Tag Archives: prayer

“Test Me”…Caution: Invites Harsh Conditions

Leave a reply

Test Me-Caution Invites Harsh Conditions title image

“Test Me”…Caution: Invites Harsh Conditions

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.” Psalm 139:23-24

I’ve mentioned before that it’s a good practice to start your quiet times or Bible reading times with these verses in Psalms as a prayer:

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.” Psalm 139:23-24

It’s a great way to do a regular heart check and listen for God to reveal anything to us that we might need to work on. I actually have these verses written inside the cover of my journals as a daily opening prayer. First, I’ll pray these verses. Then, I’ll try to sit quietly and just listen and pay attention to anything that comes to mind. If something does, I’ll confess it right then and repent, asking God to basically clean me up!

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10 (ESV)

Recently I saw Psalm 139:23-24 from a different perspective and realized that there might be a little more to this request than just sitting and listening for God to show me areas that need some work or improvement.

“Test”: Hebrew (H974) בָּחַן bâchan

A couple of weeks ago as I was going through this process of saying the verses, the words “test me” stood out to me. That’s usually a prompt for me to dig in a little deeper. So I did! I looked up the Hebrew word for “test” used here in this verse.

“test”: Hebrew (H974) בָּחַן bâchan

The Hebrew definition stated that it means to try, improve, examine, scrutinize, tempt, try/trial, to investigate, or to test (especially metals). Then the part about testing metals stood out to me. Immediately an analogy came to mind.

We like to watch the show “Forged in Fire” on the History Channel where they make weapons, typically knives and swords, out of metal. Throughout the show, which is a competition, they test the weapons (and therefore the metal). This testing phase is to see how the weapons hold up, to see where weaknesses or imperfections are, and to make sure the weapons can withstand use in battle.

Therefore, when I am praying Psalm 139:23-24 not only am I asking got to point out things in me that He doesn’t like, I’m also asking Him to test me like the metal of those weapons on “Forged in Fire” to find any flaws, weaknesses, and imperfections. These are things that may hinder me later which can cause me not to be able to fight any physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual battles properly. Additionally, weaknesses or flaws could potentially cause me to “break” if not identified and dealt with.

Our strength can be tested like that of metal weapons to find any flaws, weaknesses, and imperfections.

Click To Tweet

The “test me” phase

Continue reading →

Prayer for an Addict

12 Replies

Prayer for an addict

Prayer for an Addict

Addiction is a sensitive subject for a lot of people. It’s unfortunately one that comes laced with shame, brokenness, and often a loss of hope. There’s collateral damage surrounding an addict, often to those closest to them.

Sadly, I’ve witnessed the devastating effects of addiction firsthand and have personally experienced some of the collateral damage. Not only do I teach at a women’s restoration home, where many of the residents are recovering addicts, but I also have a brother who is an addict. I’ve seen their lives ripped apart to the point of losing everything because of their addiction. It’s extremely hard to watch, and I often feel hopeless and helpless.

One hard and fast lesson that I’ve learned is that you can’t help people that don’t want to help themselves. Until they are ready, there’s not much one can do…EXCEPT for one extremely powerful thing: Pray. I’ve been reminded of this recently when seeking counsel about my brother. Prayer should never be underestimated because it is immensely powerful and has the capacity to produce wonderful results.

“…The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.” James 5:16b (NLT)

Therefore I should never feel hopeless or helpless because I have a powerful God that is far bigger than any addiction. I CAN help by appealing to my God and interceding on behalf of my brother or others captive to addiction. Today, I’ve written a Prayer for an Addict based off of scripture that I plan to pray over my brother and others struggling with addiction. My hope and prayer is that this will be a resource for others to use as well.

You can’t help people that don’t want to help themselves…BUT prayer is extremely powerful!

Click To Tweet

Prayer for an Addict

Lord, Give _____ the desire and the ability (through Jesus) to do the right thing and to actually want to help himself/herself and to get better. Soften _____’s heart and help him/her to be tender and responsive to you and to the help, guidance, and counsel of others. Show _____ the way out when he/she is tempted. Help ____ to choose life. Surround _____ with godly friends and influences that will sharpen him/her. Hinder any ungodly influences and cause them to lose interest and depart. Protect _____ from any unsafe thing or person that would pursue him/her or that he/she would pursue. Send laborers across _____’s path to speak and show your truth and love to him/her. When _____ thinks about his/her failures and if he/she falls or relapses, help _____ know that he/she is loved and nothing he/she could ever do will ever separate him/her from that love. Finally, let _____ know that he/she still has a future and a purpose regardless of any past mistakes because you, Lord, can take ANYTHING and turn it around for good! I ask these things in Jesus’ name.

Prayer for an Addict

Scriptures this prayer was based upon:

Continue reading →

Spiritual Laundry

1 Reply

Spiritual Laundry

Spiritual Laundry

Recently, I’ve been reading through a reading plan on my Bible app, called “21 Days in the Gospel of John with Levi Lusko”. One of my latest readings was titled “Clean Often”[1]. A couple of things stood out to me and spoke to me from the day’s reading. The overall message was about cleaning our lives up. I took notes in my journal and labeled my notes for the day “Spiritual Laundry”.

