Prayer and the Promises

The chief thing in prayer is the assurance that prayer will be heard and answered. The law of the Kingdom: he who asks, receives… Therefore, we must confidently expect answer to prayer. The Lord wants us to count on it that asking, seeking, knocking cannot be in vain. That Jesus thought it needful in so many forms to repeat this truth (Matthew 6:11-13; 7:7-8; 9:38; 18:19; 21:22) is a lesson of deep import! (Andrew Murray)

The vital connection between prayer and the promises: A promise should always be the basis of all our prayers, since the promises are our warrant for asking and our security for receiving what we ask for.  We have no authority to ask beyond what God has promised.  

Let us train ourselves to speak God’s Word.  The Word tells us to be imitators of God as dear children (Ephesians 5:1).  We are to imitate God as a child does his father.  If a child imitates his father, he will walk like his father, talk like his father, and pattern his every move after his father.  We should do no less after our Father God. (Charles Capps)

“Our Heavenly Father, faithful to His Word.” Therefore to know the Father is to know His Word. Let us trust Jesus. If we take His words in simplicity and trust Him by His Spirit to make them within us life and power, they will so enter into our inner being as life and power. He will teach us in due time how to understand them fully; meanwhile, let us begin by implicitly believing them. (Andrew Murray)

Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all I can ask or even imagine, according to His power that is at work within me, I give glory and honor and praise forever. AMEN. (Ephesians 3:20).

A daily confession to renew your thought life: I take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 10:5). I am not conformed to this world, but am transformed by the renewing of my mind so that I may know the will of God (Romans 12:2). I lay aside the old self and I put on the new self which is being renewed in the likeness of God (Ephesians 4:22-24). I trust in the Lord with all my heart and lean not on my own understanding (Proverbs 3:5).

The Lord will perfect that which concerns me (Psalm 138:8). I will accomplish what God has called me to do today. I fix my eyes on Jesus the author and finisher of my faith (Hebrews 12:2). I won’t be hijacked by lesser things but I will lay aside every encumbrance and sin that entangles, and I will run with endurance the race Christ Jesus has marked out for me (Hebrews 12:1).

Jesus is the Lord of my life. God is not weak toward me, but mighty in me (2 Corinthians 13:3). He is pushing me past any oppression or barrier that tries to hold me back. I am free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2). And God has blessed me with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3), being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of my God (Colossians 1:10).

God has made available spiritual weapons to every believer – like the Name of Jesus, the Blood of Jesus, and the Word of God. The Lord has given us the authority of His Word – and in the Name of Jesus, things must change!

O Lord, be gracious to us; we long for You. Be our strength every morning, our salvation in times of distress (Isaiah 33:2).