Prayer Guides | Vol. 1, Days 1-10

    January 01, 2020 | Prayer Guides by Various Authors

    Your Relationship with God

    DAY 1 – CHILDREN OF GOD

    But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. — John 1:12–13

    The astonishing reality of these verses is that all who believe in the Son of God become children of God. This change in position before God is almost too marvelous to grasp! Have you considered the fact that we move from being an enemy of God to a child of God—by the will of God? Friend, it isn’t just that we are forgiven of our sins but that we are then adopted by God. J. I. Packer writes, “Adoption is the highest privilege of the Gospel. The traitor is forgiven, brought in for supper, and given the family name.” What does a family member have that a non-family member doesn’t? Access. Tim Keller explains, “The only person who dares wake up a king at 3:00 AM for a glass of water is a child. We have that kind of access.” Brothers and sisters, as believers in Christ, we have access to the one true God whose love for us is “as high as the heavens above the earth” (Psalm 103). Not only that, He invites us to call Him “Father” (Matthew 6:9).

    Question to consider:
    For some, our earthly father was a poor reflection on our heavenly Father. Perhaps you grew up without a father. Or maybe your father was present but distant. Whatever the case may be, we all tend to impose our concept of father onto God rather than seeing God (as Father) through the lens of Scripture. Friend, will you spend time getting to know your heavenly Father by learning what Scripture has to teach you?

    Prayer Prompts:

    • Thank God for bringing you into His family and calling you His child (Gal 3:26).
    • Meditate on and thank God for Psalm 103:13, “The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him.”

    …and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.— 2 Corinthians 6:18

    DAY 2 – HEIRS WITH CHRIST

    The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.— Romans 8:16–17

    Have you ever received an inheritance? Are you a beneficiary in someone’s will? Can you even imagine being the heir to Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos (Amazon) or Warren Buffett? The material blessings these men will impart is unfathomable. Yet, what does the Bible tell us about these earthly possessions? 1 Tim 6:7, “for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.” Friend, whatever earthly inheritances we stand to gain this side of heaven pale in comparison to what awaits us in glory.

    Believers, we are children of the one true living God. Therefore, we are heirs to the King of Kings. What belongs to Christ will belong to us! And if we are joint heirs with Christ, we must share in His sufferings as well. This is the call of the Christian life (Matt 7:14).

    But what shall we inherit? Charles Spurgeon answers, “In Hebrews 1:2 we are told that God has appointed Christ heir of all things. Then we are heirs of all things—heaven and earth, time and eternity, anything that you can conceive of, the things that can be named and cannot be named, things conceivable and inconceivable, finite and infinite, human and divine. Christ’s property extends to all, and we are co-heirs.”

    Questions to consider:
    Are you a child of God? If so, are you willing to suffer with Christ? Where is your treasure (Matt 6:21)?

    Prayer Prompts:

    • Thank God for the gift of salvation, adoption and that we are co-heirs with Christ.
    • Spend time reading and praying through Ephesians 1:3–14.

    So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.— Galatians 4:7

    DAY 3 – ABIDE IN CHRIST

    Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.—John 15:4–5

    Think of a tree. There are branches that are attached and dependent. Apart from the trunk, the branch withers and dies. Think of a flower on a vine. When the flower is permanently connected to the vine, the flower receives life-giving nourishment. To be unattached is to be separated from life-giving sustenance.

    Our dependence is not on ourselves, other people, or the material world. Our dependence is on God. And God is alive and personal. When we are abiding in Him, we draw life, strength, grace, and peace. Abiding is a choice based on the truth that God’s Word brings. God’s Word tells us that our Savior is the source of strength, comfort, and everything else we need for life.

    Concentration camp survivor and author Corrie ten Boom once described it this way: “Connected with Him in His love, I am more than conqueror; without Him I am nothing.”

    Questions to consider:
    Are you abiding in Christ or yourself? What does it look like for you to “abide in Christ” in your life? What eternal things are you accomplishing when you are “abiding” in Him?

