FROM THE DAWGHOUSE\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

How specific should I pray?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Having breakfast with a friend of mine today and talking about prayer he said,<\/p>\n

\u201cI pray that God would bless my wife, my children and me every day.\u00a0 Maybe I should pray more specifically.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

He makes a great point, and one that deserves a good answer.\u00a0 And it will be a quick one: YES.<\/p>\n

Yes. Our prayers should be more specific.<\/p>\n

Look at just one of Paul\u2019s prayers in the New Testament:<\/p>\n

Philippians 1:9-11<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

And it is my prayer that\u00a0your love may abound more and more,\u00a0with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent,\u00a0and so be pure and blameless\u00a0for the day of Christ, filled\u00a0with the fruit of righteousness that comes\u00a0through Jesus Christ,\u00a0to the glory and praise of God.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Say what?<\/p>\n

Paul prayed that the Philippian Christians would love more with a deeper knowledge of what it meant to really be loving and to be able to discern how to be loving in different situations.<\/p>\n

Paul prayed that the Philippian Christians would be able to approve all excellent things in life so that they would be increasingly pure and blameless of all sin as we look forward to the Second Coming of Jesus.<\/p>\n

Paul prayed that the Philippian Christians would be filled with all kinds of righteous thinking and acting and that we would get that righteous way of life from Jesus so that we would shine to the glory and praise of God.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s pretty specific, but still in general categories.\u00a0 So taking these general categories, here\u2019s how we can pray more specifically for example\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cLord, Bill\u2019s a tough guy to work with.\u00a0 Frankly I don\u2019t like him much.\u00a0 But would you help me today to have insight into his life so that I can love him in practical ways that will build him up, help us to work together more effectively, and maybe even give me an opportunity to introduce him to Jesus.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cFather, I\u2019ve hit a snag with Jimmy, my son.\u00a0 He\u2019s 13 now and father to son we\u2019re not getting along well.\u00a0 Help me to have insight into what\u2019s coming between us.\u00a0 If it\u2019s me I pray you would help me to grasp what I\u2019m doing that\u2019s harming our relationship.\u00a0 And then help me to figure out a way to move toward him.\u00a0 Help me to give him some slack right now.\u00a0 I know it\u2019s a tough time of life being 13.\u00a0 But I get so ticked off sometimes to what he says and how he says things.\u00a0 Help me to have more control of my own emotions than ever before, especially this afternoon after school.\u00a0 May You enable us to have a good dinner time tonight, and help me be even more aware of what\u2019s going on inside of me so I don\u2019t explode!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cLord Jesus, I know I need to have more patience and humility and I ask that your righteousness will be working in and through me more and more.\u00a0 Specifically I need the ability to listen to my wife more rather than always talking.\u00a0 But right now it seems I\u2019m loaded for bear, and always ready to pounce to defend myself.\u00a0 Ah, give me wisdom as to what\u2019s going on inside of me.\u00a0 Help me to have the Holy Spirit\u2019s power to in the moment when we\u2019re talking, to listen more and respond slower.\u00a0 Thank you in advance for helping me today to have more patience and humility with my wife!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

So study the prayers of the New Testament and even the Lord\u2019s Prayer in Matthew 6.\u00a0 Look at the general categories prayed for.\u00a0 Then get specific.\u00a0 And then look for the answers, for they will come!<\/p>\n

Catch this:<\/p>\n

1 John 5:14-15<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

And this is\u00a0the confidence that we have toward him, that\u00a0if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 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.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The more specific you pray, the more specific answers you will receive, and then, the more your faith will grow and the more you will worship the King!<\/p>\n

You take it to heart,<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Pete Alwinson<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FROM THE DAWGHOUSE\u2026 How specific should I pray? Having breakfast with a friend of mine today and talking about prayer he said, \u201cI pray that God would bless my wife, my children and me every day.\u00a0 Maybe I should pray more specifically.\u201d He makes a great point, and one that deserves a good answer.\u00a0 And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1834,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[59,58,55,56,57],"class_list":["post-2053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dawghouse-posts","tag-mens-bible-study","tag-mens-ministry","tag-orlando","tag-oviedo","tag-winter-springs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forgetruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forgetruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forgetruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forgetruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forgetruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2053"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forgetruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2054,"href":"https:\/\/forgetruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2053\/revisions\/2054"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forgetruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forgetruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forgetruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forgetruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}