Ineffable

Awesome are You, GOD (Ps 68:35).

You are ineffable—too overwhelming…
to be described in words (ref#110, p690).

You are lofty—very high, extremely elevated (ref#110, p794).

You are illustrious, noble and renown— having eminent fame (ref#110, p919).

You are magnific and imposing, having dignity (ref#110, p813).
Splendor and majesty are before You,
strength and beauty are in Your sanctuary (Ps 96:6).

Importance of Corporate Prayer

FATHER, how profusely I thank You for the institution of corporate prayer (Matt 18:20). Praying with one another not only heightens my concentration, making me learn to be more articulate, but it causes me to be more disciplined, that I might linger longer in Your presence. I can think better and be still longer when I am with others.

But, the most joyous advantage of corporate prayer is to be ushered into the spiritual world by hearing others testify, FATHER, of Your interaction with them. Their witness strengthens my faith and gives me courage.

If I didn’t submit myself to the time of corporate prayer, I would have very little experience with what really goes on in Your spiritual world. My experience plus hearing the experience of others pushes me out of the physical world. The more I think about the spiritual world, the more real it becomes.

I also thank You for corporate prayer for the obvious reason—gathering a long list of prayer requests. This gives me the opportunity to add to my list the names of people others pray for.

Corporate prayer unites me with my brothers and sisters in CHRIST. And Your presence becomes more sure and real as I participate on a regular basis. This kind of prayer does not trumpet its worth until it is experienced. Thank You, FATHER, for the grace of corporate prayer.

The Gift of Salvation

“No part of us is untouched by sin, and no action of ours is as good as it should be. Consequently, nothing we do is ever meritorious in God’s eyes. We cannot earn God’s favor no matter what we do; unless grace saves us, we are lost” (ref#56, p781, [Original Sin and Total Depravity]).

FATHER, since You are a great GOD who does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number (Job 5:9), I defer to You with my request. I observe ____ depending on (his/her) own good accomplishments to please You. But, “obedience is a response to God’s favor, and not a means of gaining it” (ref#56, p1732, [Col 3:1]).

Your Gospel that You provide as a gift, given freely by Your grace, causes both intense longing or intense resentment. I fear ____ is comfortable with (his/her) own moral achievements and resents any other way of pleasing You. I see (him/her) in the following quote:

“I will give my life to martyrdom, I will give myself in consecration, I will do anything, but do not humiliate me to the level of the most hell-deserving sinner and tell me that all I have to do is to accept the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ” (ref#7, Nov 28th).

FATHER, I pray You cause ____ to come to the realization that (he/she) must receive salvation as a pure gift or do without it. As long as (he/she) is possessed of anything in the way of independence, You can do nothing for (him/her) (ref#7, Nov 28th).

You say, “the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands (Ps 9:16 ESV). So I pray for ____ that (he/she) turn and repent so (his/her) sins are blotted out (Acts 3:19). FATHER, please make ____ a person who has an
intense longing for Your gift of salvation. Make

(him/her) like one who was in the crowd listening to JESUS. “Now, all the tax collectors and those sinners stained with certain vices and crimes were continually crowding close to Him for the purpose of hearing Him” (ref#37, p176 [Luke 15:1]). These people reaped the benefit of JESUS’ presence by their lowly and contrite heart, I pray ____ does, too.

Discipleship

“Luther had said that grace alone can save; his followers took up his doctrine and repeated it word for word. But they left out its invariable corollary, the obligation of discipleship” (ref#10, p49,50).

FATHER, I bid You teach ____ to not be content to just be a witness and preacher and teacher of JESUS CHRIST. You did not give the Apostle Paul simply a message to proclaim, but, instead, brought him into a personal subduing relationship to JESUS (ref#7, January 24th). “Paul was devoted to a Person not to a cause” (ref#7, January 24th). Please constrain ____ also, to CHRIST.

O FATHER, open ____’s eyes to look for Your control over (him/her) (2 Cor 5:14). Like the Apostle Paul, You overrule (him/her), capturing (him/her) by the love of CHRIST (ref#7, February 4th). Hasten ____ to be still and know that You are GOD (Ps 46:10).

You desire ____’s whole life to be overmastered—changed so much that (he/she) has no end, no aim, and no purpose but Yours (ref#7, January 24th). You have not regenerated (him/her) to merely represent CHRIST.

Disciples are not witnesses of CHRIST—not witnesses of what JESUS can do, but disciples are witness unto Him. FATHER, give ____ a small sense of who CHRIST is. Grant ____ a face-to-face meeting with CHRIST that makes (him/her) forget about witnessing all together. ____’s interaction with JESUS will naturally make (him/her) a model disciple. (He/She) will then make disciples by example.

____ is representing CHRIST bodily now on earth. Teach (him/her) to take everything that happens to (him/her) as happening to CHRIST, “whether it be praise or blame, persecution, or commendation” (ref#7, February 4th).

O LORD, control ____ that (he/she) might be a living disciple. The reputation of JESUS CHRIST is at stake in (his/her) life (ref#7, Sept 19th).

“That we gain heaven, that we are delivered from sin, that we are made useful to God—these things never enter as considerations into real abandonment, which is a personal sovereign preference for Jesus Christ Himself” (ref#7, March 12th).

Reasons for Affliction – Testing Disposition

“The proof that God has altered our dispositions is not that we persuade ourselves He has, but that we prove He has when circumstances put us to the test” (ref#118, p31).

