Prayer For God to Change ME

Top 20 prayer points for divine mercy and favour you should know

Prayer For God to Change ME

Are you in need of God’s mercy and favour over your life, over your family, over a situation? Here are some prayer points for mercy and favour that you can use to pray.

Favour is defined as a liking, an approval, an act of kindness, a support for someone beyond what is usual or what the person deserves. It is a very bad thing to lack mercy and favour in life.

This is because, there are times when some situations are beyond our control or limit, and only God's mercy and favour can help. This kind of situations or problems can result to a life of struggles and frustration.

To overcome these difficult situations in our lives, we need God's mercy and favour.

Things you should note and do to be able to enjoy God’s mercy and favour

These are some of the things you should take note and practice so that your prayer for mercy and favour can be answered:

  1. Stay connected to God.
  2. Repent of any sin and from secret unholy dealings that might be a hindrance.
  3. Decide to live in obedience to God’s word and trust God to help you with the decision
  4. Walk in love daily.
  5. Be a person of prayer and trust God for the grace to always pray.

READ ALSO: Prayer points for breakthrough with Bible verses

Prayers for mercy and favour

Mercy and favour go hand in hand most of the time. That is why I have decided not to write the prayers for mercy separate and for favour separately. Here are twenty prayer points on mercy and favour that are powerful.

1. Lord, I thank you because my joy is multiplying as I receive unlimited favour of God in Jesus Name.

2. Lord, in whatever way that I have sinned against you and disobeyed your word and instructions, please show me mercy according to your loving kindness and forgive my sins according to your mercy that endures forever in Jesus name.

3. Lord, I seek your mercy and favour in my life, in my studies, in my business and so on (mention those areas where you want God’s mercy and favour), in Jesus name.

4. Father, by your mercy, listen to my cry and give me testimonies in Jesus name.

5. Psalms 102 verse 13 says: “You will arise and have mercy on Zion; for the time to favour her, Yes, the set time, has come. Oh Lord, arise and show me mercy, for it is time for me to experience your favour in name of Jesus.”

6. Oh Lord, I do not put my hope and trust in my strength, I put my hope and trust in your favour to bring me things in my life in Jesus name. Read Psalms 44 verse 3.

7. Lord, let your favour be evident in my life everywhere I go so that I can expand your Kingdom everywhere I step my foot on testifying to your goodness in the name of Jesus.

8. Father, please let me experience your favour wherever I go and wherever I turn in Jesus Name.

9. Oh Lord, let your mercy and favour make me stand out among my peers in the name of Jesus.

10. Father, let your favour make me be at the right place at the right time in the name of Jesus.

11. Let the favour of God upon my life, always attract the right people into my life, into my path in the name of Jesus.

12. Almighty God, by your mercy, I decree that the hand and plans of the enemy shall not prevail over my life, in the name of Jesus.

13. Oh Lord, by your mercy, let the devil not triumph over me in the name of Jesus.

14. Oh Lord, by your mercy, where others have failed, let me succeed in the name of Jesus.

15. Father, wherever the enemy has knocked me down, let your mercy lift me up and restore me, in the name of Jesus.

16. Every struggle in my life, by the mercy and favour of God, has come to an end in Jesus name.

17. Father, let the anointing of supernatural and uncommon favour rest upon my life from today in the name of Jesus.

18. I command doors of supernatural favour to open unto me from today (mention any specific area that you needs the door of favour to open unto you) in the name of Jesus.

19. Father, I pray that the lack of favour in my life comes to an end today in Jesus name.

20. Almighty God, let your favour speedily connect me with men that will help my destiny and my cause in Jesus name.

Keep these prayer points and keep praying with them daily. Pray without ceasing. May the Lord hear your prayers for mercy and favour in Jesus name.

READ ALSO: Benefits of thanksgiving to God

Источник: //www.legit.ng/1136172-prayer-points-mercy-favour-god.html

Can We Change God’s Mind with Prayer? A Bible Study

Prayer For God to Change ME

The Bible instructs us to pray. In fact, in the New Testament we are told to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). The Christian life is a life that is to be lived in constant communication with God.

