Category: Customized Prayers

Prayer For Hidden Anger

Published on by Christine WyrtzenLeave a comment

In your anger do not sin.  Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.  Ephesians 4:26-27

Foothold ~ Strategic, military territory

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Lord, teach me about anger as I talk with you, listen, and meditate on your Word.  It is a minefield.  Sometimes it’s hard for me to know if I’m feeling Your anger or my own.  I get angry about injustice, seeing unrighteousness win, seeing the innocent suffer.  I have strong feelings about what I see and what happens to me.  Am I feeling what You feel?

Anger has been confusing for me.  I have had a history of denying I was angry, hiding it, and letting it simmer.  Your Word proved to be true.  My hidden anger became strategic, military territory for our enemy.  He moved in, protected his turf, and put me in bondage for years.

Don’t let me run away from anger ~ because You don’t.  Give me the courage to be angry over the things You are angry about.  Stir up resolve and holy plans.  Show me how Your anger can be productive. When anger is ignited, it’s hard to think straight.  How I need You to teach me.

Above all else, I want my life to glorify You.  And I don’t want Your enemy to be able to work through my life in any way.  He wants to destroy me because He hates You.  I can’t bear the thought that he will win because I failed to handle anger in the right ways.

Search my heart.  See if there is any wicked way in me and lead me out to life everlasting.  Amen

Prayer of Meditation on Heaven

Published on by Christine Wyrtzen1 Comment

My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.  Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young.  Psalm 84:1-2

Yearn ~ To long persistently, to feel tenderness

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Oh Lord, I can see how so many have grown desperate and are driven to do irrational and desperate things without You as their hope.  They don’t know that You can be their Father, that they can be a son or daughter of promise.  They don’t know what could await them as a beloved child who comes home to Your presence.

I long for life with You.  Not just internal life, but external life.  This world groans for Your touch, to know the wholeness of the Eden You created.  No animal will fear for its life or the lives of its young.  Birds will build nests without a second thought for their young’s safety.  Children will play on the expanse of green meadows without fear of assault or kidnapping.  Anyone will nap under a tree without having to guard their belongings.

No relationship will be treacherous.  No one will betray another.  The most sensitive secrets will be shared without fear of judgment or rejection.  There will be no conflict about expressing an unfailing love for You.  All will worship.  All will call You, ‘Lord’.

The worse this world gets, the more my soul yearns for You.  While I ache, even weep, for the brokenness around me, I don’t despair.  I enjoy being a secure child who longs to come home.  You’re building a place for me and nothing threatens my future with You.

Today, I will see hundreds of signs that point to this earth’s corruption.  Litter, vile graffiti, bars over windows, airport security, dirty politics, broken relationships, and the ever frustrating battle within myself between my soul and my spirit.  If I don’t live in the hope of living in Your courts, I will surely lose my way.  My joy is in You and in the good news of Your Gospel.  Amen

Praying the Lord’s Prayer

Published on by Christine Wyrtzen2 Comments

If Jesus, when asked to teach His disciples how to pray, composed this prayer out of the perfection of His holiness, is this not a perfect prayer?  Perfect in content, perfect in composition, even perfect in length?

How does it look for me to use this prayer as a template – expanding it as the Spirit leads me?  Today, it is this ~

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. I bow low, prostrate before Your throne.  You are my Father, holy, and perfect. I am nothing.  You are everything.  Unless You enter my world today, it will be of no value.

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. I see my need right now, Lord.  I see my family’s needs.  Your kingdom needs to come down to our little place on earth.  In Your kingdom, there is righteousness.  Thy kingdom come to us.  In Your kingdom, there is peace.  Thy kingdom come to us.  In Your kingdom, there is structure and order.  Thy kingdom come to us.  May Your will be done here, in every way, just as it is done in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread. Give me hidden manna, Lord.  I embrace Your Word to my heart.  Open the eyes of my heart to see Your Word and understand it. Give me the grace to apply it.  May every member of my family today hunger for your daily bread.  Feed them so that they might live in Your abundance.  May we be a family who feasts on daily manna.

