week two devotions: prayer

8/7/2019 Week Two Devotions: Prayer

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Where are You, God? Are You real? Do You care? I am shouting out so much and feeling

so sorry for myself that God is silent. Even if God tried to speak to me, I would not listen.

When we are in the midst of difficult circumstances, we need to move from focusing on

ourselves, toward focusing on God and His word, so His work can begin in a powerful way.

What has made the above passages become real to me in difficult circumstances? Its

really simple. I have done what the passages told me to do. They instruct us to give thanks

in all circumstances and dont worry. I thanked God for what I was going through. It was

the most difficult prayer I have ever prayed. I thanked Him for all my problems, prayingcontinually. The faith came back more quickly, and is stronger than ever. Along with faith

came joy.

Unfortunately, some people misunderstand this. They believe God wants us to pretend

all is well, when it is not. But God does not want us to deny reality; He wants to help us

discover what is redemptive in it.

The Psalmist faces reality:

My soul thirsts for You; my flesh yearns for You; In a dry and weary land where there is no

water (Ps. 63:1a).

But only three verses later, he is praising God: So I will bless You as long as I live(Ps. 63:4b).

What are some hard prayers that you need to pray today? Do you need to thank God

for an illness, a family member who is troubled, orfinancial difficulties? Thank God

for that friend, spouse or family member who has wronged you in the past, or for the

disappointment of not being promoted at work. Thank God for caring so much for you that

He places tests along the way to mold you into all that He wants you to become.

Father, I am so grateful to have a God like You. It is a blessing to be able to pour my heart

out to You at anytime. It is great to have a patient and loving God Who understands my

frustrations when life is not going like I want. You understand because You know the end

from the beginning. Help me to thank you for _____. Please open my eyes and heart to

see what You are teaching me. I thank You especially for our Savior and Your Son, Christ.

In His name, Amen.

A Leaders Prayer Lifeby Rick Warren

You can learn a lot about a person by the kind of prayer he prays. For instance, a selfishprayer indicates a selfish spirit. Have you ever heard a prayer that sounds like a Christmaslist I want this, and I want that? Some people try to impress you with their prayers, yetthey come off as arrogant and prideful.

For leaders, theres a model prayer in the first chapter of the book of Nehemiah.

Remember Nehemiah? When he first heard about the downfall of Jerusalem, he prayedfor four months.

This was not just a casual prayer. It gives us a pattern for successful praying. If you wantto know how to pray, you should study the book of Nehemiah particularly this prayer.

Here are four secrets to answered prayer from the life of Nehemiah:

1. Base your request on Gods character.Pray like you know God will answer you: Im expecting you to answer this prayer becauseof who you are. You are a faithful God. You are a great God. You are a loving God. You area wonderful God. You can handle this problem, God!


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Nehemiah approaches God and says, God, I want you to do something back over inJerusalem. Verse 5 says, O Lord God of Heaven, the great and awesome God who keepshis covenant of love with those who love him and obey his command. Nehemiah saidthree things about God:

1. Youre great thats Gods position.2. Youre awesome that shows his power.3. You keep your promises Gods covenant.

The first thing Nehemiah did was to acknowledge who God is. Thats what praise is.

Acknowledge who God is and his greatness. He starts off by getting the right perspective.In starting to have answered prayer, say, God, I want you to answer because of who youare. Youve given us all of these things, these promises. You are a faithful God, a lovingGod, a merciful God all these things the Bible tells us he is. Base your request on Godscharacter.

2. Confess the sin in my life.After Nehemiah based his prayer on who God is, he confessed his sins. He says, Wevesinned. Look at how many times he uses the word I and we. He says I confess ...myself ... my fathers house ... we have acted wickedly ... we have not obeyed. It wasntNehemiahs fault they went into captivity. He wasnt even born when this happened 70years earlier. He was most likely born in captivity. Yet he is including himself in the nationalsins. He says, Ive been a part of the problem.

There is personal confession and there is national confession. This is something we dontknow anything about. We dont have a corporate sense in America today. We are veryindividualistic. Were taught to confess my sins. When was the last time you confessed thesins of the nation? Or the sins of your family? Or your church? Or your friends? Our societyhas taught us were only responsible for ourselves. And thats just not true! You are yourbrothers keeper. We are all in this together.

Leaders accept the blame, but losers pass the buck. If you want to be a leader, you acceptthe blame, and share the credit. Losers are always accusers and excusers. Theyre alwaysmaking excuses why things didnt or couldnt happen. Its always somebody elses fault.Leaders accept the blame.

3. Claim the promises of God.Nehemiah is praying to the Lord and saying, I want you to remember what you told yourservant Moses. Can you imagine saying, remember to God? Hes reminding God what

he had said in the past. God, you warned us through Moses that if we were unfaithful wewould loose the land of Israel. But you also promised that if we repent, youd give it backto us. All through the Bible you find Gods people reminding God about what he said hewants to do. David did it. Abraham did it. Moses did it. All the prophets did it. God, I wantto remind You of one of Your promises ... Then theyd share it.

Does God have to be reminded? No. Does he forget what hes promised? No. Then whydo we do this? Because it helps us remember what God has promised. Nothing pleasesGod more that when you remind God of one of his promises.

Do kids ever forget a promise? Never. So you have to be very careful about making them.The Bible says were imperfect fathers, and if we imperfect fathers know that we need tofulfill our promises to our kids, how much more does a perfect Father, a heavenly Father,intend to keep the promises hes made in his Word.

4. Be very specific in what I ask for.If you want specific answers to prayer you need to make specific requests. If you makegeneral prayers, how will you know if they are answered?

Nehemiah is not hesitant to pray for success. Hes very bold in his praying. Have youever prayed, Lord, make me successful! If you havent, why havent you? What is thealternative? A failure? There is nothing wrong with praying for success if what youre doingis ultimately for the glory of God. Pray boldly. Pray that God will make you successful in lifefor the glory of God. Thats what Nehemiah did. This is a valid prayer. Give me success!

If you cant ask God to make you a success at what youre doing, you should be doingsomething else. God doesnt want you to waste your life.

week two devotions: prayer

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