Praying With Paul

[nChrist]

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

God's Will: Sanctification

Passage

1 Thessalonians 4:1-7

Prayer

Dear Father, sanctifier of families, Help us to learn how we ought to live and how we ought to please you. Help us give greater attention and effort to this. Your will for us is our sanctification, so enable us to abstain from all immorality. Many people around us glorify and romanticize lust. Help us to reject this way of looking at things. Guide believers into marriages of holiness and honor, giving themselves to each other in spiritual union with Christ along with the joining of personalities and bodies. Help our marriages to be established as the gathering of two in your name. Help our families to be your church in miniature. Help every follower of yours respect the marriage relationship of others and defraud no one in this matter. You have not called us to uncleanness, but holiness. Thank you, Father, for this high calling. In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen.

[nChrist]

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

Care for Absent Loved Ones

Passage

1 Thessalonians 3:1-13

Prayer

Dear Father, our partner in caring, How hard it is to be far away from those we want to encourage to walk in your ways. We leave them in your hands, Lord, and ask you to send your angels to guard their ways. Keep those that we love from the power of the tempter. Grant us good news from them. We long to hear that they are learning more and more of your will and growing in your grace. Let us know that they are standing firm in truth. What thanksgiving we send before your throne, what joy we feel for them before you, our God. What a torrent of prayer we pour out before you that whatever is lacking in their faith may be supplied! Make us the agents who will supply their spiritual needs. Let there be many times for us and our loved ones to be together for times of refreshment in your word and in prayer.In the name of Jesus I ask. Amen.

[nChrist]

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

God's Word

Passage

1 Thessalonians 2:13-20

Prayer

Dear Father, real source of the Bible, Thank you for the word proclaimed in the New Testament. Help us accept it for what it really is, not mere words written by men, but the word of God, your will revealed to us and made alive in our lives. May Jewish members of your church bear a great witness to Jesus as their rightful Messiah. May non-Jewish members follow their example and be willing to suffer with them for the salvation of mankind, Jew and non-Jew. Father, be with those young disciples who have come to you through our efforts, even our own children. They will be our hope and joy and crown of boasting when Jesus returns, for we shall be together with them and with him. They will be our glory and our joy.In the name of Jesus we ask. Amen.

[nChrist]

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

Holy and Blameless

Passage

1 Thessalonians 2:5-12

Prayer

Dear Father, Keep all your preachers from using words of flattery, any cloak of greed, or from seeking glory for themselves, even though they have certain rights of support in the gospel. Let them reach out to people with care and gentleness, like a nurse caring for infants. Help them to be willing to share not only the gospel but their very selves. May your witnesses exhibit holy, blameless, and righteous behavior, showing the care of a father, even as you do, as they exhort and encourage and charge people to lead lives worthy of you, the great wonderful and loving God who calls men into his own kingdom and glory. In the holy name of Jesus. Amen.

[nChrist]

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

Avoiding Error

Passage

1 Thessalonians 2:1-4

Prayer

Dear Father, I pray that every ministry being done in your name in our time will be done in unselfish love for you and for people. Please defeat those that serve to bring honor to themselves instead of you. May people leading these ministries avoid everything that springs from error or uncleanness. Let there be no deceit in any appeal. Let those whom you have entrusted with the gospel live and speak not to please others but to please you. In the holy name of Jesus. Amen.

[nChrist]

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

Esteem, Peace, and Help

Passage

1 Thessalonians 5:12-15

Prayer

Dear Father, patient one, Give us hearts that gladly show respect for those who labor among us and who lead us and admonish us in the Lord. Fill us with great esteem and deep love for them because of their work in the Lord. May we always be at peace among ourselves. Keep us from being idle or faint-hearted. May we admonish and encourage those who are. Help us help those who are weak and to be patient with everyone. Let none of us repay evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. In the name of Jesus I ask. Amen.

[nChrist]

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

Preparedness

Passage

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

Prayer

Dear Father, Grant that we may live as sons of the light and daughters of the day. Grant that we may understand the prophecies of Jesus and his servants regarding the day of the Lord. Help us to stay awake, to be sober, to be ready. Clothe us with the breastplate of faith and love. Protect us with the helmet of salvation! We thank you, Father, that you have not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we wake or sleep, we might live for him. Grant that we may encourage one another and build one another up through these words and through sharing our faith. In the name of Jesus I ask. Amen.

