Praying With Paul

[nChrist]

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Praying With Paul
by Eldon Degge
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Self-examination

Passage

2 Corinthians 13:5-14

Prayer

Dear Father, God of love and peace, Help me to examine myself, to test myself, to see whether I am holding to my faith. Help me to realize that Jesus Christ is in me - unless I should fail the test. Help me not to do anything wrong, to do nothing against the truth. Help me stand for Christ and for what is right and true. Let my life - my attitude and my deeds - show constant improvement. Help me mend my ways, agree with my fellow believers, and live in peace. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ rest upon me. May you, the God of love and peace, be near me. May the fellowship of your Holy Spirit surround me. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

[nChrist]

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Praying With Paul
by Eldon Degge
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A Benefit to Others

Passage

2 Corinthians 12:11-13:4

Prayer

Dear Father, Help me to gladly spend and be spent for my brothers and sisters in Christ. Help me not to burden them nor to seek what is theirs, but rather to carry their burdens and to give them what is mine. Help me to do everything for their upbuilding. Remove all quarreling, jealousy, anger, selfishness, slander, gossip, conceit and disorder from your people, that there be no cause for mourning in your church. Help us all to seek truth and to act upon verified facts. When acting in your behalf, may we deal with things in power, Christ acting within us.We ask this in the name of Jesus, the one who was crucified in weakness but who now lives by your power. Amen.

[nChrist]

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Praying With Paul
by Eldon Degge
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Differences

Passage

Galatians 2:11-21

Prayer

Dear Father, peacemaker among brethren, When good people within your church find themselves differing on issues, may we take comfort in knowing that even Peter and Paul had their differences. Help us, like them, follow a path of integrity, confronting each other in a spirit of love. Help us, like them, be willing to admit when we are wrong. We are human; we need your help, guidance, and grace to overcome our lack of goodness and good judgment. Instill within our hearts the truth that through the works of law no one will be justified, but rather through our faith in Jesus Christ. In the name of Christ I pray. Amen.

[nChrist]

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Praying With Paul
by Eldon Degge
____________________

Blessings of Faithfulness

Passage

Galatians 1:16-2:10

Prayer

Dear Father,Today, Father, may the Lord Jesus meet us on our Damascus Road. May he disclose himself to us for who he is, the Lord of Glory. May he disclose to us the mission which he wants us to carry out as we seek to live for him. May we defend the purity of his gospel, that we are freely justified by his grace through faith apart from works of law. May we defend the liberty that your children have in Christ. May we never for one moment submit to programs of enslavement to try to prove our righteousness to others. And in all this may we remember the poor and care for them. Give us hearts of compassion for all who undergo privation and trouble.Thank you that even today we enjoy the blessings of the faithfulness shown by the apostle Paul at the beginning. Help us to be faithful, too, for the sake of those who will come after us.In the name of Jesus I ask. Amen.

[nChrist]

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Praying With Paul
by Eldon Degge
____________________

Paul's Call

Passage

Galatians 1:16-2:10

Prayer

Dear Father, Thank you for calling Saul of Tarsus to be your apostle to the non-Jews, and for making him known to us with his new name, Paul. Thank you for revealing to him that righteousness comes by your grace through faith without works of law and that we who are not Jews can become members of the household of faith without assuming the yoke of the law. Thank you for the integrity and courage Paul showed in defending this position in the early church. Thank you for his desire for unity with those who were apostles before him. Thank you also that he did not give in to those who wanted to limit the freedom of believers.Thank you that Peter, James, John, and the other apostles gave Paul and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that each should pursue his appointed missions - Paul and Barnabas to non-Jews, the others to the Jews. Thank you that they agreed to remember and help the poor. In the name of Jesus I give thanks. Amen.

[nChrist]

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Praying With Paul
by Eldon Degge
____________________

No Other Gospel

Passage

Galatians 1:1-16

Prayer

Dear Father, Thank you that the revelation given through your apostles was not concocted by human minds. May I never turn to "another" gospel nor to a distortion of your gospel. May I never desert the grace of Christ and become accursed. And may I never seek the favor of men. I desire your favor. I want to be your servant, to please you and you alone. Grant that I may understand the revelation you gave through Paul - of salvation by grace through faith apart from works of law. In the complete turn-around in his life help me see the transforming power of your gospel. Thank you, Father, for the grace and peace that come through your Son, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from this evil age, according to your will. To you be glory for ever and ever.In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen.

[nChrist]

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Praying With Paul
by Eldon Degge
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Christ, the Stumbling Block

Passage

Galatians 5:7-12

Prayer

Dear Father, guarantor of freedom, Help me to run well! Help me not to be hindered from obeying the truth! Don't let me be persuaded by a viewpoint that is not from you, the God who called us to freedom in Jesus! A little leaven leavens the whole lump! Help me keep out even a pinch of "slavery" type thinking and religiosity that worships human will. For to preach circumcision (law-keeping as a means of justification), is to remove the stumbling block of the cross of Christ. Help me never to lose sight of the cross, the awful price Jesus paid for my freedom. In the name of Jesus I ask you to preserve my faith in freedom and love. Amen.

