August 11, 2020 by

Dear Future Yellow Jackets,

Cam here again! In this post I am going to pray with you!

 

I used to think of prayer in the Christian life like I think about toll booths on a highway: a necessary-but-annoying part of the road. But now I know that prayer is much more like breathing: the vital, life-giving way God has designed for us to live as believers. It is not something that we have to do; it is something we don’t deserve but by God’s grace get to do. Prayer was bought for us as believers with the very blood of Christ. We get to address God as our Father in prayer not by nature, but because we are in relationship with the only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. 

Honestly, there is no area of my spiritual life where I feel like more of an infant than in the area of prayer. One tremendous resource I have found to stir and direct my prayer life is the Scriptures. Using a passage of Scripture in prayer helps us understand what God tells us is important to pray about, both for ourselves and others. The Word also helps us to pray in ways that we wouldn’t normally and keep our minds from wandering. We can use any passage of Scripture to pray through, but the Psalms and specific prayer passages found in the Bible serves as particularly helpful guides. For this post, we are going to pray through Philippians 1:9-11, which is the prayer that Paul prays for the church in Philippi. I went ahead and bolded the sentences that come right from the passage. 

Let’s pray together…

 

Heavenly Father, as we stand in your Son by the Spirit, I want to pray specifically with the students who are reading this post. 

Father, I pray that our love would abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment. I pray that our love for you will grow greater and greater as you open the eyes of our hearts to your love for us. Your love that sent your Son into the world to die in our place. Your love that is higher than the heavens above the earth. Make this love propel our love. May our love overflow toward the people you have placed in our lives, however much they may be difficult to love. Whether friends or family, our co-workers, or even our future peers at Cedarville. By your Spirit bear this fruit in our lives. Guard our love from being divorced from truth, but rather fuel our love by truth Give us a love that longs to honor Christ and lead others to Him. Direct this love by a true knowledge of You according to Your Word and a discerning heart.

Do this Lord so that we may approve what is excellent…. Oh, how much we need Your help to approve what is excellent. Our own comprehension of things is so limited and our hearts so clouded by sin. We are idolaters, and often make golden calves to substitute for You, the living God! Turn us away from broken cisterns and increase our delight in You, the fountain of living water. Make us people who seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with you, God. Your Spirit, help us to love what You love and hate what You hate. To invest our time, our talents, and our treasure in what You care about, what is excellent. We want to lay up our treasures in heaven, not on earth, where they will be destroyed.

And Lord, we want you to answer this request so that we may be pure and blameless for the Day of Christ.

Oh Father, we long to hear You say, “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of my rest!” We know that our eternal status is far more important than any status we can occupy here on earth. Thank You, God that You who started a good work in us will bring it to completion at the Day of Christ. That Jesus is able to keep us from stumbling and to present us blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy. Oh, how marvelous your promised faithfulness and preservation is. When we fear our faith may fail, Christ will hold us fast, 

..filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ.

Though we are painfully aware now of the fruits of the flesh that have yet to be killed in our hearts, we know that one day we will be fully sanctified. On that day, Your work will be brought to completion in our lives and we will be filled with righteous fruit. Oh may this future surety prompt our continued persistent pursuit of righteousness by Your grace. Lord, we know that this fruit is not a testimony to our greatness but to Christ’s glorious might. Only because of our relationship with Him are we made righteous and bear the fruit of righteousness in our lives. Oh Father, make us fruitful in righteousness by Your Spirit so that your power might be made perfect in our weakness to the glory and praise of God.

And Lord, answer this prayer for Your great name’s sake. May our love abound in such a way that it is so evidently a fruit of Tour grace and not our own ability. May our love foster unity amongst Your Bride and the spread of the Gospel throughout the world. Over the next several weeks, may this very prayer spark us to pray to You with more passion and direction from Your Word. Father, we need you so desperately to to work in our hearts, because the love we need is one only You can give. A Christlike love for fellow believers, for our families, for our communities, for our churches, for our nation, and for our world. We trust You and ask that You would answer more abundantly than we could ever ask or think, so that You might be glorified in us. 

 

Because You first loved us, In Jesus name,

Amen

 

By His glorious grace,

Cam Sardano | SGA Chaplain

Tags: , ,
Posted in: , ,