Praying With Paul

[nChrist]

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Praying With Paul
by Eldon Degge, Heartlight Magazine
Free By RSS News From Heartlight
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Building Up Each Other

Passage

2 Corinthians 1:23-2:11

Prayer

Dear Father, giver of great joy, I hope that in my effort to get others to live for you that I will never lord it over their faith. Help me work with them for their joy. Let them stand firm in freedom in their faith. Help my contacts with them not cause pain, but let my joy be their joy, and let their joy be my joy! Help us to work together in a common goal in the Lord. Help us work for each other's upbuilding in holiness. In the name of Jesus and in full confidence of salvation through him I ask all these things. Amen.

[nChrist]

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Praying With Paul
by Eldon Degge, Heartlight Magazine
Free By RSS News From Heartlight
________________________________

Ready to Forgive

Passage

2 Corinthians 1:23-2:11

Prayer

Dear Father, God of forgiveness, Father, help me, when someone sins, to encourage him or her to repent, then to forgive and comfort that person in your love. Help all Christians to affirm such loving forgiveness and to comfort each other so that Satan will not gain the advantage over us, for we are not ignorant that his designs are that we should be unforgiving. In the name of Jesus and in full confidence of salvation through him I ask all these things. Amen.

[nChrist]

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Praying With Paul
by Eldon Degge, Heartlight Magazine
Free By RSS News From Heartlight
________________________________

The Fragrance of Christ

Passage

2 Corinthians 2:14-16

Prayer

Dear Father, Let the incense which is my life and my prayers arise as a sweet fragrance to you. Thanks be to you, my God, that you always lead me in triumph, and through me, spread the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ everywhere. Thank you that you have appointed Christians to be the aroma of Christ to yourself among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? Certainly not I! Your grace alone upholds me. In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen.

[nChrist]

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Praying With Paul
by Eldon Degge, Heartlight Magazine
Free By RSS News From Heartlight
________________________________

Christ's Love Letter

Passage

2 Corinthians 2:17-3:3

Prayer

Dear Father, Thank you, Father, that I am not just a peddler of your word, but that I am commissioned by you and that I speak in Christ. Let everyone who comes to a knowledge of your will through what I teach be a living letter of recommendation, written on that person's heart, to be known and read by everyone. Let that person be a letter from Christ to the world, delivered by me, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on the tablets of the human heart. In the name of Jesus I give thanks and make these requests. Amen.

[nChrist]

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Praying With Paul
by Eldon Degge, Heartlight Magazine
Free By RSS News From Heartlight
________________________________

My Life, God's Message

Passage

2 Corinthians 3:3-6

Prayer

Dear Father, all-sufficient God, Let me be a letter from Christ written to people who need to hear the Good News, written not on paper with ink but on hearts with my loving attitudes and actions. I claim no self-sufficiency, but I believe the sufficiency of your grace qualifies me to serve as a spokesman for your new covenant. I hope through Christ that you might use me this way. Grant me this sufficiency as I rely totally on you. Thank you that the covenant itself is not a written code that kills but a life-giving communication of the Spirit. In the name of Jesus, confident of his sufficiency, I make these requests. Amen.

[nChrist]

________________________________
Praying With Paul
by Eldon Degge, Heartlight Magazine
Free By RSS News From Heartlight
________________________________

A Dispensation of Glory

Passage

2 Corinthians 3:7-16

Prayer

Dear Father, What a glorious splendor Christ's gospel has! It is a dispensation of glory! And why shouldn't the dispensation of the Spirit be attended with greater splendor than that of the letter! How much more splendid than the temporary glory of Moses is the permanent, new covenant, the dispensation of righteousness through faith by your grace! I am so full of hope because of what you have done! I have such boldness! For in Christ the veil of secrecy and misunderstanding is taken away. What you were intending in the Old Covenant becomes clear, for your Holy Spirit reveals the Lord Jesus Christ as the hidden meaning in it all. Christ the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. In the name of Jesus and because it is his will, I pray. Amen.

[nChrist]

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Praying With Paul
by Eldon Degge, Heartlight Magazine
Free By RSS News From Heartlight
________________________________

A Glorious Transformation

Passage

2 Corinthians 3:17-18

Prayer

Dear Father, transformer of my life, Lord God, I thank you for your Spirit, for the Lord, and for the freedom I have in them. Thank you that I, with unveiled face, can look freely and intently on the glory of the Lord, and be changed into his likeness, from one degree of glory to another. Help me remember that such transformation comes, not by my inherent wisdom or efforts, but only from the Lord who is the Spirit. Make me like Jesus! Help me want to share in his sufferings so that I can also share in his glory and his resurrection life! In the name of Jesus and because it is his will, I make these requests. Amen.

[nChrist]

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Praying With Paul
by Eldon Degge, Heartlight Magazine
Free By RSS News From Heartlight
________________________________

Open Statement of Truth

Passage

2 Corinthians 4:1-6

Prayer

Dear Father, powerful sustainer, You have called me to minister your mercy to the world, so let me never lose heart or give up! May I renounce disgraceful, underhanded ways in all forms and refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with your word. Let me state truth plainly and thereby commend myself to every one's conscience in your sight. Even if the message of Good News is veiled to some, it is veiled only to those who are perishing! Open the eyes of those whom the god of this world has blinded. May they see the light of the Good News, the glory of Christ, your very likeness. May I not put forth myself, but Jesus Christ, for I am your servant, your slave, for Jesus' sake! For you have said, "Let light shine out of darkness." I invite you to shine out of my heart so that others will see the light of your glory, the face of Jesus Christ, in my life. In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen.