[nChrist]

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Praying With Paul
by Eldon Degge
____________________

Living in Freedom

Passage

Galatians 5:1-6

Prayer

Dear Father, guarantor of freedom, Christ died to set all people free - if they will accept it! As for me, Father, I accept it and intend to live by it. Help me always to stand fast and never submit to a yoke of slavery! Help me to live in freedom from sin and to help other people see that to espouse rule-keeping is a form of slavery, a falling away from the grace of Christ. For it is through the Spirit, by faith, our trust in you, that we wait for the hope of righteousness.Thank you, Father, that in Christ Jesus neither circumcision or uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith working through love avails much. In the name of Jesus I ask you to preserve my faith in freedom and love. Amen.

[nChrist]

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Praying With Paul
by Eldon Degge
____________________

Children of Promise

Passage

Galatians 4:8-5:1

Prayer

Dear Father, Keep us from turning back to any weak and beggarly things. Help us to live in the glorious freedom brought by the Son of God. Let Christ be born in our souls, even if through great travail. Let him be the reality of our lives, hour by hour and day by day. Let us live as children of the free woman, the new Jerusalem which is above, not as children of the bondwoman. Make us the children of promise. Since it was for freedom that Christ set us free, let us live in his freedom. In the name of Jesus I ask. Amen.

[nChrist]

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Praying With Paul
by Eldon Degge
____________________

Adopted

Passage

Galatians 4:1-7

Prayer

Dear Father, Thank you for delivering us from slavery and immaturity. Thank you for sending Jesus Christ at just the right time, in just the right way, that he might redeem those under the law, and that we might all receive the adoption as sons.Thank you for sending the Spirit of your Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father," so that we are no longer slaves but sons. In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen.

[nChrist]

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Praying With Paul
by Eldon Degge
____________________

One with Christ

Passage

Galatians 3:15-29

Prayer

Dear Father, Thank you, Father, for giving your holy law to Moses and for the role it played in bringing people to Christ. Thank you even more that Christ has come as our real teacher and that we have been delivered to him, that we might be justified by faith. Thank you for making us your sons through faith, for making it possible to put on Christ by our baptism into Christ. Thank you that in him there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, but that we are all one in Christ. Thank you that by making us one with Christ you have made us to be Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise you made him. In the name of Jesus I offer my praise. Amen.

[nChrist]

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Praying With Paul
by Eldon Degge
____________________

Heirs of Abraham

Passage

Galatians 3:1-14

Prayer

Dear Father, Thank you for giving us your Spirit, not through works of law but through faith in our hearts. Even Abraham was saved by faith, for he believed you, and you counted it to him as righteousness. Thank you that Christ actually became the curse so that he could redeem us from its power, that the blessing of Abraham might come upon all nations, Jews and non-Jews, and that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Make us ever aware of the responsibilities as well as the rights which this relationship affords us. In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen.

[nChrist]

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Praying With Paul
by Eldon Degge
____________________

Alive to Righteousness

Passage

Galatians 2:11-21

Prayer

Dear Father, Help us understand that in Christ we are dead to law; we have been crucified with Christ so that we might live unto you. Let Christ live within me. Let the life that I now live in the flesh be a life that I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Don't ever let me believe anything, espouse anything, do anything that might nullify your grace or imply that Christ died in vain. Let me today, this day, and every day of my life, live from the power of Christ, live by the example of Christ, and live for the glory of Christ. In the name of Christ I pray. Amen.

[nChrist]

____________________
Praying With Paul
by Eldon Degge
____________________

Sowing Seeds

Passage

Galatians 6:6-10

Prayer

Dear Father, holy unscornable God, Don't let me be deceived, my God, for I know that no one can mock you with impunity. For whatever a person sows that is what the person will reap. Those who sow to the flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but those who sow to the Spirit will reap eternal life. I want to reap eternal life, Father. Help me always to sow to the Spirit! Help me never to tire of doing good, for in your own due season I will reap. Let me never lose heart, but, as I have opportunity, may I do good to all people, especially to my brothers and sisters in the household of faith. In the name of Jesus I ask all this and that you will give me a Spirit-filled life resulting in eternal victory! Amen.

[nChrist]

____________________
Praying With Paul
by Eldon Degge
____________________

Bearing Each Others' Burdens

Passage

Galatians 6:1-5

Prayer

Dear Father, lifter of our heavy loads, Fill my heart with love for my brothers and sisters in Christ. If someone is overtaken in some misdeed, help me to assist in restoring that person, in a spirit of gentleness. Let me watch out for myself, lest I also be tempted. Help all of us to bear one another's overloads, and so fulfil the law of Christ. But help us not to deceive ourselves, thinking we are something when we are really nothing. Let each one of us test our own work, so that our reason for pride may be in what we do and not in what our neighbor does. Teach each of us to bear our own fair load. May we who are taught share all our good things with the person who teaches us. In the name of Jesus I ask all this and that you will give me a Spirit-filled life resulting in eternal victory! Amen.