I have to admit it: I struggle with the traditional personal prayer format. I find that when I get on my knees and begin talking to God, my mind wanders, or I end up saying the same stuff over and over--the inane, christian-eze prayers like "and I pray that you would be glorified...". I would think God must get awfully bored or even insulted.
However I've found that my best praying is when I take out my journal and fountain pen and write my prayers. It's fresh, it's specific, it's really me. So, at some risk, I'm going to share what I wrote to God today:
God
That He'd be honored and obeyed as Savior and Lord of my life. That He'd be real and present in all my life.
Wayne
That God would be honored in all I do and say. To experience God's presence in my prayers and personal life; to know God's leading in how and where to serve Him in these last 10 years of active opportunity. To keep my heart passionate for God.
Ministry
To be effectively used by God to connect people to Jesus and to teach people to lead God-centered lives. To focus on the MOST important issues; To not be institutionalized into ineffectiveness; for direction and unity in the cause and in our calling.
Family
To love and serve Norma selflessly, passionately and joyfully; To encourage our daughters with their godly womanhood and motherhood and their important role in shaping young lives; To be a mentor and model in manhood and Christ-following to our sons-in-law; And to love with job the grandkids and to model and teach what it means to follow Jesus. That they would come to a personal, living relationship to Jesus.
Friends
To be proactive and intentional to the colleagues God has brought into my life; To learn from them and share truths I have discovered to help them as they serve Christ.
Mankind
To relate to human need and love unconditionally the unloved and unlovable; To build bridged to those without Christ.
God, I love you with all my heart. May my life demonstrate that love in a thousand different ways this week. May I not get so occupied serving You that I forget about loving You.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Saturday, January 06, 2007
Prayer for 2007
Lest I be mixed in with beauty pageant contestants universal desire for world peace, let me share my hopes, desires and prayers for the coming year. I’m going into the year with a ton of prayers to the ruler of the universe and the king of Kings about life on this planet
I pray that the leaders of the Church will move us forward with vision, courage, faith and conviction so that Christ and His word might be the outstanding, notable feature of the Church.
I pray that our culture may recognize the importance of Biblical truth and will consider the impact of moral absolutes and values in our schools, government, business and family.
I pray that the values of family: marriage, children, grandchildren, love, respect, nurture would be valued in church and culture.
I pray for our national leadership—that in the halls of Congress, the rooms of the White House, the courts of the Judiciary would be places of wisdom, reverence, unity and strength.
I hope for an honorable peace in Iraq that would establish a strong, national government and allow our courageous men and women in our military to come home with honor.
I pray we would talk with our enemies who threaten our peace and security—so that we could explore ways to live together in harmony and mutual respect. Especially in the Middle East, I pray that those neighbors Jesus referred to would find ways to share the land and its resources.
I have hope that media and entertainment would accept their role as trend-setters and influencers and use that power responsibly to promote high values of respect for life, for woman and children, and for the poor.
I would wish that the leaders of the AIDS awareness would be successful in uniting the Church around the concerted effort to demonstrate Christ’s love world-wide in addressing the problems of AIDS, as well as human trafficking, poverty and hunger.
I pray that the world-wide evangelistic ministries of Christianity would be effective in reaching the 1/3 of the world with only nominal awareness of Jesus and the 1/3 of the world that has never heard the name of Jesus.
I pray that the formerly most evangelized part of the world that has become to most impervious to the Gospel, namely North America and Western Europe would experience a spiritual revival that would turn the church and the culture right side up.
I pray that our youth might be guided by godly principles and trained in righteous living so that the next generation would be better than this one in responsible living.
I know that things appear to be getting worse. And prophetically, it seems things will go downhill in the end times. But prophesy also teaches that the dedicated ones will be ever stronger in their faithfulness to their spiritual calling to live Christianly in our world.
I pray that I myself might be faithful to the calling of God on my life, and that I might live a life worthy of that calling—not distracted by meaningless discussions or pointless pursuits, but focused instead on doing the will of God and following His teachings about living as His ambassador in our world.
That is my prayer for 2007.
And what’s yours?
I pray that the leaders of the Church will move us forward with vision, courage, faith and conviction so that Christ and His word might be the outstanding, notable feature of the Church.
I pray that our culture may recognize the importance of Biblical truth and will consider the impact of moral absolutes and values in our schools, government, business and family.
I pray that the values of family: marriage, children, grandchildren, love, respect, nurture would be valued in church and culture.
I pray for our national leadership—that in the halls of Congress, the rooms of the White House, the courts of the Judiciary would be places of wisdom, reverence, unity and strength.
I hope for an honorable peace in Iraq that would establish a strong, national government and allow our courageous men and women in our military to come home with honor.
I pray we would talk with our enemies who threaten our peace and security—so that we could explore ways to live together in harmony and mutual respect. Especially in the Middle East, I pray that those neighbors Jesus referred to would find ways to share the land and its resources.
I have hope that media and entertainment would accept their role as trend-setters and influencers and use that power responsibly to promote high values of respect for life, for woman and children, and for the poor.
I would wish that the leaders of the AIDS awareness would be successful in uniting the Church around the concerted effort to demonstrate Christ’s love world-wide in addressing the problems of AIDS, as well as human trafficking, poverty and hunger.
I pray that the world-wide evangelistic ministries of Christianity would be effective in reaching the 1/3 of the world with only nominal awareness of Jesus and the 1/3 of the world that has never heard the name of Jesus.
I pray that the formerly most evangelized part of the world that has become to most impervious to the Gospel, namely North America and Western Europe would experience a spiritual revival that would turn the church and the culture right side up.
I pray that our youth might be guided by godly principles and trained in righteous living so that the next generation would be better than this one in responsible living.
I know that things appear to be getting worse. And prophetically, it seems things will go downhill in the end times. But prophesy also teaches that the dedicated ones will be ever stronger in their faithfulness to their spiritual calling to live Christianly in our world.
I pray that I myself might be faithful to the calling of God on my life, and that I might live a life worthy of that calling—not distracted by meaningless discussions or pointless pursuits, but focused instead on doing the will of God and following His teachings about living as His ambassador in our world.
That is my prayer for 2007.
And what’s yours?
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