Thursday, July 31, 2014

Prayers for July 31 2014

Father God Your Word has thousands of verses and some of those are difficult for me to understand. I can read the words but I am not sure how to interpret them and make personal application. I have not heard much great teaching or preaching about some of these most challenging verses. So I ask You to grant me Your wisdom from above and Your insights. Keep it simple God for I tend to make my life too complicated. Some of the verses I refer to deal with how Jesus said that if a person wants to become His follower they must deny themselves, take up their cross daily and follow Him. This appears in Luke 9:23, Mark 8:34, Matthew 10:38 and Luke 14:27. I seek to understand and apply the whole counsel of Your Word. Then I might know You better and by my example make You known better.

Father God Your holy Word gives hints of the reality of spiritual warfare that is happening all the time. You led Paul to go into some detail about the armor of God in Ephesians 6. I have witnessed those verses taught to children many times. There have been lots of clever ways used to teach children about those few verses. But what I want to know is how do those verses related to me as an adult in my daily life? How to I put on the whole armor of God? How to I use it day and night as I go about my ordinary responsibilities? How do I include this in my prayer life in my private prayer closet? You have given me the Holy Spirit that amazingly dwells inside of me. Surely He understands spiritual warfare. Surely the Holy Spirit and Your dear Son can train me in using the armor You provided. I admit that there is a part of me that does not like to fight. But when I think of fighting it is me against another human. These verses say my real battle is with spiritual forces. I cannot just opt out of the conflict. It is happening. So I must learn to use what You have provided so I will gain spiritual victories for Your glory.


While we are on the subject of hard to understand Bible verses what about the Lord’s Supper. Your Word clearly states that You ordained for us to observe this ordinance. Honestly I have felt very disappointed that most churches gather around the communion table so infrequently. There are some local churches that are the exceptions when they observe it often and for those I am grateful. Yet God out of Your whole Word this is one of the most mystical lessons that has personal application. I admit that I desire to go deeper and wider in my understanding of what You have for me in partaking of the bread and the cup. I ask You to guide into greater comprehension and more childlike faith on these matters. I am in no rush. I will likely live many more years. So I request for your to gradually and gracefully take me into this arena with You. 

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