As I sit in my favorite chair for a time of prayer and study of God's word, I have praise music filling the room. My coffee is fully creamed, smooth to the taste and just the perfect temperature. I have just "settled in" for an extended time of praising and praying to my Savior. So many mornings seem to fill with busyness before I can throw on the breaks and claim my few moments of rest with my King and Life-Giver. Today, a canceled meeting gives me a chance for extended study and I just felt so pulled to pray.
This weekend, I heard a message that included the need for passionate ongoing prayer. While I try to maintain a spirit of prayer through the day- lifting any thoughts and needs to Him continually as I work and go about my day- I still felt convicted. There is one.... one, who meant so much at one time. One, who accepted Christ as a child and yet, has struggled in recent history with living the truth. Temptations from the world, in many aspects, became to strong and too attractive. Yet, they have become a snare and the one is trapped in it. I confess, I had stopped praying for that one. This weekend I realized my sin in that and today I just spent long moments in deep, passionate pleas for that one. Pleas that longing for the Savior would grow and swell within until they needed Christ as desperately as the air in their lungs. Pleas for healing- ultimate and complete- from the hurts that have plagued and destroyed so much.
Is there a "one" in your life? Have you quit praying? Do you want change in someone you love? Are you praying for them? For me, it is too easy to look the other way and live my life... but, God is teaching me that isn't enough. I must pray and as I do, I change in my thoughts and attitude regarding the one I pray for.
"You will pray to him, and he will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows." Job 22: 27 NIV
"Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29: 12-13 NIV
"Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith." 1Thessalonians 3:10 NIV
"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 have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge- that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." Ephesians 3:16-19 NIV
I am committing to pray daily for the one God has written on my heart and will specifically pray Ephesians 3:16-19 for that person. My friend, please do not give up on the one God has written on your heart.... pray and plead to God for that individual- believing that if God has written them on your heart, He isn't finished with them yet! I look expectantly for what God has in store for each of us as we grow and our hearts are changed through the power we are blessed with in prayer. Blessing to you today my friend!
No comments:
Post a Comment