Three Things to Pray for Yourself in 2016

Hello friends and welcome to 2016!!!

If you’re like me, you’ve been thinking about what you want to be different in your life this new year. With every January comes the fresh opportunity to evaluate and make good changes.

I want to encourage you to make prayer a key part of your change strategy. God is the world’s greatest change agent and he will help you make the changes you desire if you simply ask him.

Here are three things I’m praying for myself in this coming year. You might find them helpful.

Lord, help me know you better.

In Ephesians 1:17, Paul prayed that the believers in Ephesus would have a spirit of wisdom and revelation so they could know God better.

It’s not like the Ephesian Christians were a bunch of spiritual rookies. Theirs is the only New Testament letter that doesn’t contain corrective teaching from Paul. They were obviously doing a lot right.

And yet Paul still prayed that God would show them more of himself. His point? You never get to the end of God. You never fully know him; at least not this side of Heaven.

Pray this for yourself. Pray every day that God will reveal a little bit more of who he is to you. Pray that you will know him better each day.

 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.  Ephesians 1:17.

 

 

Lord, keep me filled with your Spirit.

In Ephesians 5:18, Paul commanded the Ephesian Christians to be constantly filled with the Holy Spirit. That’s an interesting concept for most Christians, as we assume that we are filled with God’s Spirit when we are saved. And that’s true. But sin and busyness act like spiritual cholesterol, hindering the flow of God’s Spirit in and through us.

I’ve learned this painful lesson through multiple decades of following Jesus: just because I am filled with the Spirit right now doesn’t mean that I will be filled an hour from now. God’s Spirit will leak out if I get angry at bad traffic, have a lustful or proud thought, speak an errant word toward another, etc., etc., etc.

The filling of God’s Spirit is like gas in your car: unless you fill up regularly you won’t run.

That’s why Paul commanded us to pray in an ongoing fashion for the Spirit’s filling. He knew we would leak. God led Paul to tell us to be like little baby birds, mouths open wide, constantly crying and begging for more. That’s how it is with God’s Spirit: you can never have too much of him and you always need more of him. Pray throughout your day–hundreds of times if necessary–for the Spirit to fill you.

Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.  Ephesians 5:18.

Lord, help me to seek your Kingdom above everything else.

Jesus was a get-to-the-point, bottom line guy. In the context of talking about provision and the silliness of worrying about it, he gave us a great bottom line statement. He told us to seek his Father’s Kingdom above all else; and as we did, God would give us all we need.

This is another of those wonderful paradoxes that come with life in the Kingdom: If we seek provision first we will never have enough (or at least we’ll feel like we never have enough). But if we seek as our priority the promotion and honor of God’s Kingdom, we’ll never lack what we need.

This is an urgent prayer for those of us who live with financial and material blessings. If we’re not careful, we’re likely to look to them, not God, for our protection and provision. We’re likely to think that our job is to protect and advance our investments, not God’s Kingdom. And when we start thinking like that, we suddenly develop a “never enough” mindset.

That’s why Jesus told us to seek the Kingdom above all else. For in Kingdom seeking we’ll find our greatest fulfillment and joy. We’ll also find that God meets all of our needs.

 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Matthew 6:33.

I hope these scriptural, pinpoint prayers help you focus your prayers for yourself this year.

What other scriptural prayers are you praying for yourself this year? Will you share them here? Thanks!

 

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