Day 24 Prayer – Perfectionism

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:
“If perfection could have been attained through priesthood—
and indeed the law given to the people established that priesthood—
why was there still need for another priest to come,
one in the order of Melchizedek, not in the order of Aaron?”
(Hebrews 7:11)

Dear Heavenly Father,

Today we give all praise and glory and honor to You for sending Your only son Jesus to die for us that we might have eternal life. (John 3:16) Help us to appropriate His life to our life that we might walk in His footsteps and live lives worthy of His calling.

Show us our profound need to drink deeply from Your well and to know the true life that can only come as we stay firmly planted and rooted in You. You are the vine and we are the branches. If You remain in us and we remain in You, we will bear much fruit. We realize we cannot bear fruit unless we remain in You. (John 15:5)

You and You alone are holy. Only You are the perfect one. Only You, Lord Jesus, are without sin. We thank You for willingly giving us new life through Your death. Help us to always remember that Your grace is sufficient for us, for Your power is made perfect in weakness. When we are weak we are strong. (I Cor. 12: 9, 10)

We pray today for the students struggling on college campuses, trying to be perfect in their own strength. There is no doubt the weight of the world is on their shoulders as they try in their own strength to achieve excellence in every area of their lives. So many of these students feel their perfectionism is what gave them the advantage over others to attend college and they feel their perfectionism will continue to drive them to the success they have always longed to have.

Show them the root of their need to be perfect stems from their desire to be accepted, applauded and admired by their peers and professors as well as their friends and their families. Forgive us Lord for the ways we contributed to this lie in each of our own lives and the lives of our children and even our grandchildren.

We ask you today to show Yourself strong on their behalf. Show these students that true perfection comes only from You. And that as they exchange their life for Your life they can walk in the ways you would have them to walk. May they hear a voice behind them saying, “This is the way, walk ye in it, when they turn to the left or to the right.” (Isaiah 30:21) We thank You and praise You Lord for leading these students out of the darkness of perfectionism into the light of leaning on You to become their perfection and their strength. Our hearts are full of gratitude to you, Lord Jesus, that you came to fulfill the law so they wouldn’t have to live under the stress and pressure of perfectionism.

We pray this prayer in Jesus’ name. Amen!

To sign up to pray and for more prayer resources, go to www.ariseandpray.org.