Fish analogy

My first takeaway from the devotion was about how God meets us where we are. God doesn’t need us to get cleaned up before we come to Him. Salvation does that for us. This was not a new concept for me. I’ve heard it and even said it myself before. What was new, however, was the analogy that Pastor Lusko used. If you know me, you know I love analogies!

He said, “…God cleans His fish after He catches them.” 🙂 I love this! It’s an especially fun and fitting analogy considering Jesus calls his disciples (and us) to be fishers of men.

“His partners, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were also amazed. Jesus replied to Simon, “Don’t be afraid! From now on you’ll be fishing for people!” Luke 5:10 (NLT) 

God cleans His fish after He catches them. –Levi Lusko

Click To Tweet

Spiritual laundry–God is the laundromat or the dry cleaner

Continue reading →

A Prayer for Caregivers

5 Replies

A Prayer for Caregivers

Recently I’ve been feeling some empathy for caregivers, not because I’m personally in that position but because I have family members and friends who are. I see many of them suffering silently (and some not so silently!) as they care for ailing loved ones. The mixed emotions are evident as it is apparent that they deeply love who they care for, yet they themselves experience such fatigue and frustration and maybe even some feelings of failure. I’ve seen where it’s sometimes so hard to offer compassion and then the guilt that immediately follows. What a rollercoaster of emotions these caregivers must ride.

My dad has had his fair share of medical problems (and that’s putting it lightly). Several years ago he was having some serious health problems. My mom has always been his primary caregiver. During this time, a friend of mine and I were having a conversation, and she was inquiring more about my mom than my dad which I thought was odd. My mom wasn’t the one with the major health problems at the time—my dad was.

However, she went on to explain something that I hadn’t thought of prior to that. She said, oftentimes people focus more on the patient, and the caregiver gets neglected (by others AND by themselves). She went on to say how many times when the caregivers are neglected, they end up being worse off than the patient in both physical and emotional health, especially if they are older or have any health problems of their own.

I’ve learned that caregivers have a higher risk of stress and medical problems, in addition to the emotional and mental turmoil on top of that. In light of that, this week I’d like to give you a prayer for caregivers. 

What a rollercoaster of emotions caregivers must ride.

Click To Tweet

A Prayer for Caregivers

Lord, help me remember I am doing your work.

Help me to clothe myself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness, and love.

Help me to live out and embody the fruit of the Spirit showing love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Enable me to see them through your eyes.

Help me to have compassion as you did and to follow your example.

Ease my burden and provide times of rest and refreshment.

Give me the energy necessary to fulfill my tasks.

Grant me the strength and extra grace to be able to handle things I might not normally be able to handle.

Help me not to lose my joy and give me moments of laughter.

In moments of frustration help me to be slow to anger and to refrain from letting any anger or frustration give a foothold to the devil or lead to any sin.

Comfort me as I mourn what I have lost.

Fill me up with your love so that I’m so full that your love overflows out of me–I do not have the sufficiency to pour this out of my own supply so I need YOUR supply.

Thank you for supplying all of my needs according to your riches in glory through Christ Jesus.

Help me to just be your conduit and means through which you work and help me to remember that it’s you THROUGH me.

Thank you for trusting me with this role of caring for another.

Scriptures for Caregivers (above prayer is based upon these scriptures)

Continue reading →

Pray for Your Enemies

3 Replies

Pray for Your Enemies

“You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Matthew 5:43-48 (NLT)

Who do you automatically think of when the words “enemy” or “enemies” are used? Do you have a particular person come to mind? Does a certain situation play out in your mind? Is it personal for you or do you think about that word more generally (as in ISIS or terrorists, etc.)?

I think sometimes there are seasons of life. Sometimes we have personal enemies. Sometimes we don’t. Other times “enemy” might seem like too strong of a word, but we still harbor feelings of hurt or abuse caused by someone else. It can be difficult to think of these people who cause us pain in a positive light, much less think of having to forgive, love, and pray for them. However, scripture is very clear what our response to our enemies should be. It is also quite clear in directing us to love and pray for our enemies.

Scripture is quite clear in directing us to love and pray for our enemies.

Click To Tweet

Our response to our enemies should be…

To love and to pray:

“You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Matthew 5:43-48 (NLT)

“Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” Luke 6:28 (NIV)

To control our own temper and overlook an offense or a wrong:

“If you are sensible, you will control your temper. When someone wrongs you, it is a great virtue to ignore it.” Proverbs 19:11 (GNT)

“Good sense and discretion make a man slow to anger, and it is his honor and glory to overlook a transgression or an offense [without seeking revenge and harboring resentment].” Proverbs 19:11 (AMP)

To respond with kindness and not retaliate:

Continue reading →

Prayer for You This Year–2018

Leave a reply
Prayer for You This Year 2018

Photo by Ümit Bulut on Unsplash

Prayer for You This Year–2018

As many people start the year with a fresh start and New Year’s Resolutions, it’s a time to look toward the upcoming year. The same is true for me. I’ll be participating with my church in a 21 day challenge involving 21 days of prayer, discipline and bible study. During the month of January, I will be spending some time in concentrated prayer. As part of my prayer time, I will be spending time praying for my blog, readers, and subscribers. I plan on praying for each person on my subscriber list individually.

