from January 6, 2013 prayer update

A key personal goal for me in 2013 is significant growth in the area of prayer. I am asking God for consistency and fervency, to extensively claim Biblical promises, and to meaningfully connect with Him. Prayer for myself, my family, and for the nations.

“(Prayer) lays its hand on Almighty God and moves Him to do what He would not otherwise do if prayer was not offered. It bring things to pass which would never otherwise occur. … Prayer is a wonderful power placed by Almighty God in the hands of His saints, which may be used to accomplish great purposes and to achieve unusual results. … The only limits on prayer are the promises of God and His ability to fulfill those promises. … Prayer moves the hand that moves the world.”
E.M. Bounds

Below are some of my favorite passages and promises about prayer that I am claiming and looking to God to make real in and through my life.

“Ask of Me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.” -- Psalm 2:8

“Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” -- Psalm 37:4

“Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek Me with all your heart.” -- Jeremiah 19:12-13

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seek finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” -- Matthew 7:7-8

“Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” -- Matthew 9:37-38

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in Me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” -- John 14:13-14

“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. … If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” -- John 15:5, 7

“You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He may give it to you.” -- John 15:16

“At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison” -- Colossians 4:3-4

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” -- I Thessalonians 5:16-18

“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all the people” -- I Timothy 2:1

“You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” -- James 4:3

“Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” -- James 5:16