We read that the prayer of a righteous person is powerful (James 5:16).

Nevertheless, the question is often asked, “Do my prayers really change God’s mind?” Let us look at this question and try to answer it from the Bible.

God is omniscient

The Bible indicates that God is omniscient. Omniscient means ‘all-knowing’. God knows everything; what was, what is, and what will be. Because of this, we know that God already knows what we need, and even what we are going to pray about.

Therefore, we can conclude that our prayers do not surprise God. It cannot be said that God intended to do thus and such but, as a result of our prayers, He decides to do something different.

[A discussion of God’s foreknowledge, election, and predestination are beyond the scope of this article]

However, God does respond to our prayers. Our interaction with Him affects His actions. He has told us, in His Word, how He will react to certain actions and attitudes of ours; and our prayers reveal what our attitudes are.

When we come to Him in prayer, we are exhibiting our reliance and trust in Him.

And, just as an earthly father wants the best for his children who come to him in dependence, so God relates to His children who come to Him dependently.

The ‘real’ question

Many times, the real question behind the question, “Can we change God’s mind with prayer?” is “Do I, and my prayers, matter to God?” We want to know if God cares about us enough to pay attention to our prayers. Jesus asserts that God loves His children even more than earthly fathers love their children (Matthew 7:10-11). God loves us more than the most loving human father ever has or ever will.

God gives us some conditions that must be met in order for us to be in the right condition to have our prayers answered:

  • our prayers must be grounded in faith in God (Matthew 21:22; Mark 11:24);
  • we must ask in Jesus’ name (John 16:24);
  • we must ask with the right motives (James 4:3);
  • we must be persistent in our dependence on God (Matthew 7:8; Luke 1:10);
  • we must keep His commandments and obey Him (I John 3:22); and
  • our prayers must be in accordance with His will (I John 5:14).

This may seem a lot of things to do and remember in order for God to answer our prayers, but they are all wrapped up in the one commandment Jesus said is above all others, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment” (Matthew 22:37 ESV; cf. Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27). When this is the condition of our heart, all the conditions for answered prayer are met.

When we are truly submitted to Jesus, and His Lordship, our relationship with Him will be such that He hears and answers our prayers as a loving father would answer the requests of his children, whom he loves dearly. David Platt, in his book Follow Me, compares the believer’s submission with the submission of earthly children to their earthly father,

“If my kids were to say me, ‘Dad, this week, we will do whatever you think is best for us,’ how do you think I would respond? Would I make their week miserable? Certainly not. I would honor their trust in me by leading them toward whatever is best for them.

Now I’m not perfect, and I don’t know what’s best for my children 100 percent of the time. But God does. He is a perfect Father, and he makes no mistakes. He desires our good more than we do.

So shouldn’t we gladly surrender our will to his? This is what it means to be a disciple” ( p. 130).

Whose mind is changed?

Most often, it is we who are changed when we come to God in prayer.

Often, when we come to God to ask Him for something, we have already decided what it is that we need. Too often, we pray to God to get Him to see things our way and to join the plan that we have envisioned.

However, quite often, God uses these times to teach us that He knows what is best for us. He will gently change our minds to see things His way, so that we end up participating in His plan.

Most often, it is we who are changed when we come to God in prayer.

The Prayer of Repentance

However, there is a special prayer that completely changes one’s relationship with God.

The Bible tells us clearly that, when anyone prays the prayer of repentance and becomes a follower of Jesus, God relates to that person in a very different way than He did while they were unrepentant sinners in rebellion to Him.

Whereas before they were under God’s wrath and judgment, after they confess their sins and repent, they are forgiven and are no longer under His condemnation (Romans 8:1).

Nevertheless, this does not indicate that God changed His mind; rather, He simply responded just as He promised He would when anyone confesses and repents of their sin and turns to Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Have you confessed your sins and repented of them? It will be the most important prayer you’ve ever prayed.

