June 23, 2022 - James 4:3

“And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.” James 4:3 NLT

Lord, teach us to pray in a way that brings you pleasure. We don’t want to pray only for things that are personal to us. Even when praying for the salvation or the needs of our loved ones, which we know is a good thing that is a part of your will, it is focusing on needs that directly affect us and those we love. I am challenged by a quote I recently heard asking, “If I received answers to all the prayers I prayed in the last 12 months, would my life be better, or the world be better?” Wow, Lord, what a challenge! We want to pray for the people and situations that are heavy on your heart. We want to help lift your burden. I want my prayer life to change the world and the situation affecting it. We want to make time to also come to you and ask what you want us to pray for, then wait for you to answer. Teach us how to hear your voice more clearly. Show us not only what topics to pray for, but specifically how to pray for each of the topics so that the situation comes in alignment with your will.

We want to learn to be prayer warriors who send up specific prayers that literally change situations around the world. We don’t want to only shoot an arrow prayer into a situation and hope it makes a difference. Teach us how to contend with a subject until the battle is won or you release us from that battle. Holy Spirit, deepen our prayer life. We invite you to come and burden us with the topics we need to take on and then teach us how to really take them on in spiritual warfare. Make us prayer warriors that will literally send the enemy running when he hears our prayers rising to heaven. Fill us with your power and teach us how to effectively use it. Let us learn to change the world in our prayer closets.

In Jesus name, amen.