Praying for 30 days- day 13

Today's scripture from my book Today I Pray by Stonecroft ministries is 1 Corinthians 1:18.
"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."

Father, I pray that _________ will understand that the only hope for forgiveness and acceptance from You is through Jesus' work on the cross.

Jesus' work on the cross is more than a one time experience. It is suppose to change our lives as Christians. It brings us many capabilities that we would not be able to do on our own strength.
Here are some examples of the power that comes from Jesus dying on the cross.
1) the power of God brings us to salvation- Romans 1:16
"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek"

2) the power of God is there in our weakness- 2 Corinthians 12:9
"And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

3) the power of God is given to us pertaining to life and ungodliness- 2 Peter 1:3
"as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,"

4) the power of God saved us to receive forgiveness and an inheritance- Acts 26:18
"To open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me."

I want to finish with this song that is currently one of my favorites.

Praying for 30 days- day 12

In light of the terrorists attacks in
Paris yesterday I feel like this prayer and scripture is appropriate to the needs of people in this nation. What happen in Paris was very sad and disheartening. It brings home the reality of sin in this world and our despite need of a Savior. My first reaction was in anger towards our President because he doesn't care about what is going on and we are next. In fact I think he enjoys it but that's not the point. The point is that I was wrong and God reminded me of that quickly. He is still in control. He knows what is going to happen. I too also know what is ultimately going to happen which is destruction of this world. It is inevitable. But the question is how am I going to react? What am I going to do? Before I share the verse from my book (Today I Pray by Stonecroft ministries), I want to share this verse also found in 2 Peter 3:10-14.
" But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.¹¹ Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, ¹² looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? ¹³ Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless;" 

I and Christians today to be holy in conduct and godliness and to be found by Him in peace without spot and blameless. When we seek that through drawing near to Him through prayer and His word, automatically we should want to tell others about who He is which leads me to the verse in the book found in Romans 10:14 including also verse 17.
" How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?...So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."

How can people truly know who He is if we don't go out and tell them about it. But I thought I would include verse 17 because their faith comes from them hearing from someone but someone who preaches the Gospel through God's word. It always always always comes back to hearing and reading God's word. Even as I write that, I believe it but it doesn't impact my life as much as I want it to be. It frustrates me that I still hold onto the things of this world. But I do know God's word truly does save people's lives. It is the only thing that will save our nation. It is the only thing that will help us to survive if anything happens. We just have to be faithful to read it and read it to others.

Father, I pray that You will send people continually into _______'s life who will proclaim the Gospel clearly.

Praying for 30 days- day 11

Today's verse from my book Today I Pray by Stonecroft ministries is 2 Corinthians 6:2 but also including chapter 5 verse 20-21 and going into the first verse of chapter six.
" Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.
²¹ For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. ² For He says:

“In an acceptable time I have heard you,
And in the day of salvation I have helped you.”

Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation."

Holy Spirit, I pray that ___________ will respond today to Your prompting and realize the need for Jesus Christ for personal salvation and eternal and abundant life.

The prayer and the scripture the book suggested really confused me. The prayer was praying for someone to accept Jesus for their personal salvation, but the scripture was talking about believers in the Corinth church who was not living like they needed Jesus. So I had to back to verse twenty of the previous chapter and see that Corinth was being challenged to pick a side. They needed to be reconciled with God. Being reconciled meant two things
1. not allowing the grace of God be vain in their lives
2. Seeing that today was the day of getting right with God.

The Corinth church had to pick a side. Paul was pleading them saying today is the day to say yes to God. Today is the day to say yes to His grace. Today was to reconciled to God or tell Him no thanks. I know that Paul was not wanting them to reject God. Hence the letter. He encouraged them to see that God too was not giving up on them either.

This is the same for those people in our lives that need to pick a side. Or maybe it's you. God is calling out for everyone to say yes and to live it out through His grace everyday.

Hope for the Future

Taking a break for my praying for 30 days today to give you something that I was deeply encouraged by. It kinda goes along with my desire to pray for 30 days.

