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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The Sign of Righteousness

Passage

Romans 4:6-12

Prayer

Dear Father, Thank you that the words your servant David spoke apply to us: "Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him" (Psalm 32:1-2). Thank you that you blessed Abraham before he was circumcised, (while he was a Gentile!) so he could be the father of all who believe. Thank you that he is the father not only of those who are circumcised but of those who follow his example of faith. Praise to you, God, for giving to Abraham circumcision as a sign of the righteousness he had through faith before he was circumcised. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

[nChrist]

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

The Seed of Righteousness

Passage

Romans 4:13-16

Prayer

Dear Father, father of the faithful, Thank you for the marvelous promise made to Abraham and his seed, that they should inherit the world. Thank you that it depends on faith, so that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only those who are adherents of the law but to everyone who shares the faith of Abraham, who is father of us all. Praise be to you, beneficent God, that I can be a descendant of Abraham, not by being born in his lineage but by being born from above by his kind of faith, the life-giving seed that makes me one of his children. Thank you that this is possible through Christ. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

[nChrist]

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

Abraham's Faith

Passage

Romans 4:17-21

Prayer

Dear Father, promise keeper, Thank you that Abraham's faith was held up for us to see. He became the father of us all because you said to him, "I will make you the father of many nations." You are the God in whom he believed, hope against hope, that he would become the father of many nations, as he had been told, "Your descendants shall be as numerous as the stars, and like grains of sand on the beach." You are the God who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist, so Abraham did not weaken in faith when he considered the age and deadness of his own body and the barrenness of Sarah's womb. O that I could be like him! No distrust made him waver concerning your promise. He grew strong in faith and gave you glory, fully convinced that you were able to do what you had promised. I want to be like him! In the name of Jesus I offer myself and my faith to you. Amen.

[nChrist]

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

My Faith

Passage

Romans 4:22-25

Prayer

Dear Father, our Savior, Thank you for Abraham's example of a faith credited as righteousness. And thank you that these words are written not only for Abraham's sake, but for ours as well - that faith will be credited as righteousness to those who believe in you, the God who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was put to death for our misdeeds and was raised for our justification. Thank you for so wonderful a salvation, precious God. In the name of Jesus I ask this and by his authority I lift up my faith as the only thing I have to offer you. Amen.

[nChrist]

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

God's Grace

Passage

Romans 5:1-5

Prayer

Dear Father, giver of your Holy Spirit, Thank you for justifying me through faith, so that now I have peace with you through the Lord Jesus Christ. How grateful I am that I have access to your grace! I rejoice in the hope of sharing in your glory. More than that, my God, I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake. I know that suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope. How I bless you for this wonderful hope that I have. It is a hope that will never bring disappointment. I know this because I have tasted your love. You have poured it into my heart through the Holy Spirit which you have given me, as well as to all your people. By the authority of Christ and in his name I pray. Amen.

[nChrist]

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

My Need

Passage

Romans 5:6-11

Prayer

Dear Father, gracious God, Thank you, dear Father, that while we were helpless, Christ our Savior died for the ungodly. You showed your love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ your Son died for us. Since therefore we are justified by Christ's blood, much more shall we be saved by him from your wrath! For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to you by the death of your Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life! Let his life be lived in my life and the life of every one of your people! Not only so, but I now find so much joy in you as my God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received our reconciliation. Thank you for your free and wonderful gift! Thank you for being my God! By the authority of Christ and in his name I pray. Amen.

[nChrist]

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

Acquitted

Passage

Romans 5:12-17

Prayer

Dear Father, creator of good and righter of wrongs, You created a good and wonderful environment for mankind. But for our first mother and father it was not enough. Sin came into the world through them, and death through sin, and so death spread to all, because all sinned. Your free gift was not like the trespass. It was greater! If many died through one man's trespass, how much more will your grace abound! How much more will that free gift abound for the masses of mankind in the grace of that one man Jesus Christ! Thank you that in him we receive all the more abundantly from your grace! How grateful we are for receiving the free gift of righteousness to reign in our lives! Thank you, Father in heaven. In the name of Jesus, our Savior and Justifier, I offer this thanks and praise for your wonderful grace. Amen.

