Chapter 1 Prayers

Prayer is a passion of mine. I have read many books on prayer, and sometimes I feel like they’re more about getting things from God than just getting God-abiding, dwelling, connecting with our Heavenly Father. There came a time when I finally just had to stop reading books on prayer and started looking at examples from The Bible.

Some of my favorites are Paul’s Chapter 1 prayers! He opens his epistles with thanksgiving and praise and prays for heavenly things, not material things. He asks that the people he’s writing to be filled with knowledge or spiritual gifts, increase in wisdom, grow in love, he thanks them for being partners in the gospel, and to be filled with fruit that pleases the LORD.

If you have time, just glance through the first few verses of Chapter 1 in all of the epistles. It has influenced and inspired me to pray differently, to pray for eternal things rather than material (although we are instructed to pray for these things too). Below are 2 of my favorites, I have started to regularly pray these scriptures for myself, family, friends, and the ladies in my life group.

“And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” (Philippians 1:9-11)

“And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” (Colossians 1:9-10)

Learning how to pray different . . . Hoping my heart conforms to His, that I’d be able to “seek first His Kingdom” or pray for “His Kingdom to come, His will to be done on earth as it is in Heaven”.

Oh LORD . . . teach me to pray!