Stormie Omartian - Seven Prayers That Will Change Your Life Forever

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Seven
Prayers

that will change
your life forever

Stormie Omartian

Seven Prayers That Will Change Your Life Forever

2006, 2010 by Stormie Omartian

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Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are from THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION. 1982, 1992 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture references marked NIV are from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-4041-8954-6

Printed in China

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Contents

The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous,
And His ears are open to their prayers.

1 Peter 3:12

DURING THE FIRSTcouple of years I walked with the Lord, my prayers went something like this:

God, help me to get that job.

Jesus, please heal my throat.

Lord, send enough money to pay these bills.

Father, take away my fear.

It took me a while to realize that those spur-of-the-moment prayers were not accomplishing much. I guess I thought the idea was to do the best I could on my own, and then if I needed a lifeline from God, I grabbed for it. The only problem was I needed a lifeline every other minute.

I loved the Scripture that says, Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you (Matthew 7:7). I took God at His Word and was asking, seeking, and knocking on a pray-as-you-go basis. I also took to heart the Scripture that says, You do not have because you do not ask (James 4:2). Great! I can easily remedy that, I thought, and I proceeded to ask for everything. But I was still not happy, and I didnt see the kind of answered prayer I desired.

One day as I was again reading that same verse, my eyes were opened to the next verse, You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures (James 4:3). Could it be that the God-give-me-this, do-that, wave-your-magic-wand-here, get-me-out-of-this-mess kind of praying was not what God desired for my prayer life? In utter frustration I said, Lord, teach me how Im supposed to pray.

He did exactly that!

I came to understand that prayer is not just asking for thingsalthough that certainly is part of it. Far more importantly, prayer is talking with God. Its getting close to and spending time with the One you love. Its seeking Him first, touching Him, getting to know Him better, being with Him, and waiting in His presence. Its acknowledging Him as the source of power upon whom you can depend. Its taking the time to say, Speak to myheart, Lord, and tell me what I need to hear. It is partnering with Him. It is aligning our spirit with His to see that His perfect will is done. It is establishing ourselves and our lives as being connected to God.

We cant receive Gods best for our lives, and we cant push back the things that were never Gods will for us, except through prayer. We cant leave our life to chance. We have to pray about everything all the time, not just when things go wrong. We have to pray over anything that concerns us, no matter how bigwith God nothing will be impossible (Luke 1:37)or how smallthe hairs of your head are all numbered (Matthew 10:30).

Without reducing prayer to a formula, in this book I have outlined seven basic types of prayers that can bring lasting peace and positive change to your life. But please dont be inhibited by these categories. They are just that, categories and suggestions. And dont be concerned about prayer talk or church talk. The Bible tells us the basic qualification for prayer: he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6).

The more you pray, the more you will find to pray about, and the more youll be led to pray for others. Dont allow discouragement over unanswered prayer to cause you to doubt that God has heard you. If you have received Jesus and are praying in His name, then God hears you and something is happening whether you see it manifested in your life now or not. In fact, every time you pray, youre advancing Gods purposes for you. Without prayer, the full purpose God has for you cant happen.

STORMIE OMARTIAN

Seven
Prayers

The
Prayer
of
Confession

Prayer One

I said, I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,
And You forgave the iniquity of my sin.

Psalm 32:5

The
Prayer
of
Confession

THE WORDsin is an old archery term, meaning to miss the bulls-eye. Anything other than dead center is sin. So sin in our lives doesnt mean robbing a liquor store, murdering someone, or playing cards on Sunday. Its much more than that. In fact, anything off the center of Gods best and perfect will for our lives is sin. That takes in a lot of territory!

When sin is not confessed, it becomes a subtle growthwrapping its tentacles around every part of our beings until we are paralyzed. The agony of its weight is accurately described in the Bible by King David:

When I kept silent, my bones grew old
Through my groaning all the day long.
For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;
My vitality was turned into the drought of summer.
I acknowledged my sin to You,
And my iniquity I have not hidden.
I said, I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,
And You forgave the iniquity of my sin.

Psalm 32:35

When sin is left unconfessed, a wall goes up between you and God. Even though the sin may have stopped, if it hasnt been confessed before the Lord, it will still weigh you down, dragging you back toward the past you are trying to leave behind. I know because I used to carry around a bag of failures on my back that was so heavy I could barely move. I didnt realize how spiritually stooped over I had become. When I finally confessed my sins, I actually felt the weight being lifted.

All of us with deep emotional wounds from the past already suffer from low self-esteem, fear, and guilt. We mentally beat up on ourselves, tend to think the worst about our situations, and feel responsible for everything that goes wrong. Its true we can have times of feeling guilty for things we have done, but we dont have to be tortured by living endlessly in guilt. God provided the key to release us from that: the prayer of confession.

Often we fail to see ourselves as responsible for certain actions. For example, while its not your fault that someone abused you, your reaction to it now is your responsibility. You may feel justified in your anger or bitterness, but you must still confess it because it misses the mark of what God has for you. If you dont, its weight will eventually crush you.