Search the Scriptures & Pray

Sometimes you feel like meditating on the scriptures and pray but you're short of study focus and praying structure. Here are some useful scriptures and prayer focus for different seasons in your life. 

Praise & Thanksgiving:             

• Thank the Lord for fearfully and wonderfully creating you | Ps. 139:13-18; Ps. 100
• Praise the Lord, for giving you life and for making you a new creation in Christ and for having a special purpose for your life | Psalms 46, 98, 103, 127, 133
• Thank the Lord for gladness and for the Joy of the Holy Spirit | (Acts 13:52; Eph. 5:18-20)

Reflection & Surrender:

• Ask the Lord to help you to surrender to His Will and purpose | Proverbs 19:21.
• Pray that you may willingly submit to the work of the Holy Spirit in your life – even on those occasions when you do not understand | Romans 8:28
• Pray that all that is of you may decrease and all that is of Christ may increase – until He is all in all in your life | John 3:30; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:21

Spiritual Development & Growth

• Reflection |Psalm 18: 29-46; Isaiah 58:6-14
• Repentance | Psalm 24:1-6; Psalm 51:1-13, Isaiah 1:18-19; 1 John 3: 4-15
• Submission & Re-dedication | Psalm 25:4-7
• Healing |Luke 8: 40-48; Acts 3:1-10; Rev 22:1-2
• Restoration | Isaiah 49: 17-21; Ex. 15:26; 23:25; Is. 53:4-5; John 5:1-15; Ps. 126:1
• Hunger for Growth| Ps 1; 42:1-2; 63:1; 143:6; Jn 6:35; Phil 3:14-15; 1 Pet 2:2; Eph. 3:16-20
• The Holy Spirit | John 7:37-39; Jude 20
• Fruitfulness | John 15:1-8
• Spiritual transformation | Gal 5:16-26; Eph. 1:17-19; Col 1:9-11
• Discipline | Hebrews 12:1-2
• Growth | Believe the Lord for increase and growth of the Fruit of the Spirit in you | Gal. 5:22-23
• Evangelism | Believe the Lord to open the doors of opportunity for you to preach the gospel.
• Pray for wisdom and creative strategies to win souls for Christ | Proverbs 11:30

Deliverance from on-going temptations:

1 Cor. 15:57; Gal. 2:20; Ps. 124:7; Ps. 125:3; Is. 49:25; Ps. 3:1-3; 50:15; 68: 19-20; 124:7; Is. 49:24-25

• Give thanks to the Lord, who gives you the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
• Confess, “…I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me…”
• Command every sinful snare over your life to be broken and your soul to escape like a bird out of the snare of the trapper.
• Decree that no sceptre of wickedness will rest on your life portions.
• Ask the Lord to contend with every sinful habit or ungodly behaviour that contends with your desire for holiness and righteousness. Command the captives of the mighty to be taken away, and the prey of the terrible to be delivered.

 

Overcoming Temptation through spiritual alertness:

• Mark 14:38; 1 Thess. 5:22; 2 Peter 3:17; Psalm 1:1; 1 Cor. 6:18
• Pray for spiritual alertness to stand; strength and sensitivity to run away from temptations.
• Pray to be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness.
• Pray that you will not walk in the counsel of the ungodly or stand in the path of sinners or sit in the seat of the scornful.
• Pray for the boldness to flee from all kinds of temptation and to glorify God in your body.

Overcoming Temptations through His word:

Ps. 1:2; Prov. 2:1-3; Ps. 119:9-11; Rom. 12:2; Gal. 5:16-18

• Pray to receive God’s words in your heart and to treasure His commands within you.
• Pray that you will incline your ear to wisdom, apply your heart to understanding, cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding.
• Pray that your delight will be in the law of the Lord and in His law, you will develop a hunger and meditate on it day and night.
• Pray for the boldness not to conform to this world, but to be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what the will of God is.
• Pray for a fresh fill of the Spirit of God and that, you will walk by the Spirit, and will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

Spiritual & Material Responsibility: 

(Ps. 24:1-2; Lk. 19:11-27; 1 Cor. 4:2; 2 Cor. 10:6)

• Thank the Lord for the resources (Time, skills, ability, money, people e.t.c ) that HE has blessed you with.
• Praise Him as the 'Owner' of everything that you have.
• Ask the Lord for the grace to be obedient in stewardship and to faithfully utilise all that HE has blessed you with.

