Hello everyone, and welcome to this week’s Prayers for the Week! Happy New Year, everyone! 2014 is now gone, and 2015 has come on strong. I hope that you have a wonderful year, full of Peace, Love, Happiness, Joy, Success, but most of all, full of the Love that God has for us.
With the turning of the calendar, it is only right, at least in my mind, that we take stock of where we are in our lives. For me, 2014 was a fairly good year, but there are many things I didn’t finish that I hope to accomplish in 2015. More importantly, though, the turning of the year gives us a chance to take stock at where we are Spiritually in our walk with God. Are we on the narrow road or the wide road, are with walking with God, or is God wondering where we are? All of these questions are ones that we should look at now, and if we are traveling the wrong path, now is a great time to make a change so that we can enjoy a more meaningful, close relationship with our Lord and Savior. The Bible verse I’ve selected today seems very appropriate for today:
17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. ~ 2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV)
Are you in Christ, as Paul writes? If you are in Christ, you are a new creation. If you are in Christ, then your life has changed, your old self is gone, and the new you is totally different from the old you. This does not mean that you are now perfect, that you never make mistakes, that you never stray from the path that Jesus walks. However, what it does mean is that you recognize when you stray, you recognize that you have sinned, and you ask God to forgive you when you do sin. The longer you have been in Christ, the worse it feels when you do sin, at least for me. When I sin, immediately I feel an overpowering emotion — guilt. When I sin, I realize that I have just turned my back on God, that I have decided to walk my own path, that I have made a decision that God’s Sacrifice — His ultimate Sacrifice — just didn’t matter at this time. When that happens, the guilt of my sin hits me, and I immediately ask God to forgive me.
If you are not sure you are in Christ, or if you know you are not in Christ — that is, if Christ doesn’t live on in your heart in the form of the Holy Spirit — there are things that you can do to change that. First of all, you need to ask yourself, do I want Christ in my life? Do I believe in God, and more importantly, do I believe that God sent His Son Jesus to earth, and that His Son died for my sins? Do I even think that I sin, do I recognize it when I do?
Before I turned to God, I would be hard pressed to admit that I recognized when I did sin. Sure, I knew that it was wrong to curse, wrong to swear, that sort of thing, but did I think of it as sinning when I did it? I don’t remember, now, to be honest. I expect that at some level, deep down, I did know that — because how many of us look around the room before we say a curse word to make sure a young child doesn’t hear it. Our thought is, that child shouldn’t hear those words — well, my friends, I’ve got news for you — none of us should hear those words…
The Sinner’s Prayer
If you want to be saved, if you know that you have never been saved, there is a prayer that you can pray. It is known as the Sinner’s Prayer, or the Prayer of Salvation. This prayer is not the only prayer that you can pray to be saved, but it is a good one. If you want to pray this prayer, follow along with the words below:
Dear God in heaven, I come to you in the name of Jesus. I acknowledge to You that I am a sinner, and I am sorry for my sins and the life that I have lived; I need your forgiveness.
I believe that your only begotten Son Jesus Christ shed His precious blood on the cross at Calvary and died for my sins, and I am now willing to turn from my sin.
You said in Your Holy Word, Romans 10:9 that if we confess the Lord our God and believe in our hearts that God raised Jesus from the dead, we shall be saved.
Right now I confess Jesus as the Lord of my soul. With my heart, I believe that God raised Jesus from the dead. This very moment I accept Jesus Christ as my own personal Savior and according to His Word, right now I am saved.
Thank you Jesus for your unlimited grace which has saved me from my sins. I thank you Jesus that your grace never leads to license, but rather it always leads to repentance. Therefore Lord Jesus transform my life so that I may bring glory and honor to you alone and not to myself.
Thank you Jesus for dying for me and giving me eternal life.
Amen.
That’s all there is to it. If you prayed that prayer, and you believe it in your heart, and you prayed it with all of you heart and soul, then you are saved. If you did this today for the very first time, please let us know. Nothing gives a Christian more joy than knowing that a new Brother and Sister in Christ has joined our ranks, so let us know in the comments if you are. Now, please read our prayer requests, and pray for those that need our prayers.
Prayer Requests and Praises…
- My friend Chelsea had a prayer request for her husband’s Grandpa. Here is what she wrote:Thank you all for your prayers for Wyatt’s Grandpa the surgery went well!
- My friend Carrie had a prayer request and a praise. Here is what she wrote on Facebook:We made it home! Now pray for Kev as he drives to Plainview for the night shift! It is endless!
His Dad made a turn-around, he is a living miracle! Thank you so much for the prayers. - Lastly, please pray with us as we lift up the families of those that were involved in the wreck of Air Asia. Please pray for their Peace, their Strength, and their Love as they strive to deal with all of the grief and turmoil in their lives. Please pray that God would be with them all in their time of need.
Now, please pray one last prayer — the prayer that Jesus taught His Disciples to pray:
Our Father, who art in Heaven,
Hallowed by thy name.
Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done,
On earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory forever and ever.
Rest in Peace, Stuart Scott. He was a sports reporter for ESPN, and died at the age of 49 from cancer. He is survived by children, parents, his girlfriend, his ex-wife, and many others. Please pray for God’s Peace, Comfort, and Strength to descend upon all of them in their time of grief and sorrow.
My friend Heather had a prayer request for her son Taylor. Here is what she wrote on Facebook:
Taylor Love is out of surgery and in recovery. It was his appendix and luckily had not ruptured!! He did great we are waiting for him to wake up more and then he will be moved into a room. He will be here tomorrow and possibly till Tuesday. Thanks so much for the prayers. God is good and He protected His child!!
Thanks for Praying!
Mike
My friend Tracey has lost her mother-in-law. Here is what she wrote on Facebook:
I was blessed to have had Nan as my mother-in-law for almost 28 years. I’ll miss this sweet woman, but will see her again. May she rest in peace.
” Come unto me, all [ye] that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” – Matthew 11 28-29
Please pray for God’s Peace, Comfort, and Strength to descend upon Tracey, her husband, and all of their family, as they mourn the loss of their loved one. Thanks!
My friend Emily is in need of prayers and praises. Here is what she wrote on Facebook:
I need to share two things this morning. The good news first. I am the proud grandmother of Melissa’s little girl–Amapola Nava-born this morning at 3:22 am central and 4:22 eastern time. She has a healthy set of lungs. Marco called 20 minutes after she was born this morning.
The other is a prayer need. My father, Walter Mohn, went into cardiac arrest yesterday afternoon at Walmart at Brier Creek. He was not breathing and had no pulse for over 20 minutes. The doctors induced a medical coma last night about 7:00 p.m. The will try to bring him out starting at 7:00 p.m. tonight. My father is 86 years old. I need your prayers. He is in critical care at Rex Hospital in Raleigh.
Please pray for Emily’s Dad — for God’s Healing, Peace, Comfort, and Strength to descend upon him and all of his family. Please also pray for and give praise to God for the blessing of a new Grandbaby, and for Emily’s Dad, one of God’s Children. Thank you all for praying!