Prayer Journal
Seeking God to give us steadfast love for Him
Heidi Scanlon · February 13, 2008 · 2:00 AM
Lord Jesus, nothing turns my heart toward you like meditating on your love for me.
From highest heaven, you saw me turn away from you and stumble into the darkness—and you vowed to rescue me at any cost. Thank you for loving me before you made the world, for ransoming me with your own life.
You left your Father’s side to stand at mine, God’s perfect representative. You humbled yourself to the point of dying for me, and then returned to your Father’s arms to intercede on my behalf. You are God’s intermediary to me, and mine to God—the perfect bridge between our worlds.
Jesus, your love for me spans all of space and time. Nothing can hold your love back; nothing can stand before it. You have swept me off my feet, and I love you. Let my love for you be steadfast.
Day 7 Seeking God for Humility Before Him
Heidi Scanlon · February 12, 2008 · 3:00 AM
Most Loving Father:
Your mercies are new every morning! It’s with this knowledge that we can come to you. Shine your light Lord Jesus into the dark corners of our hearts. Illuminate for us every area of our hearts that we have not surrendered to you. Every area that we have said, “we know better than you!” Every area of our hearts where we have not put our trust in you. Forgive us for any areas of our lives that we treat with casual prayerlessness. For that ultimately shows our utter lack of dependence on You and reveals our arrogance. Grant us the gift of repentance for these and every sin of self-dependence.
Lord we are especially mindful of the sin of pride manifested as unbelief. Forgive us for unbelief. By your Holy Spirit, empower us to war against spirits of unbelief. We “demolish every argument and pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of You God in our lives.” Reveal to us every lie we have believed from the Enemy and any place we have given the Devil a foothold in our lives. Forgive us Lord when we have taken offense at You and have given pride your rightful place in our hearts. Give us the humility to believe what you say is true. Help us to feed on what we know you have said and not on what we see.
Give us the attitude of Christ - who did not consider equality with you something to be grasped. But He made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant and he humbled himself and became obedient. Obedient to death - even death on a cross! Transform our minds to be like Christ. Show us each what it means to make ourselves nothing. Lord help us to obey. We know what to do. Help us to obey with our hearts. May we be more concerned with what’s on your heart than our outward appearances. Forgive us for posing. Give us “fear of the Lord” and break us free from the fear of man.
May the aim of our hearts be to glorify you from our secret places. Give us humble hearts that bring you joy. Give us the gift of humility so that you will be our only Master and we will become servants to all.
For Your Glory we ask it. Amen.
Day 6: Seeking God for freedom from conflicted desires
Debra de los Reyes · February 11, 2008 · 3:00 AM
“O God,
You are our God, earnestly we seek You; our souls thirst for You, our bodies long for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. We have seen You in the sanctuary and beheld Your power and Your glory. Because Your love is better than life, our lips will glorify You.” So often we have taken water at the wrong wells and have ended up with sand in our mouths, but we do not have to despair because Your well is still there. Waiting for us! We earnestly seek you Father God, fill the emptiness within us with You. With Your loving grace. We will be satisfied with nothing less. And after we drink from Your well, if we run back to a dry well; grab hold of us and direct us back to You. We need You so desperately and yet we find it so hard to reach You sometimes. Not for lack of trying, but because we make it so complicated.
Simplify our lives God. Help us to clear out all the areas in our lives that we have allowed to distract us from You. Make our desires, Your desires. Make our will, Your will. May we read Your Word and understand Your simple message. May we come to know you as we should Father God. May we truly understand the value of knowing Christ. That he came in human form to reclaim us from our sin, from the enemy that would destroy us. How we are covered in his blood. And oh!! How we have been washed and made pure again. Jesus we take your value for granted. We are so sorry for that. Please forgive us. May we truly understand your mission, your victory, which can be our victory. All that is required is to believe and accept you as you have accepted us. For us to turn away from our desires and distractions, and into you. Salvation made possible by you. Nothing we could do would be worthy of that life. But that is what your love is all about. Unconditionally, sacrificially, given. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Father God. You are Yesha (Savior). Thank You!
Amen, Amen, and Amen!
Day 5: Seeking God to impart zealous passion for Him
Debra de los Reyes · February 10, 2008 · 1:06 AM
God of Truth and Righteousness,
Even though we lack integrity as Jacob sometimes did, we desire to come before you in the righteousness of Jesus. I pray that you bless us with the fervor, the desire, the determination, the passion to seek after you. May we be as Jacob, hanging onto You, until You bless us. We desire Your blessing Father God. Pour out Your blessings upon us as we seek You. We desire to receive what You have had for us. We had only to ask, and we have forgotten. Or we do not come to You because we believe that we are unworthy to be in Your presence receiving Your love, when that is exactly what You want us to do. And as we come to You, seeking You, I pray that You are blessed by us. That our sincerity, our love, our prayers are as sweet incense to You. Be blessed by our desire to hang onto you, to want nothing more then to serve You in expanding Your kingdom. Guide us as we forcefully advance Your kingdom.