And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. I stand in the flow of Calvary.  Wash me clean, make me holy, that we may fellowship together without restriction.  I forgive those who will wrong me in any way today.  I put on Your forgiving Spirit as I live out my day.  I pray for every member of my family.  Mold each of them into a child of Yours who walks in Jesus’ lifestyle of forgiveness.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. I stand on Your promise that you will not give me more than I can bear.  The challenges, the sicknesses, the trials have all passed through Your sovereign hand.  Wherever I am assaulted, deliver me from evil.  Fight for me while I sleep, while I trust, while I do Your kingdom work.  Battle the unseen forces that I can’t see.  Make me battle ready to take every thought captive today, to put on the armor and stand in the victory You won for me at Calvary.

For Thine is the power, and the kingdom, and the glory forever, Amen.

Prayer Before A Potentially Explosive Discussion

Published on by Christine Wyrtzen2 Comments

Examine me, O Jehovah, and prove me; try my heart and my mind. Psalm 26:2

Prepare my heart, O God, to think Your thoughts and speak under the constraints of Your Spirit. I have no agenda other than Yours. I do not need to be right. It is Your reputation that is at stake when evil prospers. You are the one being wronged. Make me Your mouthpiece. Let me speak what You would speak if You stood in my place.

Others have shut my mouth when they accused me of judging them. I have feared hearing such words again until I remembered that You told your disciples to judge with righteous judgment. So I crucify my own self-righteousness that would want to judge others in order to stand taller than they. I raise up Your standard to discern righteously. I use my mouth to humbly proclaim Your truth. Let Your judgment fall from lips. I am Your servant.

Make this a holy confrontation. You prepared each of Your children to thrive in a wicked and perverse world. You said, “Have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.” Matthew 10:26 Let today’s conversation pull what is hidden out of the dark. Let secret thoughts be exposed. Let true intentions rise to the surface. Let truth be spoken no matter the consequences.

I can be fearful of a confrontation but You are my banner. “You, Lord, are my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? You are the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” Psalm 27:1 Let me see the one I must face today as You see them. “It is You who arms with me strength and keeps my way secure.” Psalm 18:32 I need not fear their intellect. I need not fear their retaliation. I need not fear their cunning arguments. When You speak, none can stand. “You made my mouth to be a sharp sword and in the shadow of Your hand You hide me.” Isaiah 49:2

I confess that, on my own, I have lost my objectivity. The battle has worn me down. But You, Lord, have illumined my thoughts. I am seated with You in heavenly places and You have graced me with insight to view events as You see them, not as they appear on earth. I rise today with supernatural knowledge only born of Your spirit. You are the one who “gives the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and might.” Isaiah 11:2

Make me Your ambassador today and bring Your kingdom to earth. Come, Holy Spirit, to our conversation and let Your sword of truth fall. May righteous outcomes arise. In Jesus’ name, Amen

Prayer For Someone To Know God

Published on by Christine Wyrtzen1 Comment

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to <him> a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.  I pray that the eyes of <his> heart may be enlightened, so that <he> may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.  Ephesians 1:17-18

Thank you for hearing my prayer, not just casually listening, but invested.  You bend your ear to hear every pause, false start, and You discern the emotions behind my words.  No one listens like You.  No one understands all the questions I’ve not yet asked. You do.  You lead me to a place of understanding.

My heart aches today for someone who says they know You.  He knows ‘of’ You because he knows stories about You.  He’s heard us talk about You and I fear he is deceived into thinking that he knows You well.  I do not know if he would seek You if he were not influenced by friends and family.  Father him ~ and don’t let his pursuit of You depend on others.  Awaken his hunger so that it is self-generated by your gift of grace.

I pray that You will open his eyes to see You.  Give him a spirit of wisdom and revelation to realize that unless He has personal experience with You, he doesn’t know You at all.  He doesn’t know how You think and process things.  He doesn’t know what moves Your heart to beat passionately.  He doesn’t know about his hope and spiritual inheritance.  Not really.  If he did, Lord, he would not be checked out, living life by putting one foot in front of the other.  He has no purpose and little significance.