There will be some general areas that I will be praying for each of you, which I’ll detail below. However, I’d also like to take this opportunity to reach out to you and see if you have any specific needs or prayer requests that you would like me to pray about. I would love to hear from you!

You can let me know your requests by:

  1. Posting a comment below (at the bottom of this page)
  2. Sending a message through my contact page by clicking here
  3. Sending me an email at tracy at happyhealthyandprosperous dot com (I have to list the email this way to avoid those crazy spam robots! :P)

I will add your specific requests to my list, and I will commit to praying for you and your needs. If you don’t have any specific needs, please know that you are still being prayed for by name anyway!

General areas I’ll be praying for

  • Spiritual growth and relationship with God and for you to also grow in wisdom stature and favor like Jesus did
  • Health, healing and emotional well-being
  • Relationships with others in your life
  • Work
  • Finances and prosperity
  • Gifts, calling and purpose
  • Direction
  • Strength and courage
  • Peace
  • Open doors for you this year and close the wrong ones
  • Experience God’s love this year

My prayer for you this year…

Continue reading →

Prayer for Your Finances

2 Replies

Prayer for your finances...

Prayer for Your Finances

For some, Christmas can be a time of excitement, fun, and generosity. Unfortunately though, for others it can be a time of worry and anxiety due to finances. Sometimes the end of the year, corresponding with Christmastime, comes with extra expenses. Then on top of that, purchasing gifts can add up…especially if you have numerous events like family celebrations, work parties, church events, Secret Santa gift exchanges, outreaches or charitable giving that requires some of our finances, etc. Sometimes it can be stressful figuring out where the money is going to come from for all of that.

The wise thing to do would be to budget for the end-of-year expenses and Christmas giving. It’s a good idea to allocate or set aside a little bit of money each week or each month for this purpose. Regrettably, many of us haven’t exercised this kind of wisdom (or unexpected events and expenses have prohibited us from doing so). Because of this, when we don’t use wisdom sometimes we have to pay the consequences of poor decision making. That being said though, God still cares about our finances. He cares about the details. Additionally, even when we mess up He still cares about helping us.

Several years ago, I learned a few strategies for praying over finances. With Christmastime being a stressful time for finances for many people, I thought this might be a good opportunity to share some of those strategies and a Prayer for Your Finances. These strategies and prayer work anytime though–they don’t just apply at Christmas!

Remind God of His promise provision

God is our provider. We can approach God boldly with His promise of provision. Philippians 4:19 promises us that God will supply all of our needs. Jesus also gives us an example to pray for our needs in the Lord’s Prayer. Moreover, one of God’s names is Jehovah Jireh, which means “the Lord will provide”. All throughout scripture you will see countless examples of the Lord’s provision. When praying over your finances, remind God (put Him in remembrance) of His promise of provision.

“Put me in remembrance; let us argue together; set forth your case, that you may be proved right.” Isaiah 43:26 (ESV)

“But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19 (KJV)

“Give us this day our daily bread” Matthew 6:11 (KJV)

“Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son. Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh (which means “the LORD will provide”). To this day, people still use that name as a proverb: “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.”” Genesis 22:13-14 (NLT)

“God is my helper! The Lord is the provider for my life.” Psalm 54:4 (GW)

Take a look at this hilarious short video clip of Joe McGee when he was at a point in his life where he was frustrated financially and decided to put God in remembrance of His promise of provision.

Pray for wisdom over your finances

Continue reading →

Praying a Hedge of Thorns

27 Replies

Praying a Hedge of Thorns

Praying a Hedge of Thorns

Growing up in a Christian family and in church, I often heard people pray a “hedge of thorns” around someone. This type of prayer could be prayed on behalf of a person that might be wandering off track or pursuing things or people that may not be good for them. For some reason, it always makes me picture the scene in Sleeping Beauty where Maleficent makes a forest of thorns appear around King Stefan’s castle to block Prince Phillip. Of course, Phillip DID make it through that hedge of thorns…but then again that hedge was made by evil forces, not God. 🙂

The Bible gives an example of a hedge of thorns built by God:

“Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths. She shall pursue her lovers but not overtake them, and she shall seek them but shall not find them. Then she shall say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now.’” Hosea 2:6-7 (ESV)

So when should we pray for a hedge of thorns? Here are a few examples when this prayer might be helpful…

Hedge of thorns for unfaithfulness in marriage

Continue reading →