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Letters from My Heart: A Prayer of Intercession

  

"The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much" James 5:16b NKJV

Intercession
Intercessory prayer is an act of service. Interceding for others is an act of taking personal needs and placing them on the back burner in order to effectively and fervently pray for others. Dr. Charles Stanley puts it best:
"We must recognize that our prayers are the link between another person's need and God's inexhaustible resources" Intercession goes beyond the realm of self to reach the heart of God on behalf of someone else.
Intercessory prayer allows us to follow the intercession pattern of the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:26 states, "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express." As we pray for others by interceding for them we express to God what they may not be able to express for themselves. Prayer is a privilege; however intercessory prayer is where true breakthrough takes place. Take time today to pray your friends, neighborhoods, enemies, government, the people of this nation and the people of the world. By engaging in this intercession you truly touch the heart of God.

Prayer
Lord, thank you for the opportunity to pray for my neighbors, friends, strangers, family, nation and the world. I stand in the gap on their behalf even now. I pray your mercy and kindness toward them and that they would experience growth in you.
Thank you for the desire to pray as the Holy Spirit prays, these prayers are always in line with your will.
I pray for the world in which we live that your mercy will be upon it and the glory of your presence will be seen. Thank you for loving and embracing all of us. In Jesus name-Amen.

Resource: Dr. Charles Stanley Life Principles Bible

Letters from My Heart: A Prayer of Strength

"Be strong and very courageous." Joshua 1:7a

Strength

During the course of life we become tired, weary and worn out. Becoming weary is not just a physical expression of weakness; it applies to the spirit, mind, and soul as well. The obstacles of life that we face on a daily basis can cause fear, doubt, unbelief and a host of other things that can zap our strength. It is in these times that we find ourselves crying out for help and strength. In our weakness, we have access to a source of strength that is unwavering, consistent and always ready to give.

God's strength is like none we have ever experienced. As we pray for strength, he graciously supplies it for us. God gives us a commandment throughout his word to be strong, courageous and to stand firm. In this command, we find the strength we need through him to do just that. God wants to strengthen your life in order for it to be a testament of his greatness. Rely on his strength today and you will experience the very best that God has in store for you.

Prayer
Lord, your name is my strong tower (Proverbs 18:10). I am in need of your strength. You promised in your word that your power is made perfect in my weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). You have given me the authority to call on your name and lean on you to strengthen me in every area of my life.

I am grateful Lord that I can rely on your strong hand to keep me in all wisdom, peace and understanding. I ask that you prepare my heart and mind to receive your strength. Thank you Lord for filling me, your vessel to be an example of your awesome power. Because of you, I am made strong. -Amen

Letters from My Heart: A Prayer of Thanksgiving

In this, the second installment of Letters from My Heart, we are going to examine the prayer of thanksgiving. Giving praise to God is acknowledging his character, his provision, his wonder and expressing to him what he means to you. Thanksgiving is an act that requires humble appreciation for all that God is. In this act, you realize that you are not the source of your blessings or good will. Your life and existence is because of God's grace, prayers of thanksgiving acknowledge this fact.
God honors prayers of thanksgiving and praise from a clean heart. As we approach God and show our gratitude it causes him to be overjoyed. He is our heavenly parent and similar to the appreciation that we show our earthly parents he appreciates our gratitude as well. A prayer of thanksgiving is an expression from the heart. As we pray with thanksgiving and praise on our lips God continues to reveal himself which provides more reasons to give him praise.
Offer God a prayer of thanksgiving and it will bring joy to your heart and his heart as well.

Prayer:
At the dawn of the day I will give you praise
As I open my eyes I realize that I live to praise you.
The things you have done are wonderful, but that is not why I lift my heart and hands.
The ways you have made indescribable,
but this is not the reason I open my mouth with shouts of praise,
it is because of your love, your grace, and your faithfulness
When I was miles away
you were there waiting for me
that is what causes me to turn my heart toward you
You are the air I breathe, the song I sing,
I give you my praise each and every day, so I lift my eyes to you.
No one can take your place; you are the God that knows the beating of my heart.
The days of my life are in your hand.
I love you so much and I want my life to be an expression of that love.
Your faithfulness and your mercy are amazing.
You are every beat of my heart.

Letters from my heart: Communication to God

     Communication is a two way street. Over the last six months, I have learned a lot about communication especially with God. My prayer life has been greatly enriched by being sensitive to God's voice and intentional about communicating with him through prayer. He has spoken in many ways: through his word, through people and personally to me in my devotional time.

