Our Deepest Problem Is Internal: A Prayer Of Repentance

Prayer: Lord, We confess that most of us have no knowledge of our deep sinfulness that belongs to us and to which consciously we yield [6]. While the world says that our problems are external, the gospel says that our deepest problem is internal. On the cross, we see that we are so sinful that Jesus had to die for us, but also that we are so loved that he chose to die for us. This year, prick our hearts so that we have a deep consciousness of the danger of our sin so that we cling to your mercy evermore. Amen. - 843 acres - The Park Forum.

A Prayer From John Piper: O God You Are Able

“We are not able in ourselves to win this battle. We are not able to change hearts or minds. We are not able to change worldviews and transform culture and save 1.6 million children. We are not able to reform the judiciary or embolden the legislature or mobilize the slumbering population. We are not able to heal the endless wounds of godless ideologies and their bloody deeds. But, O God, you are able! And we turn from reliance on ourselves to you. And we cry out to you and plead that for the sake of your name, and for the sake of your glory, and for the advancement of your saving purpose in the world, and for the demonstration of your wisdom and your power and your authority over all things, and for the sway of your Truth and the relief of the poor and the helpless, act, O God. This much we hunger for the revelation of your power. With all our thinking and all our writing and all our doing, we pray and we fast. Come. Manifest your glory.”

 (Prayer from John Piper, A Hunger for God, 171)

A Quote From Charles Spurgeon on Intercession

“Intercessory prayer is exceedingly prevalent. What wonders it has wrought! The Word of God teems with its marvelous deeds. Believer, thou hast a mighty engine in thy hand, use it well, use it constantly, use it with faith, and thou shalt surely be a benefactor to thy brethren.”

― C.H.SPURGEON

Oswald Chambers on Intercessory Prayer

 . . men always ought to pray and not lose heart —Luke 18:1

You cannot truly intercede through prayer if you do not believe in the reality of redemption. Instead, you will simply be turning intercession into useless sympathy for others, which will serve only to increase the contentment they have for remaining out of touch with God. True intercession involves bringing the person, or the circumstance that seems to be crashing in on you, before God, until you are changed by His attitude toward that person or circumstance. Intercession means to “fill up . . . [with] what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ” (Colossians 1:24), and this is precisely why there are so few intercessors. People describe intercession by saying, “It is putting yourself in someone else’s place.” That is not true! Intercession is putting yourself in God’s place; it is having His mind and His perspective.

As an intercessor, be careful not to seek too much information from God regarding the situation you are praying about, because you may be overwhelmed. If you know too much, more than God has ordained for you to know, you can’t pray; the circumstances of the people become so overpowering that you are no longer able to get to the underlying truth.

Our work is to be in such close contact with God that we may have His mind about everything, but we shirk that responsibility by substituting doing for interceding. And yet intercession is the only thing that has no drawbacks, because it keeps our relationship completely open with God.

What we must avoid in intercession is praying for someone to be simply “patched up.” We must pray that person completely through into contact with the very life of God. Think of the number of people God has brought across our path, only to see us drop them! When we pray on the basis of redemption, God creates something He can create in no other way than through intercessory prayer.

A Christmas Prayer by Robert Louis Stevenson

O God our loving Father, help us rightly to remember the birth of Jesus, that we may share in the song of the angels, the gladness of the shepherds, and the worship of the wise men. May Christmas morning make us happy to be Thy children and Christmas evening bring us to our beds with grateful thoughts, forgiving and forgiven, for Jesus’ sake, amen.

—Robert Louis Stevenson

A Prayer for Treasuring and Pondering Jesus by Scotty Smith

     So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. Luke 2:16-19

Dear Lord Jesus, it’s hard not to be in awe of Mary’s calling to nurse God the Son and raise the Son of God. Even as I write these words, I realize what a holy mystery the incarnation was. You, the very God who created all things—who sustains all things, and who is making all things new—you humbled yourself and drew life-giving nourishment from a young maiden’s breast. Oh, holy mystery and glorious gospel.

And Mary “treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart”—a response that requires a slower pace and quiet reflection. “Hurrying off” like a shepherd to tell others about you has always been easier for me than sitting still and letting you tell me about yourself.

It’s always been easier for me to talk than to listen—to stay busy than to relax; to be “productive” than to be meditative. I confess this as sin, Jesus. This isn’t okay, for knowing about you is not the same thing as knowing you. An informed mind is not the same thing as an enflamed heart.

To know you is eternal life, and I do want to know you, Lord Jesus, so much better than I already do. I want increasingly to treasure you in my heart and ponder the wonder of who you are. I want to live at the pace of grace, not the pace of the swirling life around me.

I want to more deeply contemplate everything you’ve already accomplished through your life, death, and resurrection; everything you’re presently doing as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords; and everything you will be to us in the new heaven and new earth—Bridegroom to beloved bride. There is so much to take in and treasure!

Lord Jesus, I repent of my much-ness and many-ness—for, at times, living more of a driven life than a called life.  In this season of Advent, may I be able to say in a fresh and sincere way, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Ps. 73:25-26). So very Amen I pray, in your peerless and priceless name.

Salvation and Grace: A Prayer From John Chrysostom

O my all-merciful God and Lord,
Jesus Christ, full of pity:
Through Your great love You came down
and became incarnate in order to save everyone.
O Savior, I ask You to save me by Your grace!
If You save anyone because of their works,
that would not be grace but only reward of duty,
but You are compassionate and full of mercy!

You said, O my Christ,
“Whoever believes in Me shall live and never die.”
If then, faith in You saves the lost, then save me,
O my God and Creator, for I believe.
Let faith and not my unworthy works be counted to me, O my God,
for You will find no works which could account me righteous.

O Lord, from now on let me love You as intensely as I have loved sin,
and work for You as hard as I once worked for the evil one.
I promise that I will work to do Your will,
my Lord and God, Jesus Christ, all the days of my life and forever more.

- John Chrysostom