Prayer Day – Jesus Is Our Greatest Treasure

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CHRIST IS ALL. We are complete in Him. He is the answer to every need, the perfect Savior. He needs no decoration to heighten His beauty, no prop to increase His stability, no girding to perfect His strength. Who can gild refined gold, whiten the snow, perfume the rose or heighten the colors of the summer sunset? Who will prop the mountains or help the great deep? It is not Christ and philosophy, nor Christ and money, nor civilization, nor diplomacy, nor science, nor organization. It is Christ alone. He trod the winepress alone. His own arm brought salvation. He is enough. He is the comfort, the strength, the wisdom, then righteousness, the sanctification of all men.    – C.L. Chilton

 

QUOTES FROM E.M. Bounds from “The Reality of Prayer”

  • Those who belong to God are obliged to pray. They are not obliged to grow rich, nor to make money. They are not obliged to have large success in business. These are incidental, occasional, merely nominal, as far as integrity to Heaven and loyalty to God are concerned. Material successes are immaterial to God. Christians are neither better nor worse with those things or without them. They are not sources of reputation nor elements of character in the heavenly estimates. But to pray, to really pray, is the source of revenue, the basis of reputation, and the element of character in the estimation of God… Prayer is loyalty to God. Non-praying is to reject Christ and to abandon heaven.
  • A life of prayer is the only life that heaven counts.
  • The challenge of God is “Call unto Me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”
  • How He charges, commands, and urges us to pray! He goes beyond promise and says, in essence, “Behold my Son! I have given Him to you.” He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
  • Prayer can get anything God has.
  • None are so needy as people, none are so able and anxious to supply every need and any need as God.
  • Is there any work, higher work, for the disciple to do than the Lord did? Is there any loftier employment, more honorable, more divine, than to pray for people? To take their woes, their sins, and their perils before God; to be one with Christ? To break the power that binds them, the satanic powers that hold them, and lift them to immortality and eternal life?

Lord,

You are our Shield, our Very Great Reward! (Genesis 15:1). You are the Great I Am. You are the Creator of the universe no matter how men would like to explain you away today and deny Your Creative wisdom, genius, intelligence and deity by saying all of the complex life forms on earth and all of the galaxies in the universe happened by mere chance. How foolish is the wisdom of people. Earthly wisdom is nothing compared to Your great wisdom. You are the Great Physician. You are the One who designed people, male and female. You created marriage. You created families. You created order and things were very good. It is our sin that destroyed the good in this world. And yet, You had a plan to provide a way for us to be made right with You again from before the foundations of the world were laid. You decided to become a man and live a perfect life and take on Your own full outpouring of wrath against sin upon Yourself. You are the Righteous Judge. And yet, You step down from the Judge’s box and took upon Yourself the sentence of condemnation I deserved and You paid it in full for me. I deserved that condemnation. I deserved hell. I deserved separation from You. But You offer me grace, freedom, mercy, extravagant and lavish love. You are the Alpha and Omega. The Beginning and the End. You are sovereign over all of the affairs of creation. You have all power. You have all wisdom. You are holy. You are worthy of all praise and adoration. You alone are God, there is no other. You are King of kings and Lord of lords.

We thank and praise You for what You have done for us!  How can we possibly ever thank You? The only thing we can do is pour out our lives in gratitude and praise to you each day – laying down our lives before You and giving all of ourselves to You just as You gave all of Yourself to us.

Cleanse us from every sin. Reveal to us every trace of sin. Convict us. Bring mourning and repentance and godly sorrow to our hearts over any pride, lust, self-righteousness, cheating thoughts, stealing, unfaithfulness, dishonesty, idolatry, adultery, hatred, unforgiveness, bitterness and resentment. Flood our hearts with Your Spirit and let us love with Your love! Let us love You with all our hearts! Let us love others with Your love.

Let us become the women (and men) You desire us to be! Let us empty ourselves of all of our old sinful nature. Let us die to self. Let us pour out our lives, all that we have and all that we are to You. We place ourselves willingly, joyfully on the altar before You. We are Your living sacrifices! How do You want to use us in Your kingdom today and every day? Say the Word to us – and let us be quick to obey You with our hearts brimming over with the power of Your Spirit and with Your love and joy flooding our souls. Let us live obedient lives – not because we HAVE to but because we WANT to! Change our desires to match Your own! Let us love what You love and hate what You hate.

Let us care about the things and people that matter most to You. Let the things of this world become strangely dim as all we really care about is You and heavenly things of eternal consequence. Empower us to store up treasures in heaven – people!!!! Use us to share and teach Your truth and good news with everyone around us. Let us be on fire for You! Let us burn with passion for our King. Let us be desperate for Your Spirit and Your voice. Let us be people of fervent prayer. Let us be lit on fire by Your Spirit. Let there be a Great Awakening in our hearts. Move mightily among us! Cause OUR generation to rise to be a godly generation for Your glory! Those who have gone before us misled us and we have veered so far off of Your narrow path. Let us return to Your narrow path and truth with singing, determination, huge faith in You and with Your wisdom in our hearts and minds. Use us to lead those who come behind us to Your good paths and to the very gates of heaven.

Let us be faithful by Your power working in us! Use us to bring Your kingdom on earth and to do Your will on earth just as Your will is done in heaven. We are fully Yours, Lord!

Use us to bring the light, love, truth and power of heaven into our homes and families and marriages. Not the power of our sinful nature to destroy, but Your power to breathe life, healing, hope, joy, love, peace, mercy, forgiveness and grace to our husbands and children and to our friends and families and churches. Use us to shine for You as a city on a hill cannot be hidden. Let us shine and use us to draw many to Yourself, Jesus! Let us abide in You and be completely filled with Your Spirit as we go about doing the things You want us to do for Your glory.

Let us be the wives, mothers, coworkers, daughters, sisters, neighbors and church members You desire us to be. Let Your power and Your Spirit spill out of our lives and gush into the lives of everyone we touch. Bring a Great Revival to our land. Let it begin with US, Lord!

We lift up the families of Malaysian flight 370 to You. We pray for Your comfort, healing, peace and presence for those who are grieving over their lost loved ones. We pray for Your gospel to be proclaimed and that You might somehow take this tragedy and use it for Your glory to bring many souls to Yourself.

We lift up the people of the Ukraine and Russia and their leaders to You. Lord, we pray for Your will to be done and we thank You that You are sovereign. Protect those who belong to You and use them to share the gospel with those around them. We pray for wisdom for the leaders in these countries at this critical time in history. And we pray for the leaders of all of the nations of the world that You might use them to accomplish Your good purposes.

We pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ around the world and we pray that You might give them boldness, courage, power, strength, provision, wisdom and the power of Your Spirit to share the gospel and to endure the suffering they are encountering – but let it not be in vain. Use the suffering to bring many to Yourself, Lord! Show us how we can bless our persecuted and impoverished brothers and sisters by praying for them and providing for their physical needs.

I pray for each marriage and family represented here. I pray for Your will and Your glory to be done. I pray for each marriage here to point people to Christ and to display the wisdom and power of God to a lost and dying and dark world. Let us fully submit to You, Lord, and let us resist the enemy and his attacks. Give us Your Spirit of unity here, and in Your church and in our families and marriages. Let Your will be done and Your victory overcome the enemy in our lives. We pray that You might empower us to be faithful to You and that we might please You. Nothing else matters in this life.

In the Name and power of Christ,

Amen!