Break through the fog of indifference with Your glory.  Stun him and give him a Damascus road experience.  Let him be privy to an intimate relationship with You.  Let his knowledge of You have personal content.  Penetrate his heart of stone.  Kiss his soul to life and melt the walls of resistance.  He is afraid of love.  Afraid of feeling.  Afraid of change.  Afraid of Your calling on his life.  And in each of his fears, there are lies about your heart.  Tell him the truth, Lord.  In truth is his freedom.

You love him more than I do.  Call him to Your embrace and teach him to live as Your son.  Amen

Prayer For Tenuous Faith

Published on by Christine Wyrtzen1 Comment

Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known. Jeremiah 33:3

Hidden things ~ Making what is inaccessible – accessible.

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Lord, I hope I have done a wonderful thing in Your eyes.  I heard Your voice, I felt the allure of Your call, and I came out of hiding to follow You into uncharted territory.  I came to the threshold that separates safety from risk, I looked behind to the familiar, then looked ahead into the dark, and abandoned myself to the unknown.  You have promised that my trust in You will be rewarded.  How I hope that my faith tugs at Your heart.

I am affirming yet again that I trust You.  I will not look back at some of the bridges that were burned as I crossed over into the land of faith.  I obeyed You and You burned them. But in a weak moment, I see a few bridges that are left.  I could go back to where it feels safe and I will admit that this is a great temptation.   But I know the cost.  To go where it is familiar, I must let go of Your hand.

Please don’t allow it, Lord.  Close the door to the past.  Cause your holy fire to consume the lock and disfigure the metal.  Should I falter and insert my old key into the lock, may it no longer work in the mechanism.  I want to stay here with you, in the land of faith, in the purposes to which You called me before I was even born.  I am adapting to a new way of life.  The truths are awkward and the rhetoric is strange on my tongue.  But as I rehearse them, I know I am making them mine.

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I do not know all that You are planning.  I could fear but I choose faith.  When I could faint, I speak Your promises.  When it’s dark and feels like the end, I know You are still carving out a new road.  Your plans for me are good.  You said, “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”  In this, Lord, You excel.  You are my God and there is none other.  In Jesus’ name, Amen

Prayer For Acceptance

Published on by Christine Wyrtzen3 Comments

Whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.  John 6:37

Cast out ~  throw out, drive out, cause to be an outsider.

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I have known the pain of reaching out and of being refused; extending and being turned away.  I will not allow the memories to keep me from fully experiencing You.  I continue to trust You to heal all former rejections.  No widow needs be without a Husband.  No orphan without a Father. No spouse without a Lover.  You are everything and complete every missing piece.  You fill up every vacuum.

When I abide in You, and I dare to believe that all You are is mine, I find joy unspeakable.  You won’t turn Your back on me when I seek You.  When I come, You will be found.  When I reach for You, You will embrace. When I talk, You will catch every word.  When I cry, You will understand every tear.  When I make You my home, You will never cast me out, disown me, or reject me.  Your Word says, “So he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.” Hebrews 7:25  Thank you.  I know that my salvation and adoption is complete.

Happy kid with raised arms in green spring field against blue sky. Freedom and happiness concept

So, I will need you courageously and outrageously today.  I won’t play it safe and hold back.  I don’t need to.  I can take risks and fail, Lord.  You applaud my faith and my significance is not in achieving success.  I may sin greatly because my flesh is ever with me.  If I do, I will never worry that our relationship is threatened.  Your Word says, “You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Psalm 86:17

Your love will not disappoint me.  Your character is unchanging and the nature of Your love is eternal.  When tonight comes, no matter what may have happened today, I will know that I dwell in safety and can sleep like a baby because I am Yours.  Amen

Prayer to Love More Like Jesus

Published on by Christine Wyrtzen1 Comment

May the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all men, just as we also do for you.  I Thessalonians 3:12

Jesus, I am so aware that I don’t love like You love.  Far from it.  I am sad about that.  I need the Word and Your Spirit to change me.  I know that I won’t feel affection for everyone around me because some don’t act like You.  You have taught me that I am not pressured to conjure up warm emotions for those who act more like an enemy than a friend.  But love is active and You ask me to love like You do.