Conclusion

Since God is omniscient (all-knowing) it cannot be said that, from His point of view, He ever ‘changes His mind’. Nevertheless, we are not omniscient, we know that God loves us, and we are instructed to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

In this way, we are always communicating with God and, as long as we are living as He wants us to, we can be confident that He hears our prayers and acts on them. The most important aspect of our prayer lives is to make sure that, in everything, we are living for Him and His glory.

So, does God change His mind? No…but He does respond to our prayers as a loving father responds to his children’s needs and requests…only better.

10 Awesome Bible Verses About the Power of Prayer

Resources – The Holy Bible, English Standard Version “Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.” Platt, David. Follow Me. Tyndale, 2013. video “On My Knees” by Jaci Velasquez.

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as: Bible Study, change God's mind, Prayer

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Источник: //www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/can-we-change-gods-mind-with-prayer-a-bible-study/

Does Prayer Change God’s Mind?

Prayer For God to Change ME
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After the Israelites responded to God’s faithfulness in delivering them from Egypt by making a golden statue to worship and having an all-night orgy around it (not a good response), God confronted Moses on Mt. Sinai and told him that God’s wrath would “burn hot against them and consume them” (Exodus 32:10).

“But Moses implored the LORD his God and said…‘Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people.

Remember Abraham, Isaac and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, “I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.”’”

And then, the most amazing verse:

“And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people”
(Exodus 32:11-14 ESV).

What is going on here? Does Moses’ prayer convince God to change his mind by reminding God of something he had said, something that he had apparently forgotten about? Was God just having an off day? Had he forgotten to do his quiet time that morning?

Let me make it even more confusing for you: Moses, the same author who recorded this story, says clearly in Numbers 23:19, “God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind.”

What should we do with this? Engineers and accountants and other type-A people ( myself) will struggle with this, but God is too big to contain in neat, tidy formulas. We should approach these issues not as contradictions to be resolved but as three truths to be held in tension:

1. God’s purposes are unchanging

Verses Numbers 23:19 are clear: God is not a man. He never learns anything new. He doesn’t wise up with experience or change his mind.

The prophet Isaiah concurs: “I am God, and there is none me, declaring the end from the beginning…saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose’” (Isaiah 46:9-10).

And the apostle Paul: “In him we have…been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1:11).

Moses, Isaiah and Paul are three of the most significant authors of Scripture, and they all say the same thing. So, it seems clear that God’s purposes are unchanging, but, I said, we have to hold this in tension with another truth.

The text of Exodus says that God changed his course of action Moses’ prayer. And here’s the irony of the story: God is the one who tells Moses to go down and see the situation (v. 7). Moses didn’t know the people had corrupted themselves. God showed this to him.

Furthermore, the very thing that Moses uses to “change God’s mind” is God’s own promise. (And God, of course, hadn’t forgotten his promises.)

Do you see what’s happening? God had put Moses into a situation so that he would see the problem God already knew about, remember God’s promises, and petition God to change his course of action. Moses’ prayer itself is a result of God’s plan.

God wants Moses to ask this, so he sovereignly puts him in a situation where he will ask for it.
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The text is clear: Without this prayer, God would have destroyed Israel. The prayer was instrumental in getting God to change his course of action. And that’s consistent with the pattern of prayer throughout Scripture. As I’ve heard it said, “Prayer moves the arm that moves the world.”

Now, many people might ask at this point, “Well, what if Moses had refused to pray? Would that mean that they would not have been saved, and would that mean that it was not God’s will to save them after all? And what does that mean if I fail to pray for something God wants me to pray for? Does that mean that the thing that I didn’t pray about wasn’t God’s will after all? Or would God have just gotten someone else to pray it?”

You may begin to feel your head aching. It’s understandable.

Those kinds of questions are the wrong ones to ask about these situations. Scripture never teaches us to think about the will of God that way.

