Dear Heavenly Father,
I remember watching movies and hearing stories of fairytales when I was a little girl. As I got older, like everyone else, I discovered that fairytales aren’t exactly based on reality, and that life isn’t as easy as wishing on a star at night. You didn’t promise that it would be easy. We know that life can be very difficult at times, but fairytales have one thing right, and it is pointing out that we all desperately need to be rescued. We were in bad shape without our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Your Word tells us in Ephesians 2:1-3 The Message (MSG), “It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat.”
This is how we used to be before You rescued us through Your precious son, Jesus Christ. We exhaled disobedience, and because of him we breathed in life! You could have lost Your temper and let the devil destroy us, but You didn’t. Instead, You opened Your arms wide open to us and offered us Your incredible and unconditional love. Ephesians 2:4-5 tells us that you took our messed up, full-of-sin lives and made us come alive through Christ. You gave us Your Spirit, so that we could be Your children. We needed rescuing and You swooped us up to be Your very own. Now, we have the awesome privilege to be in relationship with You, to talk to You daily and to hear what You have to say to us.
Thank You, Heavenly Father, for giving us a way to commune with You through prayer. It is so important to You that we pray every occasion that we can. You tell us in 1Thessalonians 5:17 to pray without ceasing. Praying to you keeps our relationship fresh and rich, and not only this, but You told us in Your Word to pray and ask You for what we want. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 7:11(NLT), “So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.” You want us to have confidence that You will bless us through our earnest and sincere prayers.
Father, You tell us to come to You with any desire on our hearts because You love us, and You want us to live the more than abundant life that Jesus Christ made available. There are so many people that are walking around in darkness, denying the wonderful work of Christ. Some of them pray with an arrogant and selfish heart. They pray because they want to look the part of a Christian, but their hearts are far from You. They haven’t exhaled disobedience. They haven’t filled their hearts with Your Word and renewed their minds to it. God, help Your children to be different, and to live fully through Christ!
Father, You see what is in our hearts. Please help us to pray with a heart that pleases You, and to live with joy, peace, love, strength and power through the Holy Spirit. Help us to quiet ourselves and rest in Your peace so that we can hear Your voice. Thank You for downloading into our spirits exactly what we need to see and hear, so that we can grow in Godliness. Please help us to be who you’ve called us to be, and live by the light of Christ.
Thank You, Holy and Glorious Heavenly Father for helping us to be a blessing to Your Kingdom. In the precious and powerful name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
“Exhaled Disobedience, Breathed in Life!”, written by K. Lizzie, edited by Reverend Fran Mack for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2018. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.