As we forcefully advance Your kingdom, we desire to be the generation that comes together to worship You in spirit and in truth. Accept our confessions. Accept our repentance. Accept us once again, washing us with the saving blood of Your son Jesus Christ. Thank you for the knowledge in knowing that You love us and accept us just as we are in our quest to be passionate worshipers. Teach us Father God. May we come to truly understand the joy and Your overflowing portion in worshiping You in spirit and in truth. And yet again, be blessed by our worship, inhabit our worship, inhale it, immerse Yourself, and know how much we love You.
In Jesus Name, Amen
Day 4: Seeking God for Power to Forsake Falsehood
Adrienne Hancock · February 09, 2008 · 3:00 AM
God of Truth,
How can you keep forgiving us? You’re amazing! We mess up, and mess up again. But you are always there urging us to reject the lies of this world. To be self-less and not self-absorbed. To be honest and not tell lies. To be genuine and not fake. To be free from sin and close to You. It seems so obvious but the lies creep in and we fall for it over and over.
Lord, help us resist the lies of the world and satan. In the name of Jesus, we ask you to help us see the truth and use scripture to identify, reject, and crush lies and liars. You give us authority to call out the lies and stand against temptations. Thank you for providing tools to help with that! Thank you for our friends, pastors, and wise people in our lives. Thank you for your Word in the Bible. Thank you for giving us the Holy Spirit to guide us.
You’ve cleansed us and we pledge to stay clean… with your grace! Amen.
Day 3: Seeking God to Give us Pure Hearts
Adrienne Hancock · February 08, 2008 · 4:00 AM
Hello Redeemer,
You know us down to the depths of our hearts. Even the stuff we wish you didn’t know- the stuff that breaks your heart and keeps us from totally seeking you. You long for us to approach you and offer our hearts to you. You will make us pure by removing all the sins we have willingly committed.
It is so hard sometimes to really surrender the cleaning task to you. It seems like you’d be too good and too busy to be bothered!! And we’re ashamed to admit 1) we screwed up and 2) we can’t fix it ourselves. But we really can’t clean and purify our heart- unless we give it to you.
Take our hearts, Lord. Make them pure. We know you want to, and today we make the decision that we want you to too! We surrender and set aside fears, hesitations, pride, control, doubts. We give you each dark spot in our heart, each sin that is still lingering between us, so that you can clean it up and make it shine! Make our heart shine with your joy as a result of your gracious cleansing. It feels so wonderful and full and relaxing.
With “clean hands and a pure heart” we seek you. No phony misrepresentations seen through cloudy lenses of dirty hearts. You are more than a teacher, prophet, good person… you are the Son of God and the One who can clean our hearts today and each time we approach you! Hallejulah!
Day 2: Seeking God to Assure Us of His Forgiveness
Beth · February 07, 2008 · 3:00 AM
Dear Father,
Oh Lord, we thank you for the Cross - for the ultimate gift of salvation and for the daily gift of forgiveness that comes with the Cross. Father, let us accept your forgiveness without looking back - let us accept your forgiveness by looking forward - looking into your eyes and seeing ourselves how you see us. Father, let us not give Satan his pleasure by carrying around feelings of guilt and shame for what you have graciuosly forgiven us from. Let us step out from the curtains of shame and step into the light of your love, fearlessly.
Lord as we begin day 2 of our fasting, praying, and/or Godly new habits, I ask that we would be loosened from the strongholds that surround us. Free us to glorify you, free us to be with you, free us to love you as you want to be loved. Let our time of fasting and praying boldy draw us close to you, even when we don’t think we deserve to be close to you. Remove the lies from our hearts and minds and replace them with your truth.
Father, I ask you to touch those who fear coming near you. Take them by the hand and lead them to your seat. Lord, let them know that you desire them to be in presence with you; that you yearn for them to be in your presence. Father, I ask you to cover those who are scared to “give up” what you have told them to give up - Lord, replace that fear immediately with your presence and love so that they would not even miss what it is that they have given up but that they would see the benefits of having the extra room in their lives for you.
We ask you of this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Day 1: Awaken Our Hearts to Desire You
Beth · February 06, 2008 · 5:00 AM
Dear Heavenly Father,
Lord, we commit these next 40 days to you. Lord, we thank you for those who are fasting, we thank you for those who are committing to new Godly habits, and we thank you for those who are praying. Father, we ask that over these next 40 days, you would awaken in our hearts a desire for you.
Lord, we ask that you would open our eyes, hearts, minds, and bodies, to what it is that you want to do in each of us. Declutter our lives so that we have more room in them for you. Remove all the baggage that we stockpile and store in our hearts, remove all the trash and rubbish that we continually gather in our minds, remove all the toxins and poisons that we fill our bodies with. Let this removal be a cleansing of sorts; wiping away our stains and our sin. Father, please breathe new life into each of us.
Father, please draw us close to you, so that we can hear your calling. Send your Holy Spirit down upon us to dwell within us. Let your Spirit awaken in us a longing and desire for you. Let it ignite a passion in each of us for what you rejoice in.
Lord, we ask you of this, in the name of Jesus. Amen.