7 Prayers That Work

  Lord Jesus, Why do I do things I don't want to do? Why can't I stop myself? I am giving power to the enemy. Lord, forgive me! I have been letting the devil bind me and enslave me by speaking lies to me about my self-worth, identity , value, destiny , worthiness. All he speaks are lies. You speak the truth over me. You say I am loved, saved, worthy, beautiful, belonging. I am your child, your bride, your object of rescue. Thank you, Jesus. You are always good , always safe, always loving , always protecting, always using everything around me and me, when I let you. Thank you! I will believe and speak these words of truth over myself, and I will change my thoughts and behaviors. You alone are worthy of my worship  and my obedience. You have my heart and my life. In your holy name, Amen. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do , but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no lo...

Oh, Lord Jesus, I worship you. You alone are what I need,  what I depend on for life and joy. Forgive me for looking anywhere else. I need resilience. I want to recover,  rebound , overcome all the fears that attack me, from the habits that bind me, from the voices that poison my heart and my mind. Only you can do this work in me. Only you can filter the lies from the truth. Holy Spirit, reveal yourself to me. Take control of my mind. Instruct my heart with understanding and obedience to your prompting. Fill me with all the knowledge of you so I can attain the resurrection of life, the purpose for which I was born. Resurrect my faith in you and your process of completing me. Resurrect my shortcomings and my failures. Breathe life into all the dead spaces inside me. I need you. You have formed me, called me, empowered me. I am yours. Always and forever. You can do anything you want with me. You can take the dead places inside me and resurrect them. You can take the broken...

Have you ever felt disdain for someone? Hatred, even? Guilt that you should forgive an enemy, but you don't know how? Maybe this will help. Dear Lord, You know my heart, so I can't pretend I don't feel this way. I'm angry. My pride is hurt. I feel manipulated, or betrayed, or used by someone. I don't like that person at all. I don't want to say "I hate," but I wonder if it's true. Am I a person who could hate someone? No, I just don't trust him. I just can't forgive her. I just don't want to be with him. We're just not friends. These are the things I tell myself, but you know they aren't true. I hate. I withhold forgiveness. It makes me feel powerful, or at least that's what I think. It's not true. It's a trap. There's no freedom in hate and unforgiveness. Seventy times seven. That's what you said. You forgave me, so I need to forgive everyone else. No one has sinned agai...

Today I read a great post about forgiveness by Gwen Theilges, appearing on Rodney Coe's website "Lift up your day," for which we both guest-write. I wanted to share it below: I’ve knelt at an altar, placing the names of people at His feet before. I’ve felt anger and betrayal, and if I told you each story, I’m willing to bet you’d agree that I’m justified in feeling wronged in at least a few of the situations. But, here’s the thing. Well, the things…First of all, there have been people kneeling at literal and figurative altars placing ME at the feet of Jesus before. I’ve wronged people. Sometimes I had the best of intentions, but unfortunately did something to hurt another person. And other times? I just got it wrong. No, let me use the real word – I sinned. And therefore sent someone directly to an altar trying to forgive me, or worse yet, directly in the opposite direction – where bitterness increases and peace is elusive…that place where we go to not lay pe...

Feeling bad about something you've done? That's a good start. It's not enough to gain forgiveness, make it right, or change the behavior, but it's a good starting point. This little explanation below might help you to understand how to confess a sin and get victory over it (in other words, stop doing it again and again!). The whole thing begins when you do something bad (i.e. selfish, unkind, harmful, cruel, debilitating, disrespectful, addictive, etc.). God's standard is holiness, so pretty much that dumps most of our behavior in the unholy category. Event most of the nice things we do, we do with ulterior motive--being nice to others helps our lives function better. But after we do something wrong, the need for confession begins-- 1. You feel guilty. The question to ask yourself is--how does this behavior line up with God's standard? Then you know if the guilt is from God or you mother. (Sometimes they agree on the standard.) If God says it's wron...