Your Prayer List
(12) For the
Lord watches over the righteous and listens to their prayers.
1 Peter
Chapter 3 Verse 12(in part)
Do you have
a prayer list? Names on your fridge or on a whiteboard, or perhaps a list on
your phone of people you pray for? Or do you only pray when you are in need of
something? Perhaps you need a job, or financial relief, maybe you’re sick, or
in trouble with the law. Whatever it is, is it all about you and your needs?
Well it
certainly is not wrong to pray for yourself or over yourself, and, I highly
recommend you do, but it should not always be about you. Yes there are times in
life when you will need God to help you get over the mountain your face, show
you how to go around it, or teach you how to plough through it so that it does
not return. And He will!
Now God is
not like a store where you just walk in and order up the items you are in need
of. A visit now and again does not allow you the benefit or discount that you
would receive if you were, say, an employee or relative of the owner of the
store. When we have a relationship with God, and are under His care, we have
benefits allotted to us; such as,
(12) For the
Lord watches over the righteous and listens to their prayers - as we are told
in 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 12 (in part). Isn’t that beautiful?
God
considers us righteous when Jesus is our Lord and Saviour as it is Jesus who
intercedes on our behalf. We pray and Jesus our Lord, hears our voice. Today I
stand on a promise from His word which Jesus taught while He was in Galilee as
part of His teaching as He told others back then, (and we read it and apply it
to our lives today), in Matthew chapter 7 verses 7 to 8 in the Good News Bible.
(7) Ask, and
you will receive, Seek and you will find,
Knock and
the door will be opened. The word goes on to say in verse 8:
(8) For
everyone who asks will receive, and anyone who seeks will find, and the door
will be opened to him who knocks.
The promises
of God are real. You can trust what He says He will do — He will do!
I never shy
away from knowing that Jesus’ teaching is solid ground for you and me to stand
on and we can be very sure of our footing.
Now let’s go
back to the prayer list. When you pray for others you are interceding, standing
in on behalf of someone. You are praying because someone asked you to, or you
felt lead in your heart to hold that person in prayer. You take “the
responsibility of coming before the Lord with their need”. You are giving the
need to Jesus, who then intercedes to His Father, Our Lord in heaven. The
person who asked you to pray depends on you to do just that, and you give the
prayer to Jesus and you depend on Him to deliver it to His father. Ask and you
will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened.
A thought
just came to my mind; we stand on guard for thee. This line of course comes
from our national anthem, O Canada. It means that wherever we are from in the
world, we are all called to “stand on guard for Canada”. Wherever we are from
in the world, if we have accepted Jesus as Lord and Saviour and asked Him to
reside within our hearts, He stands on guard for every one of us before His
father.
There
certainly will be times in life when we will be overcome with stressors that
can bring us to a halt. Just what the devil wants. He wants us to stand still,
broken in our thoughts and actions, because then we are an easy target. Well
devil, you have no real estate in our lives; this needs to be our come back.
Now let’s tell him, that all things are possible with God, as we see in Luke
chapter 1 verse 37. So even if the stressors are here in our life for a time it
is possible for us to move forward and onward with the life that God has
planned for us as we see in Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 11.
I would like
you to know the more you pray for others, the more confident you will be. You
will be comfortable to share with Jesus the needs of others and your needs as
well. He waits for us to visit with Him. We must bring our thanks and our
praise to Jesus as well. We will soon find that life is so much better under
His care and direction and we will always have a place of shelter. There is no
one like the Lord our God as we read in Psalm 113 verse 5 and, We are to praise
His name Now and forever, Verse 2, all over the world - from the east to the
west – praise the name of the Lord! Verse 3
Perhaps our
prayer list will look like this;
Thanks to
our Lord
Praise to
God
Intercession
for others (neighbours, family, friends, strangers, our nation, etc.)
For those
who are sick
For those
who do not know Jesus as Lord and Savior
For the
dying
For families
of those suffering
Spiritual
warfare
Church
family
All churches
who preach Christ.
This is just
a start, you can draw up your own prayer list, and you will find more to pray
for, the more you pray. Amazing isn’t it?
When we pray
it is always good to be specific in our request, to use God‘s word as we pray
and always end with thanks, believing “the will of God is always the true
answer to prayer”. Let us rejoice and testify to the glory of God. Now
remember, we must take our time because God is not in a hurry and neither
should we be. May we enjoy our time with the Lord and delight in Him as He
delights in us.
When many
people pray through a list, many prayers are raised and answered in the name of
Jesus. Oh what a glorious day for prayer!! 🙏 🙏
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