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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God's Honor

Passage

Romans 1:18-23

Prayer

Dear Father, to whom all honor and glory is due, How sorry I am that men do not honor you as their God and King! It is to their loss and to their hurt, but it insults you! They wickedly suppress the truth. Through creation, you have shown them plainly what can be known about you, so they are without excuse. Although they know of you, the true God, they do not honor you as God or give thanks to you as God. Their thinking is futile and their senseless minds are darkened. Claiming to be wise, they become fools and exchange your glory, the glory of the immortal God, for images resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles. How awful is your judgment! Because they exchange the truth about you for a lie and worship and serve the creature rather than you, the Creator, the holy God, who is blessed for ever, you give them up to the lusts of their impure hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves. May I never be so foolish as to trade your glory for my own. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, creator and sustainer of the universe. Amen.

[nChrist]

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

Men's Dishonor

Passage

Romans 1:24-25

Prayer

Dear Father, to whom all honor and glory is due, How sad that some would choose to dishonor themselves rather than to honor you. When they do so, you give them up to their own dishonorable passions. Women exchange natural relationships for unnatural. The men likewise give up natural relations with women and are consumed with lust for each other. Men commit shameless acts with other men and receive in their own persons the due penalty of their error. Today, Lord, it seems to be getting worse. Men and women exalt their own selves to godhood while practicing blatant homosexuality. Instead of repenting, they demand the right to impugn you, and they will not admit that they are responsible for the diseases you have put upon them. May I always acknowledge that you are the creator of life and love and that only when I act in accordance with your design will I find satisfaction. In Christ's name. Amen.

[nChrist]

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

Men's Improper Conduct

Passage

Romans 1:26-31

Prayer

Dear Father, judge of all, How awful is your judgment. When men do not acknowledge you as God and do not live by your teachings, you give them up to base minds and improper conduct. Then they become filled with all manner of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malignity, they gossip, slander, and hate you. They are insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. These are the themes of our television programs, of our books and magazines today. And the authors of it are proud! They justify this accursed stuff by calling it realistic! In the name of Jesus and by his authority I pray that people everywhere will acknowledge that truth and goodness come only from you. Amen.

[nChrist]

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

God's Righteous Judgment

Passage

Romans 1:32

Prayer

Dear Father, righteous judge, Who could argue against your righteous judgment? Who would claim that those who refuse to see truth should not be left in their blindness? Though they know that those who pervert truth deserve to die, they not only continue to practice perversion, they also glorify it! Holy God, your judgment is just! Have mercy on these derelict people to chasten them with judgments that will bring them to repentance. And dear Father, save all of your people, your holy remnant, from the flood of filth and enmity toward you that surrounds us every day! Thank you, God, that your judgment is just, but thank you also that your mercy is available to all. Thank you for your remedy for sin and death! Only you, God, could do this! It is in the name of Jesus and by his authority that we have such boldness to come to you, asking these things according to his will. Amen.

[nChrist]

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

No Presumption

Passage

Romans 2:1-7

Prayer

Dear Father, holy and righteous judge, Help me not to condemn myself by passing judgment on someone else when I may be doing the same or similar things. How could I escape your judgment and do this? Help me not to presume on the riches of your kindness and forbearance and patience. Help me understand that your kindness is meant to lead me to repentance. Take away the hardness and impenitence that may be in my heart. Give me a heart of flesh, not stone.Change my behavior and my attitudes so that none of your wrath will be stored against me to be unleashed on the day of the revelation of your righteous judgment. In the name of Jesus I ask for your acceptance through my faith. Amen.

[nChrist]

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

No Partiality

Passage

Romans 2:8-11

Prayer

Dear Father, holy and righteous judge, I know that you will render to every man according to his works. To those who are factious and obey wickedness instead of the truth, there will be wrath and fury. You have foretold tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, to the Jew first and also the non-Jew, but glory and honor and peace for every one who does good, to the Jew first and also to the non-Jew. For you show no partiality. Help me do what is good, but not out of my own resources, for my goodness is unacceptable to you. Help me do what is good by living in and for Christ, whose goodness you will accept. By your grace alone am I saved, as I entrust my soul to you. Thank you that you will impute Christ's righteousness to me on this basis. In the name of Jesus I ask for your acceptance through my faith. Amen.

[nChrist]

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

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, Heartlight Magazine
Free By RSS News From Heartlight
________________________________

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, Heartlight Magazine
Free By RSS News From Heartlight
________________________________

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, Heartlight Magazine
Free By RSS News From Heartlight
________________________________

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, Heartlight Magazine
Free By RSS News From Heartlight
________________________________

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.