Day 14: Praying Church

Daily Devotional

1 John 5:14-15

14 “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him."

When we pray, we may at times struggle with whether God will answer our prayers or not. He certainly does, but now the question is if He will answer in the way we would like. Fortunately for us, we can be at peace knowing that He will always “hear” or respond favorably to our prayers. The only condition is that we pray according to His will. Prayer is never a convenient way of bending God to obey our will, desires, and wishes. Rather, it is about submitting ourselves to God and praying for His will to be done. Does this mean that it is wrong to ask God for help when we are suffering or have any other prayer requests? Absolutely not! But we should still pray “Thy will be done” as we lift up our requests to Him. Our God delights to help His children, and we can be at peace knowing that His will is good and perfect. So when we pray, even when we pray for ourselves or others, let us seek God’s will to be done. Then we can be absolutely sure that God will use our prayers in marvelous ways.

Weekly Application

Make a decision to set aside time each day that is dedicated to prayer. Let us pray that the time we spend praying may not just be out of duty, but a life-giving time of fellowship with God. Lift up your requests and confess your sins before God with the assurance of forgiveness. Intercede for your leaders, your church, and your community - standing in the gap for those who are in need. And invite Jesus to be in the midst of your circumstances with the expectation of supernatural joy and thanksgiving. Let us experience the power and the presence of God in our lives as we seek to become a praying church.