The 19th-century Princeton theologian A.A. Hodge put it this way (my paraphrase): “Does God know the day you’ll die? Yes. Has he appointed that day? Yes. Can you do anything to change that day? No. Then why do you eat? To live. What happens if you don’t eat? You die. Then if you don’t eat, and die, then would that be the day that God had appointed for you to die?

“Quit asking stupid questions and just eat. Eating is the pre-ordained way God has appointed for living.”

I imagine Hodge would say something similar to us today: Quit asking stupid questions and just pray.

You see, however impossible it is for our puny minds to understand, God has sovereignly placed us in certain situations for the express purpose of praying his promises and “changing his plans,” so to speak. He wants us to employ divine power to create a different destiny than the one everyone is heading to.

Your situation—the problems you are observing and the divinely appointed opportunities in them—are invitations to call God’s promises into effect.

Moses, God has “sent you down” into a family, a group of friends, a neighborhood. Some of you have looked around at your family and thought, “Why did God make me part of this family?” If nothing else, he put you there to pray.

You are placed where he wants you to be so you can obey and pray for the things he wants to do, to perceive the problem and believe the promise and release his power into the situation.

In light of that, there are two things that you need to be absolutely full of if you are going to be an effective pray-er: the Word and the Spirit. Because those are the two means God has given you to perceive the kingdom of God and the will of God.

God’s Word is not just a textbook to be learned but a book of promises to be claimed. Moses, we are supposed to say, “God, remember you said…” Don’t just read your way through Scripture. Pray your way through it.

And trust in the Spirit of God to guide you as you pray, to show you where and how to extend God’s kingdom. He is willing and waiting and wanting to answer!

This article originally appeared here.

Источник: //churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/325205-does-prayer-change-gods-mind.html

Can Prayer Really Change Things?

Prayer For God to Change ME

Can prayer change things? Does talking to God have any effect whatsoever on what happens? If we are sick, does asking God to heal us make a difference in whether we get better? If a friend has rejected the Lord, is there any point in pleading for his salvation? These are not just theological questions. Our trust in God is at stake. On one hand, the Bible assures us that the Lord answers prayer. On the other, it teaches that God is the sovereign Lord who knows and rules all things according to his perfect will.

So we ask again: Can prayer really change God's will? Does it really affect what happens in our lives and in the world? Or does it only affect us spiritually as we express our gratitude and dependence on God? Thoughtful Christians wrestle with this issue. Sometimes we conclude that prayer strengthens our souls but doesn't change the world. What's going to happen will happen whether we pray or not. Que sera sera.

Does prayer change things?

At first glance this is either a silly question or theological quicksand that could swallow our faith. Of course prayer is effective. The Bible says so repeatedly and gives plenty of examples. “The prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well…. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (James 5:15-16).

Jesus himself says, “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it” (John 14:14). He assures us that our Father in heaven will give good gifts to those who ask him (Matt. 7:11). In Exodus 32 it seems the prayer of Moses even got God to change his mind (v. 14): God threatened to wipe out the Israelites, and Moses asked him not to.

The Bible indisputably teaches that prayer can make a difference. So why do we still wonder?

Only if prayer is good enough

One reason might be the conditions and qualities of prayer that Scripture lists. Apparently God doesn't answer just any prayer. It has to be the right kind of prayer—prayer in Jesus' name, or prayer according to God's will, or the prayer of a righteous person, or prayer that is offered in true faith.

If faith can move mountains and my prayers don't even move the air, then perhaps I don't really have faith. If the prayers of the righteous are effective and mine aren't, then maybe I'm not righteous. Maybe I'm totally tune with God's will.

We fear that our prayers don't matter because they aren't good enough.

But Scripture assures us that God hears our prayers according to his grace and not our merit. Romans 8:26-27 is wonderfully comforting: “The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit intercedes for us… in accordance with God's will.

” God's love in Jesus Christ is so wonderful that it not only takes away our sins, it also infuses our feeble and fallible prayers with quality and content that please God. Our prayers are perfectly acceptable to the Father through Christ and the Spirit. It does take the right kind of prayers to get through to God, and by his grace we regularly pray them.