Spiritual & Material Accountability: 

(Prov. 11:24-25; Mal.3: 9-12; 1 Cor. 9:11-14; Matt. 5:24; Acts 20:35; Phil. 2:13; Heb. 10:16)

• Pray for wisdom and a generous attitude towards giving.
• Trust the Holy Spirit to help you this season, to be willing and to faithfully obey His instructions concerning Stewardship in every area of your life.
• Ask the Lord to write His covenant and his laws, concerning stewardship, upon your heart.

Wisdom, Creativity & Opportunities:

(Deut. 8:18; Exodus 31:1-3; Matt. 6:24-27; Acts 9:36-42)

• Wisdom | Psalm 25: 4-5; Psalm 27:23-24; Isaiah 30:21; Jeremiah 33:1-3
• Help & Favour | Psalms 6:12; 12:5; 31:21; 34:9-10; 105:24; Is 30:21; Prov. 16:3
• Trust the Lord for the right skills, human connection, resources or abilities for wealth creation.
• Trust the Lord to connect you with the right career, business, relationship.
• Trust the Lord for the spiritual attitude to worship Him with your resources, and not to become a slave to what HE has blessed you with.
• Pray that the Lord will bless your gifts and abilities and cause them to make way for you.
• Be specific in asking the Lord to open to you, doors of opportunities, divine networking and influence. (Isaiah 45:1-3)
• Pray to experience unprecedented favour of relevant and instrumental people or organisations.
• Pray for the Lord remove hindrances and difficulties that are not part of His plan for your life.
• Pray for revelation insight and grace for invention.
• Ask the Lord to bring you out of a 'narrow' place into a 'large' place (Psalms 18:19)

 Timing, Waiting & Equipping:

• Ask the Holy Spirit to help you to learn to quietly wait upon the Lord and to rest in His love | Psalms 62:5-7; Lamentations 3:26; Psalms 46:10
• Ask the Lord for the courage and wisdom to be still and to wait quietly, patiently and expectantly knowing that His timing is perfect and that He know the plans that He has purposed for your life, even though you do may not! | Psalms 46:10; Jeremiah 29:11; Heb. 6:12-15; 10:36
• Ask the Lord to enable and equip you to fulfil the plan and purpose that He has for you to do and to use each gift and talent that He has graciously given to you, to His praise and glory.
• Ask the Holy Spirit to help you to fulfil all that the Lord would have you do in your life and to be obedient to His voice as you seek to carry out His purpose for your life | 2 Tim. 1:9; 4:7-8; Rom. 12:2

Other Personal Prayer focus:

• By faith, believe the Lord that your best moments are not behind you, but ahead of you. (John 2:10; Luke 8:43-44; Joel 2:25-28; Amos 9:13-15)
• Invite Him into the events of your lives; however challenging, embarrassing or difficult things may seem right now. (John 4:46-54; Eph. 3:20; Ps. 103; 147:3)
• Pray for healing and restoration (Ex. 15:26; 23:25; Is. 53:4-5; John 5:1-15; Ps. 126:1)
• Commit your family, ministry, career or/and possession into the Lord’s hands and trust Him for His provision and increase. (Psalms 23:1,5; 31:19; John 6:5-14; Psalms 34:4-10; Luke 6:38; 2 Cor. 9:8)
• Believe the Lord for the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, revival and restoration in areas where you have experienced instability, insecurity, confusion, stagnation or lifelessness. (Psalms 32:8; 37:19, 23,39,40; 127:1-2; John 6:16-24; 9:1-7; 11:1-45)

 God bless you.

Akinola Abiona