friends, at church, in the grocery store – wherever, whenever! Teach me how to enter into the joy of Jesus and remain there, even as I remain in His love. Amen!
Revelation of the Cross
Key Scripture: Isaiah 53:5 (NIV)
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
General Prayer Focus: Personal
Specific Prayer Focus: Revelation of the Cross
Prayer: Father, as we celebrate Easter and the Passion of Jesus Christ, I want to ask You for greater revelation of what Jesus did for me when He died on the cross. So often I’m sure I take His sacrifice for granted and I don’t realize the magnitude of His infinite love that He demonstrated for me on that day. It was truly a remarkable act of passion for mankind and for me personally and I really want the depth of all that it means to impact my heart! Father, I want to see and understand the beauty of Your Son Jesus and what He did for me on the cross! I ask that You would give to me the Spirit of wisdom and revelation that I would know Him more and grasp more deeply how He was pierced for my transgressions, crushed for my iniquity, punished so I could have peace with You, and wounded that I might be healed. Father, I pray that as I meditate on the cross and His sacrifice, that it would change and transform my heart and that His plan for redemption would be brought to completion in me – that not only would my transgressions and iniquity be forgiven, but that I would be set free from the bondage of sin and be made holy as He is holy. I pray that by His blood that was spilled, that I would enter into greater friendship and intimacy with You. I pray that by the stripes He bore on His body, that my body would be healed from all sickness and disease. Father, grant to me greater revelation and experiential knowledge of the benefits of the cross where Jesus died for me, in His Name. Amen!
Wholehearted Love for God
Key Scripture: Mark 12:30 (NIV)
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
General Focus: Personal
Specific Focus: Wholehearted Love for God
Prayer: Father, today I ask that You would fill me with Your Holy Spirit and increase my capacity to both receive Your love and love You in return. I desire to truly love You with all my heart, soul, mind and strength, giving my everything to You without reservation! Yet, I know that I cannot love You without Your help, so I ask that You would give me the power to grasp the depths of the love of Christ and to be filled to all the measure of the fullness of God, that I may love You more. Would You help me to set myself apart for only You, that my heart and soul would be fully Yours. I want to love You with all of my emotions, my thoughts, my time and energy. Help me to hold nothing back from You, but to give You full access to all of me. I love You! Amen.
Integrity in the Marketplace
March 15, 2010 by Jacquie
Filed under Cultural Spheres, Marketplace, Personal
Key Scripture: Colossians 3:23-24 (NIV)
23Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, 24since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
General Prayer Focus: The Marketplace
Specific Prayer Focus: Working with integrity
Prayer: Father, today I pray for Christians in the marketplace, that You would fill them with strength and might in their inner man to work at their jobs with all their heart. I pray for a spirit of excellence to be upon every Christian in the workplace and that You would bless and anoint the work of their hands. No matter how insignificant their job might feel or how stressful, I ask that You would empower them to work as though working for You and not for man. When they are tempted to use questionable methods or take immoral shortcuts, I ask that You would remind them Who they are serving and enable them to make the right choices, doing their work with integrity. Even if they cannot see the benefit in this life, let them have revelation of the eternal reward waiting for them. I pray that You would make them shining examples of the heart and character of Jesus Christ in the marketplace, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Freedom!
Key Scripture: John 8:26 (NIV) and Isaiah 61:1 (NIV)
36So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners…
General Prayer Focus: Personal Freedom
Specific Prayer Focus: Freedom from spiritual bondage
Prayer: Father, I thank You for sending Your Son Jesus to the earth that He might bring me freedom from my bondage! I thank You for anointing Him with Your Spirit to proclaim freedom to the captives and to release prisoners from darkness!
Jesus, today I ask that You would break in to my life and set me free from everything that hinders me from loving You fully. I ask that You would set me free from the bondage of the enemy that keeps me weighed down in my heart and that You would deliver me from his oppression. Where I feel weak and broken and unable to conquer these struggles, I ask that You would come with Your power and strength and might and overcome the enemy on my behalf!
I confess that I have allowed some of this bondage into my life through my own sinful choices and I repent, asking for Your forgiveness and for You to cleanse me. I break my agreement with darkness and with the lies of the enemy and I ask for the grace to say “Yes” to Your ways and Your will for my life. Today I choose to listen to and believe the truth of what You say about me and to walk in the authority that You have given my through Your Name.
I thank You that You are the One who sets me free and that I am free indeed! Help me to walk out the freedom that You have given me and fill me to overflowing with Your Holy Spirit. For every bondage that You deliver me from, would You replace it with Your presence and Your love. In Your Holy Name, Amen.
A Prayer For Your Child
Key Scripture: Psalm 71:5-6, 17 (NIV)
5 For you have been my hope, O Sovereign Lord, my confidence since my youth. 6 From birth I have relied on you; you brought me forth from my mother’s womb. I will ever praise you… 17 Since my youth, O God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds.
General Prayer Focus: Families
Specific Prayer Focus: For our children to know the Lord
Prayer: Father, I thank You for my son/daughter and that he/she is a blessing straight from Your heart! Lord, I ask that my child would put his/her hope and confidence in You from a very early age. I ask that even from birth, my child would rely completely on You and trust in You for everything he/she needs and that his/her heart desires. I ask that my son/daughter would love You with his/her whole heart, praising You and declaring Your marvelous deeds, for from the lips of children and infants You have ordained praise!
Father, I also ask that from my son’s/daughter’s youth, that he/she would be instructed by You. Lord, may he/she receive revelation directly from Your throne. Would You give my child dreams and visions, revealing Your love to him/her, that he/she would know Jesus and desire to give his/her heart completely to You. I ask that from an early age, even like David, Samuel, Josiah, Jeremiah, John the Baptist and Jesus himself, that my son/daughter would know You and hear Your voice and receive guidance, direction and instruction from You. Would he/she have encounters with Jesus, angelic visitations and be filled with Your Spirit, in Jesus’ name. Amen!
