How to Organize Your Prayer Life--Part 3

Welcome back Everyone!

So how has your Prayer Journal been working out for you so far???  Have you been using your Section 1 each day in your Quiet Time?  I hope so!  I hope you are collecting your own list of Bible verses which testify to God's power and might.  I have found this to be a real encouragement to me, especially when I am facing a problem!   It is good to focus your mind on how great your God is!

Are your ready for the next section?  Good--because I have more to share with you today!  We are now going to focus on your second divider--Section 2 of the daily prayer part of your Prayer Journal.
This section is going to be focusing on you!  Each day during your prayer time, after you have spent some time praising God and focusing on Him and thanking Him for all He does for you, then you are ready to bring your own personal needs and requests to Him.  So get your Journals out and label your next divider with "Myself," or your name, or your nick name.

Oh--and I forgot to mention one other thing in last week's post, so I will share it now.  You don't have to do this, but I have found it kind of fun to pick sort of a "theme verse" for each section in my Prayer Journal.  I take this theme verse and kind of claim it as my own, and I write it on the back side of my divider.  So here is the theme verse I have chosen for my "Almighty God" section:

Yes, you are right--I couldn't choose just ONE so I chose two verses. :)  And here is the verse I chose for my "Myself" section:

Some ideas for this part of your journal are as follows:

Section 2:  Myself

~Ask Him to examine your heart and reveal your sinful ways

~Confess those sins and ask Him to rule in your heart and life

~Confess total weakness and sinfulness and confess your need for God

~Acknowledge your desire to be dead to self and alive in Jesus

~Ask Him to help you take your eyes off yourself and on to Him

~Pray that God’s will be done in your life today, not your own will

~Ask God to help you listen for His voice/guidance and show you how He would like to use you today

~Surrender the inmost places of your heart and mind to Him, which is the essence of Godliness

~Ask God to use you as a tool to spread the Gospel to non-believers and be an example and encouragement to fellow Christians

~Ask God to protect you from things that keep you from having a gentle and quiet spirit:  unconfessed sin, unforgiving spirit, neglecting responsibilities, anxiety, anger, self-centeredness, physical disorders, fatigue

~Petition God for the following:  to be drawn closer to Him, direction to His will, to be a man or woman of God’s Word, to be a man or woman of Prayer, help to live a life above reproach, wholehearted devotion, wisdom, knowledge, discernment, intuition, servant’s heart, discipline, self-control, fruit of the spirit to be present in your life, attitude of gratitude, wise with time and money, discipline and self-control with exercise and nutrition, thoughtful of others, compassionate, desire to see lost people come to know Jesus, giving of self (time, money, possessions, spiritual gifts, other talents), energy, strength, courage, boldness, compassion, sensitive to sin and quick to repent, to accept God’s rest and not fill that special time with other things to do, to know Him more and more, remember and keep priorities straight, to be pure in mind and heart, to be humble, diligence, good health

~Thank God for His gift of salvation

Some Bible verses I have collected that apply to the "Myself" section are as follows:

“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail.  They are new every morning;  great is your faithfulness.  I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.’ “  Lamentations 3:22-24

“For he will abundantly pardon.”  Isaiah 55:7

“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”  James 1:5

“The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?  The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”  Psalm 27:1

“For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock.  And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make melody to the LORD.”  Psalm 27:5 & 6

“Stop trusting in man, who has but a breath in his nostrils.  Of what account is he?”  Isaiah 2:22

“Pray without ceasing.”  1 Thessalonians 5:17 NASB

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.”  Psalms 32:8

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You can also record any special quotes that speak to your heart.  These are two that are precious to me:

“. . . whoever comes to Me, I will never cast out.”  John 6:37 ESV

“If you have nothing else to plead before God but this one promise from your Lord and Savior, you have the assurance that you will never, never be turned away. It may seem to you that you are hanging upon a single promise, but appropriate that one promise, and it will open to you the whole treasure house of the riches of the grace of Christ.  Cling to that promise and you are safe.  ‘The person who comes to Me, I will never cast away.’ 

Present this assurance to Jesus, and you are as safe as though inside the city of God.”

Ellen G. White

10 Manuscript Releases 175.1

“Not one sincere prayer is lost.  Amid the anthems of the celestial choir, God hears the cries of the weakest human being.  We pour out our heart’s desire in our closets, we breathe a prayer as we walk by the way, and our words reach the throne of the Monarch of the universe.  They may be inaudible to any human ear, but they cannot die away into silence, nor can they be lost through the activities of business that are going on.  Nothing can drown the soul’s desire.  It rises above the din of the street, above the confusion of the multitude, to the heavenly courts.  It is God to whom we are speaking, and our prayer is heard.”
Ellen G. White

Christ’s Object Lessons p. 174

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So there you have it--we now have the first two sections of our Prayer Journal started.  So when you have your Quiet Time for the next week, you will each day start with praising God and then move to speaking with Him about your concerns and needs and stresses.  Leave your problems with Him when you get up from your devotion time--He is well able to handle all of them!

Assignment for this week:  Please share something in the comments that you have decided to write in your Prayer Journal either in Section 1 "Almighty God", or in Section 2 "Myself."  Share special Bible verses, poems, quotes, or even encouraging thoughts that you had as you prayed through these two parts of your Prayer Journal.  

See you next week for Part 4 of our series!

~Susan