Praying With Paul

[nChrist]

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Praying With Paul
by Eldon Degge
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Mutual Faith

Passage

Romans 1:16-17

Prayer

Dear Father, Help us never to be ashamed of the Good News but to have great pride in it, since it is your power of salvation for everyone, the Jew first, then the non-Jew. In it you revealed your righteousness from one degree of faith to another. As your prophet Habakkuk declared, "The just shall live by faith." Grant me, Father, to be filled with faith and to show it in my faithfulness. In fact, I am able to live every day by my trust in you! I am sustained by my trust in you! Thank you for being worthy of my trust! In the name of Jesus. Amen.

[nChrist]

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Praying With Paul
by Eldon Degge
Free By RSS News
_________________

Credited as Righteousness

Passage

Romans 4:1-5

Prayer

Dear Father, friend of Abraham, Thank you for the wonderful relationship you established with Abraham. Through him you have blessed the world. Through that relationship you have blessed me. Thank you, Lord, that through it you will bring even more blessings, now and for ever. Thank you that Abraham's relationship to you was not something he earned; it came because "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." To one who works, wages are not a gift but payment due. We thank you that our relationship is not that of a hired hand. We do not work for wages. We work for you out of a faith and a love that you fired in our hearts. We trust you as the one who justifies the ungodly and who credits our faith as righteousness. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

[nChrist]

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Praying With Paul
by Eldon Degge
Free By RSS News
_________________

Justification by Faith

Passage

Romans 3:27-31

Prayer

Dear Father, just and justifier, All praise is due you, Father. Our boasting is totally excluded. Our justification is not by our works, but through our faith in you. So we are convinced by Paul that a person is justified by faith and not by works of the law. You are God not only of the Jews but of all other nations also. You are the one God, the only God, the God of all people everywhere. On the basis of whether people put their trust in you instead of themselves you justify people from every nation and race. What a wonderful God! Thank you for putting faith in my heart and accepting me. In the name of Jesus we ask all this and lay claim to the grace which you have so generously extended. Amen.

[nChrist]

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Praying With Paul
by Eldon Degge
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_________________

Righteousness Made Manifest

Passage

Romans 3:21-26

Prayer

Dear Father, just and justifier, Thank you that your righteousness has been manifested to us. You made this happen apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, to your righteousness through faith in Christ Jesus for all who trust in him. How just you are in making no distinction between people on this matter, since every person has sinned and falls short of your glory. Thank you for justifying us by your grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom you put forward as an expiation by his blood, so we can receive it by faith.Praise be to you, O holy God, for showing us how righteous you really are. In your divine forbearance you have passed over former sins, but now you have made provision for forgiveness-the righteousness of your Son, Jesus Christ, in whom we place our faith. In the name of Jesus we ask all this and lay claim to the grace which you have so generously extended. Amen.

[nChrist]

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Praying With Paul
by Eldon Degge
Free By RSS News
_________________

None Righteous

Passage

Romans 2:25-3:20

Prayer

Dear Father, holy God, Allow me to bear the marks of your covenant in my heart and my mind. May I be a spiritual descendant of Abraham. Let my praise be not from men but from you! Help me understand that all human beings are under the power of sin, as it is written, "None is righteous, no not one!" I ask forgiveness for all my sins by reason of your perfect expiation put forth in Christ Jesus. Clothe me with his righteousness, not my own. Having nothing to claim for myself, I put my trust in him. In the name of Jesus, the all-sufficient sacrifice for sin and my holy intercessor, I pray. Amen.

[nChrist]

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Praying With Paul
by Eldon Degge
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Christ, the All-sufficient Sacrifice

Passage

Romans 2:12-24

Prayer

Dear Father, holy God, Write the requirements of your will upon my heart. May I live in such a way that my conscience will bear witness that I have striven to live for you, on that day when you judge the secrets of men's heart by Christ Jesus. Help me to be sincere and to have integrity. If I teach others, let me first teach myself. If I teach against stealing, don't let me take what is not mine. If I teach against adultery, don't let me lust. If I teach abhorrence of idols, keep me from covetousness, which is idolatry. May I never cause your name to be blasphemed because someone looks at me and sees that my life belies my commitment to you. In the name of Jesus, the all-sufficient sacrifice for sin and my holy intercessor, I pray. Amen.

[nChrist]

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Praying With Paul
by Eldon Degge
Free By RSS News
_________________

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
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_________________

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
Free By RSS News
_________________

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
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_________________

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
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_________________

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
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_________________

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
Free By RSS News
_________________

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" (Psalms 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
Free By RSS News
_________________

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
Free By RSS News
_________________

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.