So self-doubt should not make us wonder whether prayer can change things.

But God's will is sovereign

A more profound reason to wonder whether our prayers make a difference is the biblical emphasis on God's greatness and the power of his will. Reverence for God's sovereignty in creation and redemption is a deep and pervasive characteristic of the (Reformed) Christian faith.

God's will ultimately ordains everything, including our eternal destiny. Ephesians 1 and Romans 8 teach that God has predestined and providentially governs “all things,” from before the foundation of the world to their final destiny in Jesus Christ. Theologians call this God's eternal counsel.

How can prayer possibly change what God has willed “from before the foundations of the earth” (Eph. 1)?

What's more, Scripture emphasizes prayer according to God's will. Paul repeatedly asked that his “thorn in the flesh” be removed, but God did not remove it (2 Cor. 12:7). Jesus himself, the night before he was crucified, prayed, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42).

Apparently God does not answer our prayers if they are not according to his will.But even if they conform to his will, do they make any difference? If God's will is fixed, how can anything change his mind or alter his plans? And if nothing can alter God's plan, then prayer can't alter God's plan. So we might conclude: “No. Prayer does not change things.

Talking to God has no effect on how things turn out.”

See the bigger picture

Is this where Reformed theology brings us? Does it force us to deny one teaching of Scripture (that prayer is effective) to affirm another (that God is sovereign)? Does our doctrine undercut assurance that the Lord hears and answers us? Can we trust that prayer is real communication and not just a pointless ritual? Or must we disbelieve that God would change things because we ask him to?

No human theology can capture, harmonize, and fully explain everything that Scripture teaches. But sound and tenable theology strives to get as close as humanly possible.

The best of Reformed theology does provide a way to affirm both God's sovereign will and the genuine communication and effectiveness of his children's prayers.

But in joyful reverence we acknowledge we can't explain how: “God works in mysterious ways his wonders to perform.”

God's plan for history includes everything that happens from the beginning to the end of the world. He knows and providentially sustains the sequences, connections, causes, and consequences of all things and all events.

God wills them in the sense that these are the things that happen in the world he has chosen in Christ to create, redeem, and fulfill. So “not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my heavenly Father,” as the Heidelberg Catechism teaches.

(God does not will all things in the sense of approving of sin and evil, however; rather, he permits them.) Our prayers and the things about which we pray are part of this history.

But does God really hear and answer prayer? Do we really connect with him? God's providence does not make him a distant impartial observer. In fact, just the opposite is true. God is eternal and omnipresent—”present everywhere.” Every creature and every event at all times and places are fully present to God.

He is “nearer than hands and feet” throughout our lives, including when we pray. God does not listen merely as an empathetic human would—first learning our needs and then deciding how to help.

His knowledge, love, understanding, and response are real long before we whisper our prayers, real while we pray, and real long after we've forgotten them.

But does prayer make a difference—affect outcomes? Of course. If God knows and wills all things, then he knows and wills the prayers of his people and the circumstances in which we pray them. In God's plan, our prayers can be crucial links in the chain of events.

If I get sick, pray for healing, and then get better—this sequence is part of God's plan. Why can't it be his plan to heal me because I pray? God can decide that my prayer is the reason he heals me just as God can will that medical treatment is the cause he uses.

God could have healed me if I didn't pray or not healed me if I did. But it is God's eternal will that I become sick, that I pray, and that I am healed because I prayed. My prayer did not heal me; God did—a real answer to prayer.

God's will and effective prayer are not contradictory. They go together. Our prayers really do matter!

But do they change anything? Can we change God's mind? Not in one sense, but yes in another. God's eternal counsel—his providential plan for history—is not altered. If God's plan does not include my healing, then he will not heal me.

If Christ's return is scheduled for 2020, no amount of prayer will make it sooner. But from our human point of view, things can take unexpected turns because we pray. If my doctor says my illness is terminal, I might not expect healing.

