April 9 – Pray – Desire Goodness

To this end also we pray for you always, that our God will count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power…. 2 Thessalonians 1:11

We pray for you always—everyday. Not a day goes by that I don’t pray for my children and grandchildren. If you don’t have children or grandchildren, for whom do you pray? Prayer has so much potential—it taps into God’s awesome power. God wants to communicate with us—He wants to hear our desires and He has answers for us. That is prayer. One of my favorite verses has become Psalm 37:4… Delight yourself in the LORD; and He will give you the desires of your heart. So the desire of my heart is that God will consider you—as you read this blog—worthy and give you the goodness and faith that you want in your life (my paraphrase of 2 Thessalonians 1:11). God loves to have us pray scripture back to Him. Choose a passage and give it a try. 

Training Tip – After you have tried praying back scripture to the Lord, share that idea with your family. Choose a verse to make a prayer, maybe one verse for each person. Read the verse and then pray it to the Lord. For older children you could do a whole passage.

Here’s an example from Psalm 121 (scripture in italics – prayer in bold.

I will lift up my eyes to the mountains;

  I look at the mountains and the hills,

From where shall my help come?

  Where can I find some help?

My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth.

  My help comes from You—O Lord, the creator of heaven and earth.

He will not allow your foot to slip;

  You keep my foot steady—no slip sliding around.

He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

  You don’t sleep—You are always alert and on duty at Your job keeping watch over everyone.

The LORD is your keeper;

  You are my keeper—my guide—my greatest helper ever.

The LORD is your shade on your right hand. The sun will not smite you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD will protect you from all evil;

   You provide shade from the heat of the day—from heat of trials, too…and protect me from evil—the bad stuff of the world.

He will keep your soul.

  You keep my very soul safe.

The LORD will guard your going out and your coming in From this time forth and forever.

   Lord—keep me safe as I come and go, guard my heart, soul and thoughts from now until forever.  

Lord, this is my prayer today…that You will give my family and me the goodness, faith and safety that we all desire. We praise You—forever.

All scripture quoted from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) unless otherwise noted.

© 2013 by Mickey M. Hunacek. All rights reserved.