A Prayer For Our Enemies

Dear Heavenly Father:

I thank you for giving me the strength to be able to pray for my enemies.

I know that this strength comes through you placing your love in my heart.

Your love covers a multitude of sins.

Your love is the avenue for me to love the unlovable in others.

Have mercy on those who use me with hatred, Dear God.

Forgive those who practice malice towards me.

Forgive them, Father, for the sake of your Dear Son's sacrifice on the Cross at Calvary.

I have forgiven them and will continue to forgive them in Jesus's name.

Send your Holy Spirit to bear upon them so that they can learn the truth about what Your Christ has done for them.

Save their souls.

For my enemies who are saved, give them a deeper commitment to Christ Jesus.

Give them a new commitment to seek your face, Father, and to obey you in all things.

In the name of Your Lamb and The Only Savior of Mankind, I pray.

Amen.

Matthew 5:44

Luke 6:27-36

Ephesians 4:32

The Best Way To Experience Results From God

People ask Christians to pray for them when tragedy, fear, trauma and other challenges strike. They have not given God the time of day (and we remember when we hadn't) and they desperately want something for nothing. 

We have mercy on them because the Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. We also remember how it felt to be in that selfish and fearful frame of mind. We remember when we wanted something for nothing. 

While Our Father will listen to and sometimes honor our requests on their behalf, the best and most effective way to experience results from God is through building a personal relationship with him through Jesus Christ. 

It is faith that moves God, not desperation, piggy-backing on others prayers and attempted exploitation. That sounds brutal but the truth can be brutal. 

The Word is also quick, powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. It is piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12) That is brutal. The Word tells us the truth about the human condition. 

The Word also shares that what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul. What does it profit a person to always receive answers to prayers prayed on their behalf when they don't know God for themselves? Their end is coming, maybe sooner than they think, and their end is perdition.

We should also pray that Our Father sends his Holy Spirit to bear upon them so that they come into the knowledge of the truth. Let us also pray that God gives them a hunger and thirst for righteousness that they might live in the Resurrection of Life. 

Our prayers should also include the request that The Father of Lights will open up an opportunity for us to share Jesus Christ with them.

Our Prayers For Others

When we pray consistently for someone, God will often give us something that he wants us to do for that person. If so, it will be something that is consistent with how he wants to answer our prayer. It may be something that we'd never think of doing for that person. 

It may be something that we are reluctant to do. It may be something that is difficult or it may be fairly easy. It may be something that aligns with what we are already doing in our lives or it may cause us to stretch a little. It may be something that will obviously bless us in our journey, or maybe not obviously. 

When we pray for someone, though we may know some things about them, we don't know the extent of their needs. We don't know what it will take for God to answer our prayers for them and for his will to be done in their lives. Just be prepared to obey the Holy Spirit's surprising request and prompting. When God uses us in his plans for people that we pray for, we can be assured that it will not only bless them but us as well. 

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Dr. Charles Stanley On Can Prayer Change God's Mind?

In the video below, Dr. Charles Stanley, of In Touch Ministries, answers prayer questions such as:

• Why pray if God's mind is already made up about what he will do?
• Why pray when God already knows what we want?
• Can we change God's mind through prayer?
• If God knows my needs, why should I pray?
• Does God's eternal plan depend on our prayers?

His lesson will give you faith in your prayers. It will help change your mind about giving up on your prayer life or compromising it.

 

 

How Can I Forgive?

How to forgive when it is so hard.

Forgiveness is in the realm of your possibility.  Yes, you can forgive anyone and everyone by just speaking the words.

How to forgive when I don't feel like it.

You don't have to feel it or understand how you could ever possibly do it. All you have to do is make a decision to speak the words I forgive. Speak them to yourself and God.

How to forgive when I'm still angry or hurt.

Read the Word that says don't repay evil for evil, but overcome evil with good. Forgive those who despitefully use you. Pray for your enemies, and the Word will do the rest in you. 

Matthew 5:44

1 Peter 3:9

Romans 12:21

 

God Wants Us To Have Friends

Remember someone today who may be without a friend. Pray that he or she may open up to help and loving care from someone whom God sends.

Friends as so important and like love, hard to come by. 

Many times we feel that we just don't have time to cultivate friendships, but it is not God's will that we be alone.

God can provide friendships that adapt to our lives, and that compliment each other. God can move us to a place where we can be a blessing to someone, and vice versa. 

Pray always for those who are lonely, suffering and who need friends. 