Photo illustration by Dale Kalus

Infuse my heart with Your Spirit.  Empower me to love regardless of what someone near me does or doesn’t do.

  • Your love is long suffering.  Change me.  I get exasperated easily even if my face doesn’t show it.  Change my heart so that it takes a long time to get hot.
  • Your love is kind.  Change me.  I can be more passionate and tender toward those whom I believe are deserving.
  • Your love is not jealous.  Change me. I want to be able to celebrate the successes of others, especially those whose gifts eclipse my own.
  • Your love vaunts not itself.  Change me.  I need encouragement, not criticism, on my tongue.  My first thoughts are often judgemental.
  • Your love is not puffed up.  Change me.  Work in me the spirit of humility.  Remind me of who I really am without Your work of grace.  Help me to live small.
  • Your love seeks not its own.  Change me.  You came to earth for my best interest, not Your own.  Help me become someone who does not think of my own rights, but seeks opportunities to serve others in Your name.
  • Your love takes no account of evil.  Change me.  I can be weak.  I can ignore evil instead of confronting it.  Give me courage; both to speak and to refrain from taking revenge when wronged.

Forgive me for when I’ve allowed my natural affections to determine my actions.  Oh, how I want Your Spirit to breathe through the pores of my life.  Live large in me, Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen

 

Prayer For A Loved One’s Salvation

Published on by Christine WyrtzenLeave a comment

Lord God, I pray for the fulfillment of Your promises. Many words of faith have been proclaimed. Many words of salvation have been uttered into the darkness. Many scriptures have been whispered in tearful prayers. They still beg for a harvest. The words left the mouth of this servant and went into a chaotic and confused heart. Accomplish what it was sent out to do.

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You have called me to love. You have called me to plead for the unbelieving and that is a holy thing. You have risen up in me to send Your Word forth to what looked hopeless. I have done it by faith. I know the power of Your words. When watered by Your Spirit, heaven’s seeds bear fruit on foreign soil. Infuse this hope into my discouragement today.

Someone I love is still resistant to change. They shun any mention of You. The Word has fallen into their darkness and I see no trace of it. Do not let them run toward their own destruction. Cure their spiritual blindness. Cause the breath of Your Spirit to blow over the carnage of their lives so that they can hear, understand, and then rise up to stand on their feet. I smell spiritual death but I say, by faith, “Prepare to hear the Word of the Lord.”

With these scriptures, enforce the victory of Calvary over the mind and heart of my unbelieving loved one. God, when You shed light, no darkness can overcome it. When You speak, no other voice nullifies it.   “For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” 2 Cor. 4:6   As Elisha prayed, I also pray, “O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see. And the LORD opened the servant’s eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” 2 Kings 6:17

 Today is the day of salvation. Seal the process of their spiritual decision making by the power of Your Spirit. May it be that “The eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.” Isaiah 35:5 In Jesus’ name, Amen

Training My Fingers For Battle

Published on by Christine Wyrtzen3 Comments

Blessed be the LORD, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle.  Psalm 144:1

You are such a kind Father. You do not send children to the front lines to be annihilated by an enemy who is too strong for them. You’ve given me everything I need to be victorious over any tactic, any scheme, strategy, or plan of the enemy.  While he may be cunning and know me well,  (for he knows where and when to strike), Your weapons are mighty and promise a way of escape.  At the end of the day, I will stand on my feet like David, assessing Goliath, who lay in defeat because he failed to cover a stone-sized piece of exposed forehead.  I anticipate victory today because my weaponry is fashioned by You.

So, make me a soldier.  Train my hands for war.  I am in boot camp.  I am a soldier, not a civilian.  Today, I put on the pieces of armor You have provided for me.  You inspired the Apostle Paul to reveal that You armor is the armor of Light.  It is You, Lord Jesus Christ.

Knight with sword and shield

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