Prayer

Friends,

At the last P.R.A.Y. with Passion Conference, I promised my Wisconsin sisters I would provide the A – Z list of God’s names and attributes from my book, Pray With Purpose, Live With Passion. You will find them listed below. I suggested that a great way to begin your day is by looking up one of the Scripture references and praising God for how He is revealed in that passage. You can then continue your prayer time, repenting and confessing ways in which you realize you may be missing the mark in relation to that aspect of His divinity. Then, you can ask God for help in that area; as well as intercede for others. As discussed at the PRAY Conference, our prayer lives expand as we focus our prayers on God’s attributes.

For instance, we might worship God saying, “Lord, You are the Almighty God! I praise You.” Praising God for being Almighty may then cause me to contemplate on how I don’t always bend my will to His. Neither do I walk by His strength which He so willingly offers. With that prayerful realization, an opportunity to repent presents itself.

Next, I open my heart to God. “Fill me with Your power. Help my husband and children walk in Your strength today. Help the unsaved turn to You, the Almighty, and be saved.”

Having praised, repented, and asked, I now focus on yielding to God. My prayer time doesn’t end with my “Amen.” It begins as I listen to God’s voice and yield to the Holy Spirit’s promptings.

The following list of A-Z attributes contans 26 names and attributes to get you started. If you’d like to continue broadening your praise, repentance, asking, and yielding, I have a complilation of 225 + Names, Titles, and Attributes of God. In addition, Pray with Purpose, Live with Passion provides valuable Scriptural insights, personal examples, stories, and guided prayer opportunities for you with each A-Z attribute. It also has discussion questions if you’re reading it with a group or using it for your Bible study. You’ll also find a P.R.A.Y. chart that gives examples for how to praise, repent, ask, and yield in relation to the 26 A-Z attributes included in the book.

For those new to Prayers of My Heart Prayer Journal, I suggest you label your first column in the Week at a Glance section, “LORD.” At the Wisconsin P.R.A.Y. Conference, we labeled April 5, “Almighty” and agreed to lift our voices each morning, praising God for a different attribute each day. This morning as I praised God as Immanuel, it was a blessing knowing that my Wisconsin sisters were joining me.

I pray the following is just the beginning of a lifetime of praising God!

Love,

Debbie

Sunday Almighty, Ps 91:1
Monday Beloved, Mt 3:16-17
Tuesday Comforter, 2 Cor 1:3
Wednesday Door, John 10:10
Thrusday Eternal, Deut 33:27
Friday Faithful, Rev 19:11
Saturday Guardian of My Soul, 1 Peter 2:25

Sunday Holy, Psalm 99:5
Monday Immanuel, Is 7:14
Tuesday Just, Deut 32:4
Wednesday King of Kings, Ps 5:2-3
Thursday Light, John 8:12
Friday Majestic, Psalm 8:1
Saturday New Life, 2 Cor 5:17

Sunday Overcomer, John 16:33
Monday Potter, Is 64:8
Tuesday Quickening Spirit, Ps 80:18 KJV
Wednesday Righteous, Psalm 7:17
Thursday Shield, Psalm 3:3
Friday Tower, Proverbs 18:10
Saturday Upholder, Is 41:13

Sunday Vinedresser, John 15:1
Monday Wonderful, Psalm 105:2-5
Tuesday eXalted, Psalm 34:3
Wednesday Yahweh, Exodus 3:14-15
Thursday Zealous, Is 9:7

PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO OTHERS SO THEY CAN JOIN US AS WE P.R.A.Y. Across the Nation. If I haven’t been to your state and your church can host 200+ women, email me about having a P.R.A.Y. with Passion Conference. debbie@hillcountryministries.org.

Friends,

Do you ever feel like you need someone to defend you or your cause? This morning in my reading of Isaiah 37, I came upon verse 35, in which the Lord is speaking. “For I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.”

In this passage, the king of Assyria has threatened King Hezekiah of Jerusalem. Hezekiah, realizing he could not defend Jerusalem against the armies of Assyria, grieved and prayed. He asked others to pray with him. When the threat intensified in the form of a letter, Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messenger and placed it in the hand of the Lord. Isaiah 37:14 states he literally gave the letter to the Lord. What a lesson for us! “Then Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord.” God answered Hezekiah with reassuring words and a promise to defend and save Jerusalem.

What problem or challenge do you face today? Why not literally follow Hezekiah’s example? Though he was king, he depended on a higher power. The result? God answered in a god-sized way that man could not have accomplished.

God is still on our side if we are living to bring Him honor and glory. Why not go before the Lord today? Spread out your situation before Him. Kneel in His presence. Acknowledge that although you may be king of your castle, queen of your home, or president of your business, you need a higher power. After you spread out your situation before God, stay quietly in His presence. He directs our thoughts in the silence of meditation moments.

Sisters,

I can’t tell you how happy I am that you’re interested in journaling your prayers. When people ask me, “Why journal?” my heart immediately goes to the Bible. Do you realize all the prayers that are journaled in the Bible? Any conversations you read between God and Adam, God and Moses, God and anyone….are prayers He ordained be journaled. We learn from reading those prayers what is on God’s heart and mind. In addition, it gives us reason to praise Him when we read God’s Words to man, then we see His will accomplished.

Not only is the Bible a journal of God’s words to man, but also men and women’s words to God. Read Hannah’s words and learn about faith. Read Mary’s and Elizabeth’s songs of praise and better learn how to praise God.

Journaling is a way to quiet our hearts before God. Instead of dashing through our prayers, we slow down as we write key requests in the Week at A Glance section. At other times we pour out our hearts in the Meditations, Notes, and Prayer section. And, if you’ve not used it yet, the Month at A Glance is the place to record prayer requests that come to you for friend’s or family member’s doctor’s appointments, surgery dates, court summons, counseling sessions, job interviews, school tests, anything on the calendar. As a matter of fact, I have my prayer journal beside me now and am getting ready to update it with a friend’s ministry calendar so I can pray for her when she’s speaking at events.

THE HARD PART ABOUT JOURNALING : GETTING STARTED

If you’re like me, often the hardest part of a task is getting started. That’s why I want to encourage you today….right now….to get your journal and sit down with me. Let’s go through this together. If you do, you may wind up like our sister who wrote me a few days ago. Read what she emailed me.

Hey, Debbie! I got it!! I was jumping up and down at the mailbox–I know my neighbors thought I was crazy!! But, it’s here! I have never used a prayer journal for an entire year until this one! It is a wonderful tool that helps us to remember who and what to pray for and to follow up on those prayers–to see that God does listen and heal and speak to us–even today! Hugs! Susan

Yes, that could be YOU saying those words in a year. So, why not give it a try? One of the biggest blessings and opportunities, is having your prayers recorded so you don’t forget to thank God for all the ways He’s answering your prayers. We often can pray so many prayers that we forget the many ones He’s answered. I recall with startling vividness, when God convicted me of the need to go back and thank Him for prayers He had answered. It was when I was studying Luke 17:11-18. Go back and read that passage. Consider the difference it would make in your relationship with Jesus if you began recording your requests and thanking Him for each time He answers.

Blessings to you…..love,
Debbie