Fervent: A Woman's Battle Plan to Serious, Specific, and Strategic Prayer

by Priscilla Shirer

Infuse your first prayer strategy with passages and promises like these: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. (Ps. 51:10) The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. (Lam. 3:22–23)

I will give them a heart to know Me, for I am the Lord; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart. (Jer. 24:7) Call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. (Jer. 29:12–13) The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live. (Deut. 30:6)

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. (Mark 12:30) For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Luke 12:34) I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. (Ezek. 36:26 hcsb) Don’t read that last one too quickly, OK? One more time. Slowly. Deliberately. Like how you’d sip a glass of sweet tea on a blazing hot summer day, wanting the refreshment to last.

A prayer that’s seeking passion should not be about manufacturing a better feeling or jostling up a better mood. It’s simply about holding out your open hands—in thanksgiving first, in gratitude for God’s faithfulness and His goodness and His assured, accomplished victory over the enemy. Then asking. Asking for what He already wants to give you. Then waiting (expecting) to receive the promise of newness and freshness from His Spirit as you go along, more each day—praying until, as the prophet Hosea said . . .

The apostle Paul, in Ephesians 6:10–11, wrote words that are worth memorizing and regularly reciting to ourselves: “Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might” by putting on the “full armor of God” and thereby becoming “able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.”

That’s why you and I need to be praying—to keep the truth about our real identity in constant, unbroken focus before us.

Truth—God’s standard and viewpoint about us—must come first in our hearts and minds if we want to be effective in battle against the enemy.

Again, if you’re a single woman, don’t think this chapter doesn’t apply to you. If you’re wise, you’ll discern that it most certainly does. Praying for your mate shouldn’t begin when you’ve walked down the aisle. It should start now, before

you’ve been on the first date or even know his first name. Pray for the man God may be positioning as your future husband. Pray that he’ll be set ablaze with love for Christ and a heart for leading you well and making your marriage a devoted priority. Pray that God would guard his friendships and those who will influence the path he is taking even right now. Pray that his passions would be attuned with an authentic faith, that his purity would be a matter of deep commitment, and that God would superintend the circumstances that bring the two of you together . . . all in

His perfect plan and His perf...

Commit your works to the Lord, And your plans will be established.

When a man’s ways are

pleasing to the Lord,

He makes even his enemies to be at peace with h...

Don’t abandon wisdom, and she will watch over you; love her, and she will guard you. Wisdom is supreme—so get wisdom. And whatever else you get, get understanding. Cherish her, and she will exalt you; if you embrace her, she will honor you.

(Prov. 4:6–8 hcsb)

Let your eyes look directly ahead And let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you. Watch the path of your feet, And all your ways will be established.

[Wisdom] will rescue you from a forbidden woman, from a stranger with her flattering talk. (Prov. 2:16 hcsb)

Don’t fear sudden danger or the ruin of the wicked when it comes, for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from a snare. (Prov. 3:25–26 hcsb)

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight. (Prov. 3:5–6)

In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence, And his children will have refuge. (Prov. 14:26)

Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are for signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts. (Isa. 8:18)

They were to rise and tell

their children so that they might put their confidence in God and not forget God’s works, but keep His commands. Then they would not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not loyal and whose spirit was not faithful to God. (Ps. 78:6–8 hcsb)

I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children

walking in the truth.

Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. (Eph. 4:29)

Let your speech always be

with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person. (Col. 4:6)

The end of all things is near; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer. Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaint. (1 Pet. 4:7–9)

Pursue the things which

make for peace and the building up of one another. (Rom. 14:19)

Not paying back evil for evil or insult for insult but, on the contrary, giving a blessing, since you were called for this, so that you can inherit a blessing. (1 Pet. 3:9 hcsb)

First, God doesn’t live in the past. Because God—your God—exists outside of time. To Him, the past that so haunts and hamstrings you, the past that so ruffles and frustrates you, is not in the

past at all. In prayer, you are alone with a God who sees you only as you are and have always been since that beautiful moment when you placed faith in Him—holy, righteous, and blameless; past, present, and future. He forgives your guilt, removes your shame, and declares His work an established, all-the-time fact. Prayer does a complete end run around Satan’s pitiful accusations, ushering us into an eternal realm with God where “the past” doesn’t even compute.

And second, we only live by grace anyway. All that stuff Sata...

our head—those forgiven failings of ours are no longer reasons for shame but are now monuments to the totally amazing grace of God. I mean, just look at what He is able to forgive. Even this. Even that. Yes, devil, even T...

So talk it up, devil. Because as high as you choose to ratchet it up, you’re only showing off “the breadth and length and height and depth” (Eph. 3:18) of the love of Christ extended toward me!