[nChrist]

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

The Righteous Reign of Grace

Passage

Romans 5:18-24

Prayer

Dear Father, bestower of eternal life, How amazing that, even though one man's disobedience leads to condemnation, the obedience of Jesus acquits us, makes us righteous and leads to life! Thank you that, whereas law increased the trespass, your grace abounded all the more! Sin reigned in death, but your grace reigned through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thank you, Father in heaven. Thank you, thank you, thank you! In the name of Jesus, our Savior and Justifier, I offer this thanks and praise for your wonderful grace. Amen.

[nChrist]

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

Alive in Christ

Passage

Romans 6:1-5

Prayer

Dear Father, God of grace, Shall I continue in sin that grace may abound? Never, never, never! May I never presume that being under grace is a license to sin. How can I live in sin when, through baptism into Christ, I have died to sin? If I have been baptized into his death, should I not walk in newness of life, even as Christ did when he was raised from the dead by your glory? If I have died with Christ, I will also live with him. Thank you for the confidence and hope your promise gives me. In Jesus' name. Amen.

[nChrist]

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

Yielded to Righteousness

Passage

Romans 6:19-23

Prayer

Dear Father, Master of my life, As I once yielded my members to impurity and greater and greater iniquity, so now I yield them to you for righteousness and sanctification. Thank you for setting me free from sin and making me your slave, your rich slave, because the return I get is sanctification and its result, eternal life. Thank you for your free gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus, my Lord. In the name of Jesus I thank you for your wonderful grace and all your gifts. Amen.

[nChrist]

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

A Slave to Righteousness

Passage

Romans 6:12-18

Prayer

Dear Father, Master of my life, Help me to yield myself to you as one who has been brought from death to life. Help me yield my members to you as instruments of righteousness. Let not sin reign in my body, making me obey its passions. Let sin have no dominion over me, since I am not under law but grace. I praise you, God, that whereas I was once a slave of sin, I became obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which I have committed. Thank you for setting me free from sin that I might become a slave of righteousness. In the name of Jesus I thank you for your wonderful grace and all your gifts. Amen.

[nChrist]

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

Free from Sin

Passage

Romans 6:6-11

Prayer

Dear Father, in whom I am alive, Thank you that my old self was crucified with Christ so that my sinful body might be destroyed, and that I might no longer be a slave to sin. Thank you for freeing me from sin through my dying with Jesus. Death can never touch Jesus again. He lives his life unto you. Likewise help me to consider myself dead to sin and alive to you in him! Help me to believe, and live out the fact, that sin and death can never touch me either, since I joined Jesus in his dying through my baptism into him. In Jesus' name. Amen.

[nChrist]

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

Inner Conflict

Passage

Romans 7:1-20

Prayer

Dear Father, I have died to the world (and to the idea that I can be justified by keeping a set of rules) through the body of Christ that I might belong to Christ. He was raised from the dead that I might belong to him and bear fruit in his name. Help me to bear fruit for you in the way I live. Let me serve you in the new life of the Spirit. Give me strength to resist suggestions to do evil. For even though I want to do good, opportunities to do evil lie close at hand. Don't let my inner rebellion convince me to do the opposite of what you command. In the name of Jesus resolve the conflicts of my life and give me a clear course to walk as I follow him. Amen.

[nChrist]

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

A Sufficient Answer

Passage

Romans 7:21-8:1

Prayer

Dear Father, I delight in your law even though evil keeps planting suggestions of rebellion in my mind. Help me to truly want to do what is right in your sight, Father. Thanks be to you, my God, through Jesus Christ my Lord! You have provided a sufficient answer to the conflict within me - the life and sacrifice of Jesus and his resurrection. Thank you, Father, that there is now no condemnation for me because I am in Christ! In the name of Jesus I thank you and praise you for the mercy shown to me and all your chosen ones. Hallelujah. Amen.

[nChrist]

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

Walking in the Spirit

Passage

Romans 8:1-8

Prayer

Dear Father, Thank you that there is no condemnation for me now that I am in Christ Jesus. Through the principle of the Spirit of life in him I have been set free from the principle of sin and death. You, my God, did what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. You sent your own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. Through him you condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in your people, of which I am one. Help me walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Set my mind on your Spirit, so I might live by your Spirit and find life and peace. It is in the name of Jesus, who gives his Spirit, that I pray these things. Amen.