Tag Archives: Simple prayer

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God, Help Me To See My Real Enemy

52 Simple Prayers for Each Week of the Year

Satan hates God, but since he can’t get to God, he goes after you. He is behind every conflict, upheaval, and attack in your life and in your world. Of course, he manipulates people and uses circumstances in the visible realm, but make no mistake, the Enemy is behind it all seeking to steal, kill and destroy. Don’t fall for attacking the wrong enemy. Put on the armor of God and take the fight to the Evil One. And don’t fear: Jesus already defeated him at the cross. You’re just in the mop up campaign, and it will last just a little while longer.

A Simple Prayer to Defeat Satan:

God, help me to see the real enemy—The Enemy—behind every conflict, every upheaval, and every attack. Too often I focus on “flesh and blood” causes, but it is the Evil One who hates me because I belong to you. It is he who uses people and circumstances to derail your plan for me and my trust in your sufficiency. So give me eyes to see, help me to exercise discernment, and remind me to go to battle against him in the armor you have provided the next time I am tempted to take it out on someone else.
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The Kind of Prayer God Likes—Honest, Simple, Intimate

When You Pray, Keep It Real

Prayer was meant to be intimate. Too often, we make it intimidating. Jesus is calling us out of the legalistic, joyless, intimidation of misunderstood and malpracticed prayer to an authentic, intimate, simple day-by-day, moment-by-moment practice of the presence of God. That is the kind of prayer that pleases God more than anything. “When you pray” like that, the Father opens up all of heaven to you!

The Journey: Matthew 6:5

When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get.

In Jesus’ day, prayer had been hijacked. The culprits were the religious leaders and the Pharisee—Jesus called them “hypocrites”. They had turned the simple and wonderful practice of talking to God into a ritualized, formalized, mechanized and stylized event. As a result, something meant to connect people with God had turned into a intimidating, joyless experience since few people were eloquent enough to pull off the impressive public prayers demanded by the spiritual elite.

This misuse and abuse of prayer disgusted Jesus, the master of prayer. So in a teaching moment that was both scathing, yet soothing at the same time, he sat the record straight as to what the kind of prayer that truly pleases God really looked like.

First of all, Jesus taught that God-pleasing prayer is authentic. Jesus said in verse 5, “When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them.” The hypocrites—the Pharisees and religious leaders—were pretentious. Their motive for praying was to impress the crowds, but they were anything but real. God wasn’t, and isn’t, impressed by the style or the content of our prayers. He’s moved by our honesty—even if it is not too articulate and especially when it is heartfelt. Jesus is saying that God want his children to just “get real” before him.

Secondly, Jesus taught that God-pleasing prayer is intimate. Verse 6 says, “when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private.” The use of the name “Father” isn’t a mistake. Jesus is painting an altogether different picture of what God intended prayer to be than what man had turned it into. Jesus is referring to a childlike quality and posture that prayer is to take before the Father. That’s because God-pleasing prayer is really a parent-child exchange. It is simply being with a Father who longs to be close to his kids.

Finally, Jesus taught that God-pleasing prayer is simple. He said in verse 7, “don’t babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again.” I can’t help but think if Jesus was here today to teach us about prayer, he would instruct us in the KISS method: Keep it simple, sweetheart!

Jesus is calling us out of the legalistic, joyless, intimidation of misunderstood and malpracticed prayer to an authentic, intimate, simple day-by-day, moment-by-moment practice of the presence of God. That is the kind of prayer that pleases God more than anything. “When you pray” like that, the Father opens up all of heaven to you!

A Simple Prayer To Be More Like Jesus:

God, I love you. I worship you. I need you. I am yours. That’s all!
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God, Thank You For Sending Your Son

52 Simple Prayers for 2018

We desperately need a Savior—one who will deliver us from our sinful nature and from this sinful world: “Gabriel said, ‘You are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.’” (Matt. 1:21) We desperately need a Christ—one anointed as our Messiah to redeem us and bring us into right standing with God: “In him we have redemption.” (Eph. 1:7) And we desperately need a Lord—one who has rulership over our lives and our world: “And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!” (Luke 1:33) In Jesus, God gave us One who is Savior, Christ and Lord.