I pray this present situation show the well of sweetness You, FATHER, have placed in ____ (ref#118, p31). May it prove to (him/her) as well as all involved in the circumstance that You have changed (his/her) disposition.

FATHER, as I pray for ____ I ask that You grant (him/her) assurances of Your activities in (his/her) life. Strengthen ____ with Your own great power so that (he/she) “…will not give up when troubles come…” (Col 1:11 NCV). I ask not for a sign of better circumstances ahead but I pray that You give ____ “the sense of Thy blessing and approval” (ref#27, p65).

New Birth

FATHER, increase my understanding of regeneration—Your ability to alter my natural- born heredity. My “natural virtues are the remnants of a design that has been broken, and that the only way the design can be fulfilled is by…being made all over again” (ref#83, p90). However, “…when the new disposition is put in the old physical case is not taken away. It is left there for me to discipline and turn into an obedient servant to the new disposition” (ref#118, p35).

“Jesus says—If you are My disciple you must be right not only in your living, but in your motives, in your dreams, in the recesses of your mind. You must be so pure in your motives that God Almighty can see nothing to censure…” (ref#7, July 24th).

CHRIST is the only one who is above censure. And He is the only One who can put His own disposition into people who ask for it. “The purity which God demands is impossible unless I can be remade within…” (ref#7, July 24th).

“From the divine side, Christ is living in us and enabling us to live the way he teaches us to live. It’s his work. But from our side, it’s experienced by trusting him moment by moment to be with us and to help us” (ref#92, p87).

FATHER, I desire to take hold of CHRIST’s disposition and mold my life after His. And, praise You, that He will accomplish that when I give myself over to Him.

Doubts and Fears

FATHER, You know me. You do not need anyone to bear witness concerning me. You know me in my deprived state (John 2:24). Yet, even as I display my humanness, You know my meek and broken spirit. Therefore You look on me with “pity, complacency and delight.” You know I mourn because I love and serve You so little. Even though my heart is simple You will love me so that my entire soul shall be full of light (ref#15, [John 2:24]).

But, sometimes I have doubts and fear that I am not Your child because the enemy convinces me my sins separate us. Some days I do not have the faith that assures me I am Yours. But, I do trust You; through experience I know You can be counted on. I do depend on You.

“Doubting faith is not doubtful faith. If the believer has not the faith of assurance, he may have the faith of reliance, and that will take him to heaven” (ref#61, March 13th).

Thankfully these doubts and fears keep me humble. Being weak and dependent make me gravitate toward prayer as I long to possess the merits of JESUS (ref#61, March 13th). The enemy’s accusations drive me in a good direction. They move aside the pride assurance brings and allow more seeking of my Savior.

“We were made to make much of something great” (ref#124, p160).

The Earth Is Full of GOD’s Steadfast Love

“Forever…your word is firmly fixed in the heavens.

Your faithfulness endures to all generations;
you have established the earth,
and it stands fast” (Ps 119:89-90 ESV).

“The earth, O Lord, is full of your steadfast love;…” (Ps 119:64 ESV).

“…there is no God like you,
in heaven above or on earth beneath,
keeping covenant and showing steadfast love…” (1 Kings 8:23 ESV).

“O Lord, how many and varied are Your works!

In wisdom have You made them all;
the earth is full of Your riches…” (Ps 104:24 AMP).

“Blessed be the Lord forever!…” (Ps 89:52 ESV).

“How lovely is your dwelling place,
O Lord of hosts!
For a day in your courts is better
than a thousand elsewhere…” (Ps 84:1,10 ESV).

GOD Gives What He Commands

“THOU ART THE BLESSED GOD, happy in thyself, source of happiness in thy creatures, my maker, benefactor, proprietor, upholder. Thou hast produced and sustained me, supported and indulged me, saved and kept me,…” (ref#76, p115).

FATHER, how vast is the ways You demonstrate Your love. You stand so majestic over Your creatures and yet go to such great lengths to establish relationship. We are like sheep—created needy. You are a Shepherd—life-sustaining.

You are so very high—holy and righteous and command me to rise up to a similar position. Since I cannot, You reach down and bring me up. You call Your covenant with me an “everlasting covenant” (Gen 9:16), because it is kept by You keeping Your part as well as mine.

The Psalmist knows very well his weakness when he writes: “I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart” (Ps 119:32 ESV)! Or: “I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your servant…” (Ps 119:176 ESV).

I reminisce with joy that covenant keeping does not depend on me. You say: “I will remember my covenant that is between me and you…” (Gen 9:15 ESV). You do not ask me to remember for I am prone to forget, but You remember.

“It is not my remembering God and my laying hold of His covenant, but it is God’s remembering me and His covenant’s laying hold of me” (ref#34, Aug 13th PM). Truly, “in His sovereign grace He gives what He commands and delights in the result (Phil 2:13) (ref#56, p1739, “Pleasing God”).

Prayer Facts:

“…don’t hunt for a feeling in prayer. Deep in our psyches we want an experience with God or an experience in prayer. Once we make that our quest, we lose God. You don’t experience God; you get to know him.
You submit to him. You enjoy him. He is, after all, a person” (ref#62, p21).

Reasons for Waiting for GOD:

Because You dwell in the high and holy place, but with him also who is of a thoroughly penitent and humble spirit bruised with sorrow for sin (Isa 57:15), I will wait for You.

Because You have loved me with an everlasting love, and with loving-kindness have drawn me and continue Your faithfulness to me (Jer 31:3), I will wait for You.