As a result of these prayers, I decided to write a six part blog series called Letters from my heart: Communication with God. Over the course of the next few weeks, I will post blogs with specific types of prayers including prayers of: victory, affirmation, intercession, healing, strength and thanksgiving.   Each prayer is one that has helped me in my time of need. My hope is that these prayers will encourage your faith and direct you to speak to the Father for yourself. God hears your prayers and will surely answer them according to his will. Prayer is about you sincerely communicating your innermost requests and feelings to God and more importantly allowing him
to communicate his promises to you.

Victory:
As you go through life, you will encounter difficult moments. These moments do not always come as a result of something you have done, they happen to all of us. The most important thing to remember about difficult moments is that you have victory through God. Victory is an aspect of knowing that you will overcome what ever you are facing. In order to fully possess victory it starts by a change of mindset and changing the words that you say. Life and death is in the power of your tongue (Proverbs 18:21), what you declare, you will possess. Speaking victory is imperative to possessing it.

Prayer:
I will not be afraid by the arrow by day; nor the trouble that comes by night. I will stand firm in the Lord and in the power of his might. I refuse to lose. I will believe the word of the Lord and I proclaim victory in every area of my life. No weapon formed against me will prosper; I believe the word of victory that God has spoken.

Failure is not an option for me. I do not accept defeat in any form. I bind the plan and plot of the enemy right now. I refuse to be denied. I will live by the word: believing, receiving and proclaiming it is how I will possess victory. Amen

A Letter to My Thirties

I usually do not blog or post things about my personal life even though my blog is about life experiences. On this, the eve of my 30th birthday, I decided to break the mold and share a very personal letter written to my future. I have learned so much from the past, I could not pass up this opportunity to share it with others. No matter what age you are, you can choose to live a passionate and purpose-driven life. God has given me a wonderful opportunity to share my freedom with the world, so here's to life, love and embracing this great gift.

                                                                  A Letter to My Thirties




Dear Thirty,

I know we have not met yet, but I have been thinking about you very often. I think of how it will be when we finally meet. I’m not sure how I will react, but I am ready. I have a couple of things that I plan to leave behind so that they won’t interfere with our relationship. Fear won’t be coming along for our ride. The heartbreak of my 20’s, I will leave behind. The lessons I have learned I will be sure to take. Tears that I cried in the midnight hour I will always remember because they made me great.

I am going to do my very best to live to the fullest while we are together. I have spent so much of the past doing what others wanted me to do, living the “American Dream” which includes getting a J.O.B (just over broke), buying a house, having a steady stream of income, however all of this comes with the unbearable cost of coming home tired, doing work that is dreadful and never really being alive. My devotion to you is that I will no longer exist, but I will be alive. I will live with you and we will experience passion, purpose and greatness together.

I vow to you that I will not look to the mistakes of the past to validate the future. I will always be true and honest because I have the pleasure of meeting you. Many of my peers did not, their journeys ended too soon, thus I will grateful for arriving at this pivotal point. I believe in the fullness of your existence and that our togetherness is a divine appointment. When it is time for me to leave I will never forget you because my life will change so drastically just by knowing you.

Yes, I believe in your power and I know that when we soon meet that the destiny we will experience will be unparallel. I vow to love every minute of you and not despise or hate you because I didn’t reach the epitome of life, love and companionship before we met. I know there will be mountaintops and valleys that we will encounter, but no matter what happens, God-given wisdom will lead us through it all. I am most certain of it. My life, my love, my passion, my purpose, I will pour everything I have into loving you and living the lessons that I have learned from the past.



Cheers to you, see you soon.



-Alexis Lior

Choose Life, Choose Change

"I call heaven and earth as witnesses today againest you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life." Deut.30:19

In life we are constantly make decisions: what to wear, what to eat, where to go, what goal and objective should take first priority. There is always something to do, some decision to be made (I'm tired just thinking about it). Life is classified as that which is living, growing and changing.
Recently, I evaluated my own life and asked myself, how am I changing for the better? This evaluation caused me to search myself and realize that real changes needed to be made and very quickly.
      The decision to change is not easy because our humanity says, everything is ok. Why shake things up? We are creators of habit, so change is not something we openly embrace. However the reality is the definition of life is growth and change. Anything that is not growing or changing is dead or rapidly approaching death.

Make the decision to live everyday for the better. This is the only way that we will reach our full potential and truly experience the joy of life. Take time to evaluate, assess, decide and change for the betterment of yourself and those around you. Today is a new day and a new opportunity to do your very best.

"LiveNewLiveFree"