[nChrist]

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

Make Us Worthy

Passage

2 Thessalonians 1:3-12

Prayer

Dear Father, almighty God, Hasten your coming, that glorious time when even those who already believe will marvel at your greatness. We have believed. We now believe. We intend to keep on believing. Mighty God, make all of us worthy of your call. Fulfill every good resolve and work of faith by your power. Let the name of Jesus be glorified in us, and us in him, according to that grace which comes from you and the Lord Jesus. In his name I pray. Amen.

[nChrist]

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

Evidence of Righteousness

Passage

2 Thessalonians 1:3-12

Prayer

Dear Father, Thank you now, and every day, for every loyal soul whose faith is growing abundantly, whose love for others is increasing, whose stance is steadfast, and who endures in the face of persecutions and afflictions. May they take their experience as evidence of your righteous judgment - that you are making them worthy of your kingdom, for which they are suffering - that you will reveal your wrath, not against them, but against those who trouble them and who do not know you and who refuse to obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. We believe in this Jesus and come to you through him. Amen.

[nChrist]

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

Soul, Body and Spirit

Passage

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

Prayer

Dear Father, all worthy God, Please give me the mind of Christ so that my body may be a temple of the spirit of holiness which is his. May you yourself, O Father, make me holy through and through. May my whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless by your power at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. I trust you to do this because you are the one who has called me, and you are faithful. Your word says that you will do it! By the authority of Jesus and in his name I ask for this growth in grace. Amen.

[nChrist]

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

Presentations

Passage

1 Thessalonians 5:23

Prayer

Dear Father, all honor to you, I present my body to you, O Lord. Give it health, energy and stamina. Give it healing, as needed. I present my soul, my personality to you, my God. Impress on it the characteristics that honor you and are pleasing to other people, for their good. I present my spirit to you, dear God. May I be wholly joined to you, one spirit with the Lord. In Jesus' precious and glorious name. Amen.

[nChrist]

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

Joy, Prayer, the Spirit's Fire

Passage

1 Thessalonians 5:16-23

Prayer

Dear Father, holy God, Help me always to be joyful and to pray continually, giving thanks to you in all circumstances, since this is your will for me in Christ Jesus. May I never put out the Spirit's fire in myself. May I never be contemptuous of the prophetic word and the interpretation of it. But let me test everything I hear. Help me hold on to what is good, and to avoid everything that is evil. May you yourself, Father, make every part of me holy. In the name of your Holy Son, Jesus, who gave us the Spirit, I pray. Amen.

[nChrist]

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

Cause Us to Pray

Passage

2 Thessalonians 3:1-5, 16-18

Prayer

Dear Father, who hears our prayers, May all of your people pray earnestly for each other, and especially for your ministers, that your word may speed on and triumph among others, just as it has among us. Deliver us from wicked and evil people who have no faith in you. Give us deep trust in your faithfulness, that you will strengthen us and guard us from evil. Give us obedient hearts that we may live out the teachings of your word. Direct our hearts to your love and to the steadfastness of Christ. Lord of peace, give peace at all times and in all ways. Be with us! Fill us with the grace of the Lord Jesus, in whose name I pray. Amen.

[nChrist]

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

Eternal Comfort

Passage

2 Thessalonians 2:1-17

Prayer

Dear Father, Thank you for calling us to salvation through the Good News of Christ, so that we may obtain the glory of the Lord Jesus. Help us to stand firm and hold fast to the traditions of your holy apostles. May the Lord Jesus Christ himself, and you, our Father, who loved us and gave eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort our hearts and establish them in every good work and word. In the name of Jesus I ask. Amen.

[nChrist]

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

A Prayer for All

Passage

1 Timothy 2:1-7

Prayer

Dear Father, king of nations and peoples, This is for all people everywhere - We plead for all people because they all need you. We pray for all people because many never talk to you. We intercede for all people because most do not know what to ask. We give thanks for all people for few express gratitude. We thank you for their lives, and we give thanks to you for all that you give them, even though they do not acknowledge you or give thanks to you. We pray for national, regional, and local leaders and all who are in high positions. May they exercise wisdom and justice so that we who follow you may live quiet and peaceable lives, godly and respectful in every way. We know that such prayer is good and acceptable in your sight, because we know that you want everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. In the name of Jesus Christ, the one Mediator between God and man, who gave his life for us, I pray. Amen.