Stormie Omartian - The Prayer That Changes Everything®: The Hidden Power of Praising God

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS

EUGENE, OREGON

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Verses marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189 USA. All rights reserved.

Verses marked TEV are taken from the Todays English VersionSecond Edition Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission. The TEV is now: the Good News Translation (GNT) and permission should read as follows: Verses marked GNT are taken from the Good News TranslationSecond Edition 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by permission.

THE PRAYER THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING is a registered trademark of The Hawkins Childrens LLC. Harvest House Publishers, Inc., is the exclusive licensee of the federally registered trademark THE PRAYER THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING.

Cover by Koechel Peterson & Associates, Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota

Cover photoHemera/Thinkstock

Back cover photoHarry Langdon

THE PRAYER THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING

Copyright 2004 by Stormie Omartian

Published by Harvest House Publishers

Eugene, Oregon 97402

www.harvesthousepublishers.com

The Library of Congress has cataloged the edition as follows:

ISBN 978-0-7369-4750-3 (pbk.)
ISBN 978-0-7369-4751-0 (eBook)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Omartian, Stormie.

The prayer that changes everything / Stormie Omartian.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-7369-1468-0

1. Prayer. I. Title.

BV210.3.O54 2004

248.32dc22

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Printed in the United States of America

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This book is dedicated to You, Lord.

For without Your power and grace, I know I wouldnt be where I am today. You have spared my life so many times when otherwise I surely would have died. You still sustain me daily. I am increasingly aware of how I dont deserve the blessings Youve given me. Youve taught me to have Your love and compassion for others and Your heart for their greatest blessings, and yet into the midst of that I interject my selfishness. Youve given me strong vision for the wonderful things You want to do, and even do through me, but into that vision I sometimes impose my fears, which threaten to derail it. You give me promises to cling to, and they sustain me, yet even then I let doubt sway me. Why You put up with me so much Ill never understand. Thats because I cannot comprehend the depth of Your love. How You could come to earth to suffer and die for me the way You did is incomprehensible, especially when Im not certain that I could bring myself to do the same thing for You. Id like to think I could, but when I frequently pray for my precious brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the world, who are being tortured and even martyred because of their service to You, I dont know if I could go through what they do.

It amazes me that even though I dont always do or say the right thing, You have still allowed me to live and to serve You. That You have given me the privilege of writing this book is most humbling to me. While I am no expert on anything, let alone praise and worship, one thing I do know is that You are worthy of all praise, both now and forever. My credibility lies in my experience and all that You have taught me. The fact that You would allow the praises of Your people to be to their own greatest blessing is something only an amazing God of love would do. I pray that You will give me the ability to communicate the greatness of who You are and the reasons You are deserving of praise, and also help people to remember to praise You in all situations and at all times. Help me to reveal the full extent of the blessings You have for us when we focus on You in worship and praise.

Because You first loved me, I am now free to love You. And I do.

Your devoted servant,

Stormie

With special thanks:

To Christopher, Amanda, John, Rebecca, Stephanie, Derek, Matt, Suzy, and Louie. Thank you for living. Your mere existence gives me joy and strength. I praise God for you every day of my life.

To Michael. Thank you for being a faithful husband and never giving me any reason to doubt that. I couldnt do this without your support.

To Susan Martinez. Thank you for your prayers and love, your diligence and organization, your ability to rise beyond the call of duty, your kindness and graciousness to answer calls, letters, e-mails, faxes, and doorbells, the volume of which could have driven a lesser person crazy long ago.

To Roz Thompson. Thank you for being my faithful friend and prayer partner all these years. You have been a strength and an inspiration to me far more than I can ever tell you.

To Erik Sundin. Thank you for all your meticulous help on this project. You are the best.

To Patti and Tom Brussat, Michael and Terry Harriton, Bob and Sally Anderson, Donna and Bruce Sudano. Thank you for your prayers. I dont see you often enough, but I feel your prayers every day.

To my pastors: Jack and Anna Hayford, Rice and Jody Broocks, Tim and LeChelle Johnson, Stephen Mansfield, Dale and Joan Evrist, Jim and Cathy Laffoon, John and Maretta Rohr, Ray and Elizabeth McCollum. Your richness in the things of God has made me rich in my spirit too. I dont know where I would be without all the great things of the Lord you have taught me and the countless times you have prayed for me.

To my wonderful sisters in Christ and great women of God: Joyce Meyer, Beth Moore, Lisa Bevere, Kay Arthur, and Florence Littauer. Thank you for your love and kindness to me, your wealth of knowledge of Gods Word, and your work for the kingdom. It is with great humility, along with love and respect for you and all that you do, that I count it a great privilege to know you. You have each taught me so much and have been such an inspiration and a strength to me. You have given me encouragement beyond what you can ever imagine.

To my amazing family at Harvest House: especially to Bob Hawkins Jr., Carolyn McCready, Julie McKinney, Teresa Evenson, Terry Glaspey, John Constance, Mary Cooper, LaRae Wiekert, Peggy Wright, Betty Fletcher, and Kim Moore. Thank you for your love, patience, kindness, graciousness, untiring work habits, and professionalism. You make it all happen.