Stormie Omartian - 10 Minutes to Powerful Prayer

STORMIE
OMARTIAN

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS
EUGENE, OREGON

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (niv) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Cover by Koechel Peterson and Associates, Minneapolis, Minnesota

10 MINUTES TO POWERFUL PRAYER

Copyright 2010 by Stormie Omartian

Published by Harvest House Publishers

Eugene, Oregon 97402

www.harvesthousepublishers.com

ISBN 978-0-7369-2741-3

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

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 / VP-NI / 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

A NSWERS TO Y OUR Q UESTIONS
B EFORE Y OU E VEN A SK

Prayer Focus 1
W ORSHIP AND P RAISE G OD FOR W HO H E I S

Prayer Focus 2
D ECLARE G OD TO B E L ORD OVER Y OUR L IFE

Prayer Focus 3
I NVITE G OD TO B E IN C HARGE OF Y OUR D AY

Prayer Focus 4
S UBMIT Y OUR B ODY , H EART, AND M IND TO G OD

Prayer Focus 5
C ONFESS A NY S IN OF T HOUGHT OR A CTION

Prayer Focus 6
S EEK G ODS P ROTECTION AND C OVERING

Prayer Focus 7
T ELL G OD THE D ESIRES OF Y OUR H EART

Prayer Focus 8
P RAY FOR THE P EOPLE IN Y OUR L IFE

Prayer Focus 9
I NTERCEDE FOR THE W ORLD A ROUND Y OU

Prayer Focus 10
A SK FOR G ODS W ILL TO B E D ONE

C ONDENSED V ERSION OF THE
10 A REAS OF P RAYER F OCUS

Draw near to God
and He will draw near to you.
J AMES 4:8

N o, this is not a misguided attempt to reduce prayer to a formula. Nor am I trying to minimize the time we need to spend in prayer down to 10 minutes. And I certainly dont want to trivialize prayer to merely a quick fix for what ails us, or an on-the-run kind of praying so we can do our duty and get on to the many more interesting things we have to do in our lives.

First of all, I think prayer is interesting. In fact, I think its fascinating. Thats because prayer is communicating with God, and He is fascinating. And what He wants to do through your prayers and mine is amazing. When you understand that prayer is building a relationship with God and partnering with Him to see His will done in your life and situationand in the lives and situations of othersyou will find yourself wanting to pray as much as possible.

What I hope to do in this little book is give you a practical tool to help meet what I believe may be a need in your life. The reason I think you might have this need is because it is a need I have. If youre like me, there are things you pray about over and oversuch as your health, the safety of family members, blessings over your work and finances, and guidance for decisions that have to be made. But its hard to find time to pray about the many other important people and situations in your life. In addition to that, it is often easy to neglect such vital kinds of prayer as worship or confession. We dont mean to overlook these important areas of prayer focus and concerns, but there is always so much to pray about, and we cant think of everything.

Well, now you dont have to think of everything because I have provided the frameworkthe most important areas of prayer focusthat can help you have clear direction when you pray. While your most pressing needs are easy to focus on because they occupy your mind, this book will serve as a reminder of the other important things you dont want to forget.

Personally, I pray every day about many things, yet I still feel the need for a previously thought-out checklist that will prompt me to include certain people, situations, and issues in my life and in my world that I might not otherwise remember to pray about on my own. All of us can get busy in our day and feel that we dont have the time to pray adequately about certain things, so we end up not praying about them at all. I know. Ive been there. In fact, Im there now. I need this book too.

Instead of having ten chapters, this book is divided into ten areas of prayer focus. Every paragraph in each of these ten areas of prayer focus is a complete thought and is, therefore, separated by a space from the others. That way, once you have read the book clear through, you can choose a paragraph anywhere if you are pressed for time and need encouragement or inspiration.

I have included a list of possible prayer concerns in each of the ten areas of prayer focus. You can check one or more of these items to pray about or you can let them stir your mind to remind you of other personal concerns. Blank spaces are provided below each list of prayer suggestions so you can write in a few words to remind you of any particular prayer needs you dont want to forget. If you fill in those blank spaces with a pencil, as your prayers are answered you can erase what you have written and write in new prayer reminders.

At the end of each area of prayer focus (or chapter), I have provided a sample prayer for you to pray. This prayer can be a beginning point to jumpstart your own prayers as you think of other things to add to it, or it can be the complete prayer in itself.

There are also Scriptures at the end of each prayer that can be read over, proclaimed, spoken aloud, memorized, pondered, meditated on, or simply kept in your heart, however time and inclination lead. Choose one or two or as many as you have time for. I know these Scriptures will be especially encouraging, uplifting, and edifying to you.

If you are pressed for time yet do have a few moments, it is possible to spend 60 seconds on each one of these 10 areas of prayer focus and complete them all in 10 minutes. Trust me, it feels good when you can cover so much ground with the Lord, instead of neglecting certain areas of prayer altogether. But no one is saying you have to limit your praying to 10 minutes. You could spend 10 or 20 minutes on a single area of prayer focus if you want. You could spend an hour on worship alone. No oneespecially not Godis holding up a stopwatch and timing you. I am just saying that this can be done in 10 minutes, so you will have the peace of knowing you have lifted these important concerns before Gods throne. Then you are able to go about the rest of your day and pray for whatever else is pressing on your heart when you have found the right time to do so.

For your convenience, near the end of the book is a condensed version of these ten areas of prayer focus, so that once you have read the book and filled in the blanks with your own personal concerns, you can just flip to this section at the end if you are especially pressed for time, and go through it in however many minutes you have.