A Simple Prayer For Christmas Joy:

Jesus, you are Savior — through you all my sins are gone. Jesus you are Lord — sovereign over all that will happen in my life today — good or bad. And Jesus, you are Christ — God’s anointed for my life. For that, I choose to be joyful in you. Amen.
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God, Renew My Passion For Your Coming Kingdom

52 Simple Prayers for 2018

You cannot listen to the Hallelujah Chorus from George Frideric Handel’s “Messiah” without getting goose bumps. That’s not only because the Hallelujah Chorus is a tremendously moving piece, it is because it strikes a God-implanted chord deep within the human soul. It touches an undeniable reality that we intuitively know, whether we are Christ-followers or not: the final act to be played out in the cosmic drama is the indisputable exaltation of our God and the unfettered reign of his Christ.

A Simple Prayer for this World to Become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ:

God, I long for that day when this world truly and fully becomes the Kingdom of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. So today I pray, let your Kingdom come, let your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. May this be the day.
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God, Help Me To Get A Grip When I Start To Gripe

52 Simple Prayers for 2018

The underlying spirit in all complaints is that we don’t trust the sovereign plan of God that has allowed us to be in the undesirable state about which we are complaining. Likewise, our complaint indicates that we don’t trust that his power will see us through it and accomplish his purposes by it. That is why all complaints, even if they are directed at another person or a situation, is really a complaint, a sin, against the Sovereign Lord. And what makes it worse, complaining spreads like a wildfire, leaving the ashes of doubt and distrust in its aftermath. We must reject our spiritual temper-tantrums for tempered trust in the One who does all things well.

A Simple Prayer To Not Be A Whiner:

God, keep me from grumbling, complaining and whining—about people, circumstances, and even you. Give me more grace to trust that you are working all things—irritating people, unfair circumstances, unmet expectations—for your glory and my good. Give me the good sense to get a grip when I start to gripe, the discipline to turn my protest into praise, and the driving conviction that positive faith not only pleases you, it makes me bright light in a culture that is so quickly offended.
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God, I Want to Love Like Jesus Loved

52 Simple Prayers for 2018

Jesus summed up God’s requirements in two straightforward commands: first, I am to love God with my entire being—my spirit, of course, but also my intellect, my emotions, and my body, then second, I am to love my fellow man just as I would love myself. Now it’s not the first command that you and I struggle with—at least not in principle. It’s the second—love for God is one thing, but loving others is what gives us fits. Yet scripture is clear that we cannot truly love God without fully loving people who were made in God’s image. Likewise, when we are loving people selflessly and sacrificially, then we are authenticating our love for God. This is our calling as Christ-followers: to fully love God by fiercely loving people!

A Simple Prayer To Love Like Jesus Loved:

God, I have declared my love for you countless times, but I have not equally demonstrated the authenticity of that love by sensitively, compassionately and selflessly loving those around me in ways that they would recognize as true love. Forgive my neglect, and help me to allow the kind of love you have for me to be demonstrated toward others. May I be real life proof of your love throughout this day.
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God, Make Me Ready for the End of Time

52 Simple Prayers for 2018

The Bible is full of promises, —hundreds, perhaps thousands of them, that God has made to his children. Not all of them have been fulfilled, but none of them have been broken. Nor will they ever be. Every promise in scripture will come true—including God’s promise to send to earth his Son a second time. And that promise could be fulfilled today.

A Simple Prayer for End-Time Readiness:

God, make me ready for Christ’s return today. And help me to live each day as if it were my last. Give me a passion for purity, an urgency to share my faith in Jesus, a greater boldness to withstand the pressures of evil, and an unquenchable longing for the return of my Lord and Savior. And yes, on this day, even so, come Lord Jesus.