1st Pic: ChristianWomenOnline.Net

2nd/3rd/4th Pic: Pixabay.com

Christian Non-Biased Thoughts On Racial Misunderstandings

This graphic and the serious social questions that it poses was posted at Facebook by Domenic Colangelo of Phoenix, AZ.

I read it at least 3 times because it sounded so important. It sounds like 3 groups or 3 opposed factions are locking horns in the monologue, though it is all about race relations. Realizing that we all have strong convictions, I wanted to respond from as non-biased of a position as possible. So I decided to put aside my convictions, annoyances and frustrations and speak in a way that will help ALL people. That meant that I had to retreat into my Christian re-born spirit, and speak from a Godly viewpoint, rather than from a fleshly, worldly one.  This is my answer to his questions, and to a hurting world:

A lot of them are coming from people who covertly and overtly don't want to change from their attitude against others. No matter how much it is explained, they don't WANT to understand.

From my Christian viewpoint, most of us can pray that Good will overcome in all situations; but we know from God's Word that the world is on a downward track, and that there WILL be a final, preordained end to every bit of it. Until then, we each should think GOOD and do GOOD, and not allow ourselves to be drawn into divisions and warring factions.

Remain neutral in all things and spread the Love of God, which is impartial. Most of all, allow ourselves to be more used of the Spirit to present the question of SALVATION to others. The time is fast approaching, no matter how long the world has already been going on, for God to wrap it up. Until then, a lot more worse things are to happen more rapidly, whether you and I are here, or not. We can always do GOOD, but the world can do nothing but become worse. God does not lie. He has no need to. His Word tells us what to expect.

We should be leaving a legacy of Jesus Christ everywhere that we can, so that if we should leave before Jesus comes, we will have left something for those who are still here to grab hold of. Our younger relatives should have our legacy of hope in Jesus Christ to remember when we are gone. The younger we are, the more people we can touch, as the Lord leads, because naturally we have more time.

We can continue to think GOOD and do GOOD, to be lights in this dying world, but we cannot make this world into a Utopia. That task is reserved for God, by God; and he will do that at the end of time, when time is no more, when he has sent Jesus back again, and he has put an end to evil and everything and every being associated with it.

Pray without ceasing.

 

Image Graphic Credit: Domenic Colangelo, Phoenix, AZ.

Praying For Public, Private And Unknown Souls

~ Pray For Mercy From God For That Soul To Be Saved, If There Is Any Chance At All ~

Some Christians are devastated about the untimely passing of Prince, and wonder about the condition of his soul. Once a person, whose salvation we wonder about, has passed on, the only thing that we can do is pray for mercy from God for that soul to be saved, if there is any chance at all for that to happen after death. The person may even have already been redeemed, and we had no evidence of it.

~ We look at a person's lifestyle and judge that they could not possibly have been saved. ~

Many Christians, most probably, believe that it's too late to be saved once the last breath is drawn, and that a person has to have accepted Jesus Christ as Savior before he/she dies. There are also some Christians who believe in a pergutory, a place where the departed soul that is unsaved can go to work out their salvation. There has always been much controversy and scripture-slinging misuse of God's word about it. Christians also believe that the members of some denominations or Christian groups have a better chance at becoming saved than others, even when they believe similarly. We look at a person's lifestyle and judge that they could not possibly have been saved. No way, man.

~ We don't know what has happened in her/his heart at any given time. ~

The truth is that even if a person has never given a public testimony about being Born Again, and even if their life does not reflect it, we don't know what has happened in her/his heart at any given time. We also don't know how long is the time between the drawing of the last breath and the traveling of the spirit on to its destination, and what may or may not happen during that time. Man thinks he knows so much, when basically he knows nothing.

~ Pray for God to have mercy on the soul of anyone who has passed on. ~

We all have special feelings for certain ones, and celebrities and public figures make it easy for us to forget others. We should practice, at all times, to be moved by the condition of the souls of every human being on this earth. I remind myself of this, and shift my focus when some well-known, popular person passes on. This is one of the largest areas where we can pray without ceasing, to pray for the insurance of salvation of everyone that we know, that we hear of, that we see, that we learn of, that we like and that we don't like, everyday, before they leave this earth. Pray for God to have mercy on the soul of anyone who has passed on, along with Prince. That will help ease our sorrow, and remind us to always focus on being prepared. Our time could be up here, or Jesus could return any moment.

Images: Pixabay.com free images