But God might heal me miraculously because of prayer. God told Moses that he intended to destroy the Israelites, Moses interceded, and the Lord did not punish them. The interaction was real. Moses' plea is the reason God relented.

But the Lord always knew and willed that this would happen. God is not a human we can talk into improving his strategy.

Our prayers and deeds can make a difference! We can even pray for the salvation of someone who does not love the Lord. God might answer by giving that person a new heart—spiritual rebirth.

He might even use our words and deeds as means of change! Salvation is due to God's sovereign grace alone, not our prayers, words, or deeds. But surely God wills to use them to build his church and bring his kingdom.

Predestination does not render our prayers and actions pointless. If God wills the end, he also wills the means.

Our prayers and our deeds do make a difference! May the Lord teach us to pray effectively, according to his will.

Источник: //www.ccel.org/node/13396

2. God’s plans are unfolding

The text of Exodus says that God changed his course of action Moses’ prayer. And here’s the irony of the story: God is the one who tells Moses to go down and see the situation (v. 7). Moses didn’t know the people had corrupted themselves. God showed this to him.

Furthermore, the very thing that Moses uses to “change God’s mind” is God’s own promise. (And God, of course, hadn’t forgotten his promises.)

Do you see what’s happening? God had put Moses into a situation so that he would see the problem God already knew about, remember God’s promises, and petition God to change his course of action. Moses’ prayer itself is a result of God’s plan.

God wants Moses to ask this, so he sovereignly puts him in a situation where he will ask for it.

3. Our prayers are instrumental

The text is clear: Without this prayer, God would have destroyed Israel. The prayer was instrumental in getting God to change his course of action. And that’s consistent with the pattern of prayer throughout Scripture. As I’ve heard it said, “Prayer moves the arm that moves the world.”

Now, many people might ask at this point, “Well, what if Moses had refused to pray? Would that mean that they would not have been saved, and would that mean that it was not God’s will to save them after all? And what does that mean if I fail to pray for something God wants me to pray for? Does that mean that the thing that I didn’t pray about wasn’t God’s will after all? Or would God have just gotten someone else to pray it?”

You may begin to feel your head aching. It’s understandable.

Those kinds of questions are the wrong ones to ask about these situations. Scripture never teaches us to think about the will of God that way.

The 19th century Princeton theologian A.A. Hodge put it this way (my paraphrase): “Does God know the day you’ll die? Yes. Has he appointed that day? Yes. Can you do anything to change that day? No. Then why do you eat? To live. What happens if you don’t eat? You die. Then if you don’t eat, and die, then would that be the day that God had appointed for you to die?

“Quit asking stupid questions and just eat. Eating is the pre-ordained way God has appointed for living.”

I imagine Hodge would say something similar to us today: Quit asking stupid questions and just pray.

You see, however impossible it is for our puny minds to understand, God has sovereignly placed us in certain situations for the express purpose of praying his promises and “changing his plans,” so to speak. He wants us to employ divine power to create a different destiny than the one everyone is heading to.

Your situation—the problems you are observing and the divinely appointed opportunities in them—are invitations to call God’s promises into effect.

Moses, God has “sent you down” into a family, a group of friends, a neighborhood. Some of you have looked around at your family and thought, “Why did God make me part of this family?” If nothing else, he put you there to pray.

You are placed where he wants you to be so you can obey and pray for the things he wants to do, to perceive the problem and believe the promise and release his power into the situation.

In light of that, there are two things that you need to be absolutely full of if you are going to be an effective pray-er: the Word and the Spirit. Because those are the two means God has given you to perceive the kingdom of God and the will of God.

God’s Word is not just a textbook to be learned but a book of promises to be claimed. Moses, we are supposed to say, “God, remember you said …” Don’t just read your way through Scripture. Pray your way through it.

And trust in the Spirit of God to guide you as you pray, to show you where and how to extend God’s kingdom. He is willing and waiting and wanting to answer!

Источник: //jdgreear.com/blog/prayer-change-gods-mind/

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