Five Daily Prayers -- Prayer Number Three

Daily Prayer Number 3: Fill me with your Holy Spirit.

With sin and self out of the way, I need the fullness of Jesus to breathe new life into me. Daily cleansing, daily dying, daily infilling.

Apart from Jesus I can do no thing. I need to be continuously filled with God’s Holy Spirit. I take time to pray this, to linger in God’s presence, to receive fresh anointing. I ask to be filled. With confidence I know I am going to be filled. By faith receiving, I am now being filled. With gratefulness, I thank God for filling me. I receive God’s infilling for today.

Five Daily Prayers -- Prayer Number Two

Daily Prayer Number 2: I die to myself, Lord.

Not only do I need forgiveness, I need to take a fresh trip to the cross and die out to my self-centered nature – stubbornness, waywardness, selfishness. I want what I want, when I want it. It’s my way. My heart is deceitful, and I can deceive myself. The good I want to do, I don’t do. The bad I don’t want to do, I do. It’s something more than specific sins I struggle with. It’s me. It’s my sin nature. I need to bend my will to God’s will and yield to others.

Even Jesus prayed, “Not my will but yours be done in me.” I can ask God to search my heart, to deliver me from hurtful ways, to drain every wrongful attitude, desire, thought, or motivation from me. I die daily.

Five Daily Prayers -- Prayer Number One

Five prayers have shaped my daily prayer life probably for the past three decades. Five thoughts or themes frequently dominate my first or last thoughts in prayer. And when I’m in a hurry, these five things might be my only prayers!

What are these five daily prayers before God?

Prayer Number 1: Cleanse me by the blood of Jesus.

I know I need regular cleansing from sin – things I’ve done, or left undone, or things compared with God’s holiness I have fallen short of unintentionally. I need God’s forgiveness.

My prayers will not be answered if I have sin in my life. God cannot look at my sin with favor or approval. I can only stand before a holy God when I’m clean on the inside. Sin crushes my whole being; forgiveness releases my whole being. Praise God, the blood of Jesus cleanses me from every sin. I keep short accounts with God. I pray my spirit clean.

Breath Prayers from the New Testament

Breath prayers are prayers that can be prayed in one breath and are easily repeated as we carry them with us throughout the day. They enable us to lift up our hearts before God frequently and practice his presence continually.

These breath prayers are from the New Testament. Some are just plain, even desperate, short prayers of which God answered promptly! (Notice the exclamation points!) In other words, the length of our prayer is less crucial as long as the answer from heaven comes! Others are lifetime prayers, reverberating the largest concerns of Christ’s kingdom.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. (The prayer of the disciples in Matthew 6:9.)

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10).

Just say the word, and my servant will be healed. (The prayer of the centurion in Matthew 8:8.)

Save us! (The prayer of the disciples in Matthew 8:25.)

Have mercy on us! (The prayer of the blind men in Matthew 9:27.)

Lord, help me! (The prayer of a desperate woman in Matthew 15:25.)

Peace, be still! (The prayer of Jesus in Mark 4:39).

I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief! (The prayer of a desperate man in Mark 9:24.)

May it be to me as you have said. (The prayer of Mary in Luke 1:38.)

My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. (The prayer of Mary in Luke 1:46-47.)

Lord, teach us to pray. (The prayer of the disciples in Luke 11:1.)

Increase our faith! (The prayer of the disciples in Luke 17:5.)

God, have mercy on me, a sinner. (The prayer of the tax collector in Luke 18:13.)

Father, forgive them. (The prayer of Jesus in Luke 23:34.)

My Lord and my God! (The prayer of Thomas in John 20:28.)

What shall I do, Lord? (The prayer of Paul in Acts 22:10.)

Abba, Father (The prayer of all believers in Romans 8:15 & Galatians 4:6.)

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come. (The prayer of the four living creatures Revelation 4:8.)

