Praying with a plan

Following up on last week’s post about praying. “Pray without ceasing” (I Thessalonians 5:17) can feel daunting, no matter how inspired and well-intentioned we are.

I’d like to share some simple things that have helped me. Maybe these ideas will spark some ideas of your own. I’d love to hear about those so please share!

First, I don’t pray about everything every day. I designate certain topics for different days. Not that I am prohibited from talking to the Lord about anything anytime but just knowing I have a plan for praying helps make things feel more manageable for me.

Here’s mine -

Mondays - government and all who are in authority - based on I Timothy 2:1-4. I try to know the names of elected officials and pray for them specifically. To be sure, there are plenty that I pray for in obscurity :) but it helps me focus to pray these folks by name. This day also finds me praying for our country in general (usually asking God to grant the gift of repentance!) and for wisdom, courage, and righteousness for our leaders.

Tuesdays - family finances. (Matthew 6:11). I pray for specific financial needs, for wisdom in our spending, for opportunities to give, and for God to bless our income. Keeping record of these requests and God’s answers is a great faith-builder!!

Wednesdays - my church. Although I often include needs from other local churches, this day’s prayer time is primarily focused on my personal church - leadership, her people, ministry opportunities, etc.

Thursdays - this is the day I remember to intercede for those who have yet to come to a saving knowledge of Christ. We all have folks on this list (at least in our heads) and this helps me remember to keep praying. Often I “wander” prayerfully into praying for unreached people groups and my friends on the mission field.

Fridays - Fridays are for friends! This list is where I record things my friends have asked me to pray for. Having a place to write them down helps me not forget their needs.

Saturdays - this is the place where I pray for the ministries that my family and I are involved in. Those vary from time to time but there are a few that are constants on this list :)

Sundays - extended family. <3

Every day I approach the Throne of grace for my little tribe and their needs (often many times during the day!) and I try to write those down as well. Not a perfect system and I want to be very clear that I often miss praying for these subjects or even altogether lots of days! But having a plan helps me get more praying done and that strengthens my faith.

I recently read a post from Desiring God where the suggestion to have a plan for praises was made. I have not had a plan for praises but for the past few weeks I have been focusing on the attributes of God - that has been rich in my prayer life and I like the idea of having a plan for praises, too.

Here’s what the DG post said about praises:

It can be helpful to develop a system for praises as well as petitions. Matthew Henry (1662–1714) developed one such method for praise. With several prayers drawn from Scripture under each point of the outline, Henry proposed the following fifteen points for praise (Complete Works, 2:4–12):

1. Address God as the infinitely great and glorious Being.

2. Reverently adore God as transcendently bright and blessed in all his attributes.

3. Give God the praise of his glory in heaven.

4. Give God glory as Creator, Protector, Benefactor, and Ruler.

5. Give honor to the three distinct persons of the Godhead.

6. Acknowledge your dependence upon God and your obligation to him as your Creator.

7. Declare God to be your covenant God who owns you.

8. Acknowledge the inestimable favor of being invited to draw near to God.

9. Express your unworthiness to draw near to God.

10. Profess your desire for God as your happiness.

11. Profess your hope and trust in God’s all-sufficiency.

12. Ask God to graciously accept you and your poor prayers.

13. Pray for the assistance of the Holy Spirit in your prayers.

14. Make the glory of God the highest goal of your prayers.

15. Profess your reliance upon the Lord Jesus Christ alone.

Adopting Henry’s method (or something similar) would give remarkable depth and variety to our prayers of praise, delivering them from bland repetition and thoughtless irreverence.

LMK about your prayer plans! Pray on, sisters, pray on!

Why is God's holiness so important?

“who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light whom no man has seen or can see.  To Him be honor and eternal dominion.  Amen.”  I Timothy 6:16

One little phrase in this verse rivets my attention every time I read through this passage. Just four brief words crafted into a phrase that captivates me, causes me to ponder, evokes sacred awe in my soul. “Dwells in unapproachable light”.

These words speak, of course, of our Heavenly Father. The King of kings. The Creator and Sustainer of the universe. The one true God.

It is HE who dwells in unapproachable light. There are several gloriously complex truths in this verse but today we will focus on this one. God dwells in unapproachable light.

Whatever could Scripture be communicating to us here?  Why direct our attention to His abode? And tells us that, yes, He is LIGHT, but that He is unapproachable?

The message here is one of God’s holiness.  A message that we modern day believers seem to sadly neglect. We love to sing about His love, His grace, and His power. We rightly cherish His forgiveness and His redemption. We praise Him for His generosity and His benevolence. But we seem to overlook His holiness.

And this one little phrase seems intent on directing our worship to that one attribute.

What IS holiness? Holiness is perfection, completeness, and uniqueness. Absolutely no sin in thought or word or deed. Wow.  It is difficult to define because there is no one or no thing to compare it to. In fact, His holiness is what sets Him apart from everyone and everything. John Piper defines it this way: “ God’s holiness is his infinite value as the absolutely unique, morally perfect, permanent person that he is and who by grace made himself accessible — his infinite value as the absolutely unique, morally perfect, permanent person that he is.”

Why is it important for us to strive to understand the holiness of God? And it must be important because, of all His attributes, holiness alone is the one Scripture describes in triplicate- Isaiah 6:3 and Revelation 4:8 are two places where the creatures whose purpose is to worship God cry out

 “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” and

“And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” “

So, what about His holiness is so important for us to try to grasp? Why not His magnificent love? His righteousness? His power? Because we cannot appreciate His love or any other attribute unless we recognize that He is holy – perfectly unique and profoundly incomparable. That is what makes His grace so amazing. That is why salvation through Christ alone is so incredible. He who dwells in UNAPPROACHABLE light – the One Whom we are not worthy enough to even see much less come near – has made Himself accessible to us through the sacrifice of His Son. He has made pardon possible so that we can come into His presence and His magnificent love beckons us to do just that. We who are so UNholy – sinful, imperfect, literally wretched – are invited into this dwelling place of UNAPPROACHABLE light. The place of perfect peace, complete love, inexpressible joy – His presence.

His incomparable value, His radiant glory, His incomprehensible power are made available to us at great cost

“the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. “(Ephesians 1:3–6)

Yes, He who dwells in unapproachable light deserves all honor and eternal dominion. Holy, holy, holy. Amen.