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What does your prayer life say about God?

April 22, 2012 by Marissa Leave a Comment

What would someone believe about God if all they knew about Him was what they learned from your prayer life?

This question posed by our pastor today has got me thinking. If someone could witness your prayer life, would they think . . .

God must require them to say these words every day so they can check that off their list.

Her God must not be too powerful, if this is all she’s asking for.

Is this God a short-order cook? She calls Him “Father” but then talks to Him like she’s placing a fast-food order.

It doesn’t seem like God has done anything for her before, why does she think He will do something now?

This God must either not exist or not be too important if this is all the praying she does.

OR . . .

This God is deserving of worship and adoration for all His wonderful attributes and promises. He is good, and He has done marvelous things.

This God has saved her and given her all good gifts.

This God has done so much for her that she can’t stop thanking Him.

This God must be holy–she needs to confess her sin before Him.

I can’t believe she has the nerve to ask for THAT! This must be one powerful God. She must think He is actually in control and able to do that.

She loves so many people enough to pray for them regularly, and she believes God can and will help them.

This God truly is her Father. I can tell by the way she is pouring out her heart to Him.

Did she just thank Him in the midst of her trial? This God gives trials and uses them for good? She’s still praising Him–He must truly be a good and faithful God.

I know what I believe about God: that He is my holy, almighty Father, who gave His Son for salvation and has given me so many undeserved gifts that there is not time in the day to thank Him for all of them. He is all-powerful, faithful and good, and He cares deeply for me. All of my days and all of my loved ones are in His hands. So why doesn’t my prayer life reflect that?

Our pastor said this morning that prayer is hard. Not a very pastor-like thing to say, if you ask me. But I’m glad he said it, because it is true. Prayer is a privilege, but it is also a discipline. It takes practice and time and effort.

I want the Lord to be glorified by the way I talk to Him, even when no one else is listening or watching, simply because of who He is and what He has done. He is worthy of our praise, confession, thanksgiving and petitions. As I can remember my Grandma Coomber singing: what a friend we have in Jesus, and what a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer.

“What a Friend We Have in Jesus”

Words by Joseph M. Scriven

What a friend we have in Jesus,

all our sins and griefs to bear!

What a privilege to carry

everything to God in prayer!

O what peace we often forfeit,

O what needless pain we bear,

all because we do not carry

everything to God in prayer.

Have we trials and temptations?

Is there trouble anywhere?

We should never be discouraged;

take it to the Lord in prayer.

Can we find a friend so faithful

who will all our sorrows share?

Jesus knows our every weakness;

take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavy laden,

cumbered with a load of care?

Precious Savior, still our refuge;

take it to the Lord in prayer.

Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?

Take it to the Lord in prayer!

In his arms he’ll take and shield thee;

thou wilt find a solace there.

Prayer Binder: Confession

September 30, 2010 by Marissa Leave a Comment

For an introduction to my prayer binder, click here. For the post on the Adoration section, click here.

For those of you who just came to this post hoping for a photo of the inside of the confession section, forget it!

Ah, good old confession. It’s just about enough to make us want to throw that whole ACTS thing out the window, right? But one thing I’ve been learning lately is that the Christian life is a life of ongoing repentance. So this might be one of the most important aspects of prayer. I think it’s important to remember that we not only need to actively confess the sin that we’re aware of, but also take time to be quiet, asking the Holy Spirit to prick our hearts and show us the sin we have been ignoring.

The confession section of my prayer binder is simple. It is a page where I have listed patterns of sin that I struggle with the most often, such as materialism, pride, selfishness, lack of self-control, envy, discontentment, and anxiety. I pray through the list, focusing on things I am currently struggling with the most, and then asking God to show me if there’s anything new I need to jot down.

At the top and bottom of my confession page, I have two very important reminders. They are quotes from Valley of Vision: A collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions (page 74). At the top of the page, I have written:

“Thy blood is the blood of incarnate God, its worth infinite, its value beyond all thought. Infinite must be the evil and guilt that demands such a price . . . “

At the bottom of the page, I have written:

” . . . yet thy compassions yearn over me, thy heart hastens to my rescue, thy love endured my curse, thy mercy bore my deserved stripes.”

