HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS
EUGENE , OREGON
All Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)
Cover design by Bryce Williamson
Cover photo ValeryBrozhinsky, igor170806, sumkinn / gettyimages
Interior design by Greg Longbons
The prayers in this book were inspired by Dr. Evans teaching but were written with the help of his writing assistant, Heather Hair.
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Prayers for Knowing God
Copyright 2021 by Tony Evans
Published by Harvest House Publishers
Eugene, Oregon 97408
www.harvesthousepublishers.com
ISBN 978-0-7369-7534-6 (pbk.)
ISBN 978-0-7369-7535-3 (eBook)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Evans, Tony, author.
Title: Prayers for knowing God / Tony Evans.
Description: Eugene, Oregon : Harvest House Publishers, 2021. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2020028994 (print) | LCCN 2020028995 (ebook) | ISBN 9780736975346 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9780736975353 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Prayers. | God (Christianity)Knowableness. | God (Christianity)
Classification: LCC BV245 .E756 2021 (print) | LCC BV245 (ebook) | DDC 242/.8dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020028994
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020028995
All rights reserved. No part of this electronic publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any otherwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The authorized purchaser has been granted a nontransferable, nonexclusive, and noncommercial right to access and view this electronic publication, and purchaser agrees to do so only in accordance with the terms of use under which it was purchased or transmitted. Participation in or encouragement of piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of authors and publishers rights is strictly prohibited.
I want to thank my friends at Harvest House Publishers for their long-standing partnership in bringing my thoughts, study, and words to print. I particularly want to thank Bob Hawkins for his friendship over the years, as well as his pursuit of excellence in leading his company. I also want to publicly thank Kim Moore and Jean Bloom for their help in the editorial process. In addition, my appreciation goes out to Heather Hair for her skills and insights in collaboration on this manuscript.
Contents
K nowing God is the greatest quest you can undertake as a follower of our mighty King. By knowing His heart, His character, and His attributes, you will more fully develop into the kingdom disciple youve been placed on earth to become. Youll also better understand His priorities so you can better align yours under His. And as you come to know God more deeply, you will gain access to many of His benefits, such as peace, grace, guidance, and spiritual prosperity.
In this book, Prayers for Knowing God , Ive given you a multitude of guided prayers based on Gods attributes to help you get to know Him more fully. Numerous of His attributes appear in Scripture, and each one is an expression of who He is and how He relates to you. As you pray these prayers, then, youll be seeking Him on your own behalf, grounded in the revelation of that particular quality, and youll come to experience His love and power infused in you on a higher level than ever before. My hope is that your relationship with God will then flourish and overflow, enabling you to live out your purpose of advancing His kingdom agenda on earth.
Prayer is heavenly permission for earthly interference, and its communication with God, who longs to be involved with you on a very personal level. Prayer opens the door for both that interference and involvement to happen. I want to encourage you, then, to pray regularly, because abiding with God through prayer is one of the most important things you can do in life.
The guided prayers in this book will help facilitate your communication with God. Each one is directed toward one of 55 of His attributes. But they are also crafted to walk you through several of His characteristics simultaneously. For example, the prayer that focuses on Gods graciousness includes praise for His mercy. And the prayer directed toward Gods attribute of justice includes recognition of His great faithfulness.
As in many other of my guided-prayer books, each prayer has four sections based on the prayer acronym ACTS. This acronym is not a magic formula; rather, it provides structure so our prayers can cover important aspects of communication with God: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication.
You can pray these prayers word for word, or you can use them as a springboard to your own prayers directed toward the attributes of God, or you can pray with a combination of the two. It doesnt matter. What matters is that you pray.
I also encourage you to use this book to focus more intently on getting to know God Himself more fully. As you do, you can follow this helpful outline to nurture your time with Him:
Identify a time each day when you can spend concentrated and focused energy on pursuing a greater relationship with God.
Consider several ways to nurture your relationship with God during this time. It could be freely writing thoughts you have toward Him or thanking Him for His attributes in a journal. Or it could be looking up Scripture on a given attribute of God and meditating on it for a few minutes.
Evaluate how your relationship deepens as you spend consistent time with God in His Word and with Him in prayer. Also assess whether praying these prayers makes it easier for you to proclaim Jesus to others through your words and actions. That should be a natural outgrowth of knowing Gods heart more deeply.
Repeat this practice. After youve put it into play for at least a week, continue to incorporate the various prayers into your daily intimate time with God.
Ive based many of these prayers on an outline of Gods attributes that was first drafted many decades ago for and introduced to the church I pastor, Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship. This outline is included for your reference in . I encourage you to read through both of these before diving into the prayers themselves.
Knowing God will also bring you stability in times of crisis and change. Weve gone through a significant number of difficulties and challenges in our culture over the last few years, and everyone could use more calm in their hearts. This guided-prayer book has been designed with the hope that it will bring you just thatcalm. As you get to know God through relational communication with Him, may He reveal Himself more fully to you and give you a greater grace and peace each day.
One called out to another and said, Holy, Holy, Holy,
is the L ORD of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.
I SAIAH 6:3
Adoration
Heavenly Father, I acknowledge Your holiness, and I stand before You in awe of Your holiness. As the angels declared in Your presence, Holy, Holy, Holy are You. There is no one like You. No one embodies all of what holiness entails and means but You. You are distinct. You are pure. You are perfect. You are unique. You are separate. You are outside of yet within. You exist in unparalleled measures of holiness.
