COLOSSIANS 4:2 – Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.”
THEME OF THE DAY: LORD, TEACH US TO PRAY. Today’s nugget theme is actually a petition Jesus’ disciples asked of Him in Luke 11:1. It is also what we should regularly ask of our Lord. And God answers that prayer in numerous ways. His Word gives us instruction on how to pray, good biographies of those throughout church history who modeled prayer are great examples, and excellent tools on prayer are available to us. One is called The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions, edited by Arthur Bennett, published by Banner of Truth. I cannot recommend this help strongly enough. Get it. Use it. It will help build a life of prayer that is spiritually deep, rooted in the truths of scripture, and may be used of the Lord to draw us near to Himself. And to strengthen my recommendation here is one prayer contained in the book. It is titled New Beginning.
I adore thee and abase myself.
I approach thee mindful that I am less than nothing, a creature worse than nothing.
My thoughts are not screened from thy gaze.
My secret sins blaze in the light of thy countenance.
Enable me to remember that blood that cleanseth all sin, to believe in that grace which subdues all iniquities,
To resign myself to that agency which can deliver me from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God.
Thou hast begun a good work in me and canst alone continue and complete it.
Give me an increasing conviction of my tendency to err, and of my exposure to sin.
Help me to feel more of the purifying, softening influence of religion, its compassion, love, pity, courtesy, and employ me as thy instrument in blessing others.
Give me to distinguish between the mere form of godliness and its power, between life and a name to live, between guile and truth,
Between hypocrisy and a religion that will bear thy eye.
If I am not right, set me right, keep me right; and may I at last come to thy house in peace.
PRAYER: “Father, as His disciples asked Your Son to teach them to pray, we, too, need the same instruction.”
QUOTE: “Above all things, cultivate a Biblically based life of prayer seeking the face of the Lord Jesus.”
In the affection of Christ Jesus,
Pastor Jim