I just finished watching Disney's Tomorrowland and it was a very good movie! Amazing actually! It was one of those movies that gets your brain thinking and write a blog : )
Without getting into too much detail for those who have not watched it, the basis of the movie was the world is falling apart and dreamers are the only ones who can change the way the world is going. This of course is what I want to be. I want to help this nation to remember our biblical roots and turn ourselves around. But then I got a thought, "Wait I can't change the future. Only God has the future in His hands and it will fail no matter what because of our sin." My mind immediately went to the verse in 2 Timothy 3:1-9 which says,
"But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: ² For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, ³ unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, ⁴ traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, ⁵ having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! ⁶ For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, ⁷ always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. ⁸ Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith; ⁹ but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was."

So the physical and moral destruction of the world is inevitable. It is happening. Everyone does what they want and have no desire or false knowledge of who God is. A sad reality. But it doesn't end there. As Christians we have the hope of our futures in heaven and also to experience the new earth and new heaven that happens after everything is destroyed.
So instead of rewriting the future (because we can't), we need to be going out and telling others who Christ is in our lives. We need to share with them the abundance of life we have through Christ and the hope of our future in heaven. We all are need of a Savior. People who need Jesus choose to go their own way and even if they admit it or not, there is still something missing in their lives. Jesus is the only one who brings a brighter tomorrow. As humans, we can't do anything apart from Him. The same power that rose Jesus from the dead lives in us who do believe what Jesus did. That is the only reason we can impact people's lives.
So let's be people who bring hope to others through what Jesus did for us. Because our ultimate goal for the future is to see more people join us when the world is destroyed.

Praying for 30 days- day 10

So before I begin, I have to say that I was going about this all the wrong way. I was so fixed on making sure that I have a blog to deliver that I forgot to focus on what is important, praying. I am deciding to give myself some grace and allow God to direct me and not my blog.

Today's verse is Ephesians 2:8-9 from my book Today I Pray by Stonecroft ministries.
"For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God. Not of works lest anyone should boast."

Lord God, I pray that You will grant _______ genuine faith, a faith that trusts in Jesus alone and surrenders to Him as Lord and Savior.

This is such a popular verse used for salvation. It is interesting though to read the seven previous verses with it. There is this contrast between us and God. We are dead in our sins completely separated from God. We live under the prince of this world. But then according to God great mercy and great love, He sent His Son to die for us so that we can believe and become children of God. Amazing gospel story! Verses eight through nine sums up for us by saying that being saved is a gift from God through His grace. He gives us the faith through that grace through Jesus. You notice that none of that had to do with us. Nothing! Its His gift, His grace, and His faith. He enables us to believe in what Jesus did through His faith to us. As the prayer says above, no wonder we want to pray for that lost love one to surrender to God because He truly deserves it.

Praying for 30 days- day 9

Today's verse from my book Today I Pray by Stonecroft ministries is Romans 6:23 with the 22nd verse added.
"But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jeus our Lord."

God, I pray that _______ will receive the free gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ the Lord.

So today's verse was super awesome because it challenged the way I use to look at it. Roman 6:23 is always associated with salvation but technically it isn't. I always thought that the eternal life in Romans 6:23 is when you die you will go to heaven and live eternally with God in heaven. Yes, eternal life does mean that but not in the case of this verse. Eternal life is meant on how you live your life now here on earth. John 10:10b states how Jesus wanted to give life and give it more abundantly. That is what the previous verse in Romans 6 says, that when we become slaves of God our life bears fruit which leads to holiness and ultimately life abundantly. Kinda cool.

Praying for 30 days- day 8

Today's scripture from my book Today I Pray by Stonecroft ministries is Colossians 1:13. I am also going to add verses 12, 14, and 20-22.

"...giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins...and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in you mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight"

Father, I pray that You will deliver _________ from the kingdom of darkness and transfer ____________ into the kingdom of the Son You love, Jesus Christ.

What does it look like to be delivered by what Jesus did on the cross based off of these verse?
- We are partakers of inheritance of the saints
- We are delivered from the power of the darkness
- We are transferred into the kingdom
- We are redeemed and forgiven of our sins
- We have peace
- We are reconciled to be holy and blameless
Why wouldn't we not want to pray for the special people in our lives? Jesus has so much to offer. It is also a good reminder for us who has been delivered too.