[nChrist]

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Praying With Paul
by Eldon Degge, Heartlight Magazine
Free By RSS News From Heartlight
________________________________

God's Treasure Revealed

Passage

2 Corinthians 4:7-12

Prayer

Dear Father, powerful sustainer, Thank you for putting your treasure in a cracked clay pot like me so that it will be evident that the treasure is from you, the transcendent and powerful God, and not from me, the container. Thank you for upholding all who serve you. When I am afflicted in every way, I am not crushed; when perplexed, I am not driven to despair; when persecuted, I am not forsaken; when struck down, I am not destroyed. Reveal your immortality through my mortal body. May unbelievers see the glorious work you are doing in my life. I come as your humble servant, in the name of your only Son. Amen.

[nChrist]

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Praying With Paul
by Eldon Degge, Heartlight Magazine
Free By RSS News From Heartlight
________________________________

Spirit of Faith

Passage

2 Corinthians 4:13-15

Prayer

Heavenly Father, giver of life and faith, Thank you for the spirit of grace which enables me to believe. May I have the same spirit of faith as he who wrote, "I believed, and so I spoke." I believe too, and so let me speak! I believe (I know!) that you, the God who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise me with Jesus and bring me into his presence. As your grace extends to more and more people may they pour out their thanksgiving - to your glory! In the name of Jesus, who intercedes for me, I praise you for such wonderful blessings. Amen.

[nChrist]

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Praying With Paul
by Eldon Degge, Heartlight Magazine
Free By RSS News From Heartlight
________________________________

Weight of Glory

Passage

2 Corinthians 4:16-5:21

Prayer

Dear Father, invisible but absolutely real, Let me not lose heart. I know from your word that my light and momentary troubles are working for me an eternal weight of glory that far outweighs them all. Help me fix my eyes not on the things that are seen, but on the things that are unseen, for what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. Help me to live by faith and not by sight. I want to trust you completely. In the name of Jesus I praise and thank you for all your great mercies and your continuing and constant grace. Amen.

[nChrist]

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Praying With Paul
by Eldon Degge, Heartlight Magazine
Free By RSS News From Heartlight
________________________________

Compelled by Love

Passage

2 Corinthians 4:16-5:21

Prayer

Dear Father, invisible but absolutely real, May I be compelled by the love of Christ, convinced that he died that I might no longer live for myself but for him, the one who died for me. So let me not regard Christ from a worldly point of view. I am in Christ. I am a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come! I am reconciled to you, my Father, through your Son Jesus. Thank you for what you did for me - through him! In the name of Jesus I praise and thank you for all your great mercies and your continuing and constant grace. Amen.

[nChrist]

________________________________
Praying With Paul
by Eldon Degge, Heartlight Magazine
Free By RSS News From Heartlight
________________________________

All-encompassing Compassion

Passage

2 Corinthians 6:1-11

Prayer

Dear Father, blessed bestower of grace, Let me work together with you to entreat people not to reject or ignore your offer of grace, or to accept it in vain. Since today is the acceptable time, since today is the day of salvation, may I never - nor anything about me be an obstacle in the way of someone else's acceptance. Let my mouth be open to all who will listen. Help my heart be as wide as all humanity. In the name of Jesus, whose compassion reached to every human being. Amen.

[nChrist]

________________________________
Praying With Paul
by Eldon Degge, Heartlight Magazine
Free By RSS News From Heartlight
________________________________

Following His Example

Passage

2 Corinthians 6:1-11

Prayer

Dear Father, blessed bestower of grace, As your servant I commend myself to you as your will may require: Through great endurance, if need be - afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, tumults, labors, staying awake, hunger! Through goodness - purity, knowledge, forbearance, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love, and truthful speech. Through the power of God - with weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left. In disparity - in honor and dishonor, in ill-repute and good-repute, treated as an imposter and yet true, as unknown and yet well-known, as dying, yet behold I live, as punished but not yet killed, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing everything! In the name of Jesus, who suffered for us, I ask for the grace and will-power to live according to his example. Amen.

[nChrist]

________________________________
Praying With Paul
by Eldon Degge, Heartlight Magazine
Free By RSS News From Heartlight
________________________________

Unequal Yoking

Passage

2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1

Prayer

Dear Father, worthy of my undivided loyalty, May I never be yoked to any person or organization that does not have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. For what partnership does righteousness have with iniquity? What fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? What agreement has your temple with the temple of idols? I am your temple, the temple of the living God! For you have said, "I will live in them, and move among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore come out from among them, and be separate from them, and touch nothing unclean, and I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters." Thank you, my God, for this promise and this command! May I never compromise my loyalty and commitment to you! Cleanse me from every defilement of body and spirit, and make your holiness perfect in me. In the name of Jesus I ask, and according to his will. Amen.