I love these daily reminders of two very important truths. First, that my sin is serious. Christ’s blood is infinite in value. And that was the price demanded by my worry, my pride, my selfishness, my discontentment. These are not small issues.

Second, that Christ paid the price for my sin so that I can stand righteous before a Holy God. God Himself worked in history to secure my rescue. In light of the ways I rebel against His Word every day, this is truly amazing grace.

Prayer Binder: Adoration

September 15, 2010 by Marissa 2 Comments

For the introduction to my prayer binder, click here.

Ever since I learned the Adoration-Confession-Thanksgiving-Supplication prayer tool many, many years ago, I’ve known it was a good idea to praise God for who He is before presenting my laundry list of needs. But to be honest, this was the most awkward aspect of prayer for me for a long time. I’d usually throw out my usual, “Lord, you are holy, you are good, you are loving,” and then move on.

Last summer, I studied God’s character and attributes with a wonderful group of ladies–I highly recommend the study, Behold Your God. It was very helpful to study God’s omniscience, omnipotence, faithfulness, sovereignty, immutability, and more . . . basically, a study of what God has told us about Himself and what it means for our lives. And one fabulous by-product of this study is that I was armed with Scripture about the Lord that I can use to praise Him for His character.

In the Adoration section of my prayer binder, I write attributes of God with Scripture listed underneath.

I’m constantly adding to this list, and the added Scripture breathes new life into this part of my prayer life. As I read God’s Word, I’m watching for new verses to add to my Adoration section. If you’re interested in starting an Adoration section in your prayer journal, here are some verses to get you started:

God’s love: Jeremiah 31:3, Psalm 106:1

God’s wisdom: Psalm 32:8, Isaiah 55:8-9

God’s power and strength: Job 9:4-9, Psalm 46:1-3

What are your favorite Scripture that speak of the character of God and lead to worship of Him?

O magnify the Lord with me; let us exalt His name together! Psalm 34:3

My Prayer Binder

September 10, 2010 by Marissa 7 Comments

As I’ve been exploring how to improve my prayer life this year, I’ve developed a prayer binder that has been immensely helpful to me. I’ve said it before, and it bears repeating: no system of prayer or prayer tool will produce a vibrant prayer life. A deeper prayer life will only develop if you get on your knees and pray. There have been months when, by the power of the Holy Spirit, I have been disciplined to get my hiney out of bed and USE the prayer binder in actual prayer. And there have been months when the prayer binder has gone unopened. It does very little good in that case. I hope these ideas might encourage you and inspire you to find a system that will facilitate a more vibrant and disciplined prayer life . . . just remember that this is a means, not the end.

In the past, I’ve used a spiral notebook to record prayers, leaving a couple of blank lines below each request to record the answer. It worked okay, but there were some requests that were answered fairly quickly, and others that were long-term requests. So I would have to start on page one and flip through the entire notebook to find the “active” prayer requests. It also did not incorporate the elements of praise, confession and thanksgiving.

So earlier this year, I switched to a prayer binder.

Those are my goals for 2010 in the front. Inside, I have a few hymns:

And these nifty tabs – Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Intercession.

There are 4 tabs in my Intercession section: Ongoing family needs, Ongoing needs of others, Temporary family needs, and Temporary needs of others.

And finally, a section to make notes about prayers or hymns that are meaningful to me in my prayer life. (Most of these notes come from The Valley of Vision. And yes, it drives me nuts that I apparently forgot how to spell “hymns” when writing on this tab.)

By the time I’ve gone through the entire binder, God and I have spent a nice bit of time together. It keeps me focused and on track, rather than offering a rote “Get me through this day, and please keep us healthy” and heading for the shower.

I’m going to address each these sections in their own post. But I will suggest one small, but important, aspect of my prayer binder to you. At the front of my intercession section, I have a weekly prayer list. I developed this list of people to pray for on each day of the week by listing all the individuals and groups I wanted to pray for over the course of the week, and then assigning each one to the day of the week. I left Sunday open for focused time on the rest of my intercession section, which lists short-term and long-term needs. Here’s a sample of what a weekly prayer list might look like:

If the idea of a whole binder is intimidating, maybe just one list like this could help focus your time with the Lord. Start big or start small, the important thing is to just do it. More to come!

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