    Prayer Prompts:

    • Father, thank you for my salvation, which is the foundation for our relationship. Help me now to daily abide in You to cultivate an intimate, growing relationship with You.
    • Pray and meditate on Gal 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

    Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.— 1 John 2:6

    DAY 4 – LIVE WITHOUT FEAR

    There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.— Romans 8:1

    To those who are redeemed by the Son of God, do you know that you can live without fear of being condemned by your Savior? Many of us have done things that we would like to forget. So many believers begin their journey of faith overjoyed that God had given them the faith necessary to believe in His atoning work on the cross and His faithful resurrection. Yet, many Christians are plagued by continual “what ifs” in their thought lives: “What if I had only not said … ?” “Why did I get so mad at … ?” Dear believer, your Heavenly Father says to you, “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

    Questions to consider:
    Are there sins you still feel condemn you? Do you realize “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor 5:17)? Have you ever spent time learning about the word “justification”?

    Prayer Prompts:

    • Lord, I want to live what I know to be true. You have set me free and I am not condemned because I am in Christ Jesus.
    • Thank you for the gift of salvation that frees me from sin and death.
    • Pray Ephesians 2:8–9 and replace the personal pronouns with your name, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
    • Help me not be ruled by my errant thoughts. I want to take every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

    For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.— 2 Cor 10:4–6

    DAY 5 – A MANNER WORTHY OF THE LORD

    And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;…Colossians 1:9–10

    Paul prays for the Colossians to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. This phrase “manner worthy of the Lord” is speaking of our conduct—how we live our lives as believers. How do we parent? How do we work in our jobs? How do we love our spouses? Everything we do as believers is meant to be “fully pleasing to him.”

    Moreover, we are to be “bearing fruit in every good work.” The fruit are the good works done because we are in a growing relationship with our God.
    Questions to consider: Is your conduct before the Lord pleasing to Him? Do your daily decisions reflect wisdom from Scripture? Do you see fruit in your life that is kingdom focused?

    Prayer Prompts:

    • God, I desire to live a life pleasing to You. Yet, if I’m honest, I still sin and take my eyes off You and Your Word. Help me to fix my eyes upon You and meditate on Your Word.
    • Reveal to me areas of my life that are not worthy of You. Change my heart in areas of stubborn, willful sin.
    • Read, memorize and pray Psalm 119:33–37.

    Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!— Psalm 139:23–24

    DAY 6 – A SPIRIT OF WISDOM AND REVELATION

    I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.— Ephesians 1:17

    God created us for relationship with Him. He not only desires for us to believe and trust in His Son’s substitutionary life, death and resurrection, God desires an ongoing relationship with His children. What Paul asks for here in Ephesians 1 is that the Spirit of God would provide wisdom and revelation (a revealing of Himself) to help us have a growing understanding of who God is. What is He like? What pleases Him? What displeases Him?

    Wisdom can be thought of as the skill of Godly living. To have this skill we must fear the Lord. Through reading and studying God’s Word we can know, understand and grow in our walk with the Lord by getting to “know Him better.” To do this, we must spend time in His Word and prayer.

    Questions to consider:
    Do you know God better now than you did one year ago? Are you spending time in God’s Word to know Him better?

    Prayer Prompts:

    • Pray Psalm 119:36–37: “Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain! Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.”
    • Grant me wisdom and understanding as I study Your Word. Psalm 119:125, “I am your servant; give me understanding, that I may know your testimonies!”
    • Instill in me a growing desire to spend time in Your Word every day.

    Come near to God and he will come near to you.— James 4:8

    DAY 7 – SURPASSING WORTH OF KNOWING CHRIST

    But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.Philippians 3:7–8

    Paul was a man of importance and pedigree. With all that he had going for him he considered it all worthless compared to knowing Christ. To be sure, Christ became Paul’s prize, peace, joy, and contentment. That’s why he could write in a jail cell near the end of his life with such joy. What is marvelous about knowing God is not just that we know Him but that He knows us, too. Moreover, we know and love Him because He first knew and loved us (1 John 4:19). One scholar writes, “There is no moment when His eye is off me.” What a wonderful comfort and encouragement for the believer! Is not knowing God worth far more than anything else we could ever have or be?

    Questions to consider:
    Many of us have a lot of knowledge about God without actually knowing Him. Would you consider everything else in your life “rubbish” as compared to knowing Christ? Are you content in your relationship with Christ alone?

    Prayer Prompts:

    • God, help me to honestly evaluate my love for other things and people. Show me what or who I love more than You.
    • Pray Psalm 16:2, “I say to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord: I have no good apart from you.’”
    • Father, help me to reorder the loves of my heart so that You alone are my prize possession.

    Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!— Philippians 4:4

    DAY 8 – NOT AS I WILL

    Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as YOU WILL.”— Matthew 26:39

    Prayer time is personal communication with God our Creator, which brings us into deeper fellowship with Him. So often our natural tendency is to come before the Lord in prayer with selfish hearts and wrong motivation. We pray for our own desires and not for God’s desires. We pray for our will, not His.

    How do I pray God’s will?

    Jesus models praying God’s will so beautifully for us in Matthew 26:39 when He prays in the garden of Gethsemane. Jesus is agonizing over His impending death for the sins of the world and prays for what the Father’s will is, not His own.
    “Yet not as I will, but as YOU WILL.”

    As we grow in our faith, our prayers should also, being transformed into God’s will, not our own.

    Questions to consider:
    Do you have a heart like Jesus? Have you fallen to your knees in total submission for what your heavenly Father’s will is?

    Prayer Prompts:

    • Heavenly Father, cultivate a submissive, selfless heart in me so that my prayers are about You and not myself.
    • God, thank You for the gift of prayer. May it increase my dependence on You and draw me closer to You. Help me to pray for Your will and not my own.

    Let the words of my mouth and meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.— Psalm 19:14

    DAY 9 – FEAR NOT

    Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.— Isaiah 41:10

    The book of Isaiah depicts a people who are distrustful, unfaithful, and blatantly rebellious towards God. They embrace the world and all that it has to offer while rejecting the one true God who called them out of darkness. Punishment looms over them, and they soon experience suffering under God’s hand that will crush them. Yet, “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” (Psalm 103:8).

    Isaiah records for us in 41:10 a description of God’s steadfast love and commitment for His people. God is a covenant keeper to persistent covenant breakers (Psalm 78:40–42). How comforting it is to know the Lord will strengthen, help, and uphold us even as we turn away in foolish sin. Brothers and sisters, this message of loving reassurance from Isaiah is just as much for us today as it was for the Israelites then. Oh, how we need to thank Him for His unfailing love. “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities” (Psalm 103:10).

    Questions to consider:
    Do you sometimes wonder if God has given up on you? Have you “feared and felt dismayed” recently, questioning whether God is even involved in the circumstances of your life?

    Prayer Prompts:

    • Father, “be a rock of refuge to which I may continually come; you have given the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress” (Psalm 71:3).
    • “Answer me, O Lord, for your steadfast love is good: according to your abundant mercy, turn to me. Hide not your face from your servant; for I am in distress; make haste to answer me” (Psalm 69:16–17).

    But the righteous shall be glad; they shall exult before God; they shall be jubilant with joy!— Psalm 68:3

    DAY 10 – LOVE GENERATES OBEDIENCE

    If you love me, you will keep my commandments. — John 14:15

    Years ago, my friend’s seven-year-old daughter had two pieces of candy: strawberry and grape. The child offered her mom the grape candy. It was a sweet moment of generosity and kindness. It was one of those “proud mama moments.” After all, the child gave away half her candy! For a seven-year-old, this is no small gesture. Unless you knew the child didn’t like grape flavored candy. Then it’s no gesture at all.

    Granted sometimes extenuating circumstances cause us to act a certain way; however, many times what we do is tied to our motives. And those motives are frequently self-serving. We usually have something to gain (or avoid) as a result of our actions. Similarly, we obey commandments for the same reason—to gain reward from God or avoid the displeasure of God.

    People do what they want to do and they don’t usually need convincing to do it. Ideally, it would be this way with our God as well. Because we love God, we desire to obey Him. Simply stated, obedience is an inevitable consequence of love for Christ. But if you’re motivated by rewards, consider this: John 14:23, “Jesus answered him, ’If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.’” The believer who loves God seeks no other reward than God whom he loves.

    Questions to consider:
    Do you obey God? Why or why not? Are your motives for obedience pure before the Lord? Have you considered that not obeying God is not loving God? John 14:24, “Whoever does not love me does not keep my words.”

    Prayer Prompts:

    • Ask God to incline your heart to Him.
    • Meditate and praise God for what He has done in you (John 3:16).
    • Thank God for His unfailing love and patience (Psalm 86:15).

    Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.— 1 John 2:6