Come, Lord Jesus. (The prayer of John in Revelation 22:20.)

Breath Prayers from the Old Testament

Breath prayers are prayers that can be prayed in one breath and are easily repeated as we carry them with us throughout the day. They enable us to lift up our hearts before God frequently and practice his presence continually.

These breath prayers are from the Old Testament. Many of these scriptural prayers include further petitions to God. Yet these short prayers so listed express the essence of those praying.

Here I am. (The prayer of Abraham in Genesis 22:1,11, Jacob in Genesis 31:11; 46:2, and Moses in Exodus 3:4.)

Give me success today. (The prayer of Eliezer in Genesis 24:12.)

Bless me. (The prayer of Jacob in Genesis 32:26.)

Go with us. (The prayer of Moses in Exodus 33:15.)

Show me your glory. (The prayer of Moses in Exodus 33:18.)

Give me a sign. (The prayer of Gideon in Judges 6:17.)

Remember me. (The prayer of Hannah in 1 Samuel 1:11.)

Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. (The prayer of Samuel in 1 Samuel 3:9-10.)

I have sinned. (The prayer of David in 2 Samuel 12:13.)

Answer me. (The prayer of Elijah in 1 Kings 18:37.)

Deliver us. (The prayer of Hezekiah in 2 Kings 19:19.)

Enlarge my territory! (The prayer of Jabez in 1 Chronicles 4:10.)

Give me wisdom. (The prayer of Solomon in 2 Chronicles 1:10.)

Help us. (The prayer of Asa in 2 Chronicles 14:11.)

Grant me favor. (The prayer of Nehemiah in Nehemiah 1:11.)

Strengthen my hands. (The prayer of Nehemiah in Nehemiah 6:9.)

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory. (The prayer of the seraphs in Isaiah 6:3.)

Send me! (The prayer of Isaiah in Isaiah 6:8.)

5 Days with John Dickson: Day 5 – Talking About Talking

When John Dickson begins to talk about talking about Christ in his book, The Best Kept Secret of Christian Mission, he makes it feel normal and natural.

It seems that when we put on the witnessing hat, we feel awkward and freeze up. He suggests, however, we overcome a sense of inferiority about our Christian faith that often keeps us quiet about proclaiming the gospel.

And, even as we talk freely and naturally about God, prayer, church, the Bible, faith, Jesus, and so on with other Christians, “we decide to allow our faith to rise back to the surface where it belongs” with those who don’t know Christ (page 182).

In so doing, we allow God-talk – brief, casual, passing references to the faith – into our everyday conversations. These are not designed primarily to initiate conversations about Christianity, but to be part of a relaxed and natural Christian. He further illustrates, in the Appendix, how we can retell the stories recorded in the Gospels for answering contemporary questions.

“Each of us should speak of Jesus as our personalities, abilities and opportunities allow,” Dickson says, “confident that, as we do, God’s Spirit will work through us” (page 148).

This is a welcome message for us non-evangelistic type Christians. Plus, as he says throughout his book, we are further promoting the gospel with more than our lips.

5 Days with John Dickson: Day 4 – Jesus Friend of Sinners

I never tire hearing about Jesus as the friend of sinners. There’s something fundamentally attractive about that designation.

I am especially drawn to follow this "friend of sinners" by reading John Dickson’s The Best Kept Secret of Christian Mission (chapter 3).

He points out that in first-century Palestinian culture, sharing food and drink with people meant identifying with them and, in a sense, endorsing them. You can see how this put off the so-called “pious” religious leaders. How could Jesus socially interact with these sinners!

Yet Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. His friendship with them was a tangible sign of God’s welcoming grace. So his questionable dining habits not only went against the cultural and religious systems, but were an illustration of the very fellowship with sinners God so eagerly desires.

I like that, Mr. Dickson! I feel welcomed before God! When I talk to Jesus, I don’t feel uncomfortable with some “salvation cringe”. And I think I can follow his model.