Day 18 Prayer – Habits
Dear Prayer Warrior:
Please use this prayer as a guide. As you pray, listen to the still, small voice of God.
Ask the Holy Spirit to lead you. Pray for persons or situations you may be personally aware of concerning this issue. Use scriptures you know as the sword of the Spirit.
Scripture Praise Focus:
“Everything is permissible for me – but not everything is beneficial.
Everything is permissible for me –but I will not be mastered by anything.”
(1 Corinthians 6:12)
Dear Heavenly Father,
Father you withhold no good thing from us. You delight in giving us good. There is nothing in heaven or on earth that hasn’t gone through your hands. You are the Creator of all things. Thank you for the freedom to enjoy your creation. Thank you for the tastes, smells, sights and feelings you created for us to experience. Lord, all of them are only a foretaste of your glory divine. We praise you for the gift of life.
Lord, at times what is good can become an object of unhealthy attention or control in our lives. We experience the good in rest, in the harvest, or in physical touch and we turn from enjoying them in right relationship with each other, and fellowship with you. Then, our deceitful hearts begin to crave more. Sometimes without even knowing it we begin to rely on our ability to experience these blessings, and we allow them to become a priority in our life. We partake too much, we partake too often, and we get in the habit of not being self-controlled. God you are our redeemer. You tell us to set our minds on things above, and to turn our eyes away from worthless things; the good things that have been distorted or taken control of our lives or behaviors. Lord, open the eyes of those on this campus to the blessings that have become distractions; the impulses, habits, obsessions, compulsions and addictions that would steel their time, health or integrity.
Father whether it is a heart habit (e.g., anger, envy, lust), a hidden habit (e.g., wasting time, perfectionism, rescuing others), or a hard habit (e.g., cheating, pornography, drugs) make it clear to those on this campus that these things keep them from being who you created them to be. It robs them of their full and true identities in you, and replaces true joy with a shallow and deceptive alternative. Give them a taste for you, Father. That their hearts will turn to you. Show them where a habit has become their lord. Show them how these habits that they make plans around, excuses for, and sacrifices to, may be taking control of their lives. Set those on this campus free as they learn to submit to you, resist the enemy, close the door to the habit and press on toward the goal to win the prize for which you have called them heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 3:14)
God, through developing and practicing good habits like moral sensitivity, accountability, gratefulness, forgiveness, selflessness, and communion with you old habits can be broken. As Paul sat in prison he wrote “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Phil. 4:13) Thank you for Jesus Christ, who came to save and redeem us. Through Him we already have the eternal victory of salvation, and in him we can have the present victory of life more abundant and free from habits. So they may experience all that is beneficial, and be mastered by nothing.
We pray this prayer in Jesus’ name. Amen!
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