16 Rejoice always,
17 pray continually,
18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not treat prophecies with contempt 21 but test them all; hold on to what is good, 22 reject every kind of evil.
23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.
25 Brothers and sisters, pray for us
Questions for Reflection:
Think through any times in your life when you had functionally, "given up on prayer". What was that like? Why did it happen?
How do rejoicing, praying and giving thank work together as a powerful combination?
What today can you rejoice over? Pray over? Give thanks for?
Prayer of the Week:
My dear Lord Jesus Christ, I come to You now to be restored in You, to be renewed in You to receive Your love and Your life and all the GRACE and MERCY I so desperately need this day.
I praise You Jesus, that You have made union with my Father in heaven possible through for me through Your life, death, and resurrection. Thank You for reconciling me to my Father in heaven who loves me very much. Thank You for the gift of prayer so that I might experience this deep relationship in the moments of my day.
Father, Son, Holy Spirit I love You, I worship You, I adore You and I embrace You in this time of prayer. Wow, to think that in this moment I am talking with my God on a deep and personal, sitting down over a cup of coffee, kind of way.
You are amazing. You are available. You are the creator of the universe, Savior of the world, the King above all kings and You have time for me and everything that is important to me right now. Oh, Jesus thank You for making sure I am never alone. Come Holy Spirit and empower me to pray well and enjoy You this day.
Jesus, refresh the mindset I have about prayer, expand my understanding, fine tune my framework so that nothing (especially me) gets in the way of using this gift. Help me to keep from seeing prayer as another thing on the “to do” list but rather help me see prayer as the way to experience Your radically gracious availability.
Father, I want to “always pray and never give up” but I confess that so often I don’t even think of coming to You first – for the big things and the little things. Holy Spirit, I sincerely ask You to teach, guide, counsel and help me to Pray First, Pray Now, Pray Bold and Pray Through.
Jesus, hear my prayer ..... (conclude this prayer by taking whatever time you need to personally pray what is on your heart right now .... Prayers of praise or petition or thanks giving or .... just enjoy praying first, praying now, praying bold, praying through...)
Amen
