He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.” – Colossians 4:12b
Isaiah 32:8 says, “The noble man makes noble plans.”
Proverbs 16:3 promises, “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.”
In response to my challenge in Part I of this article (https://ladyofprayer.com/?p=364) to each of us to take time to pray and write at least three goals you would like to accomplish this year, Dr. Deana Murphy, an award winning author and expert on life design wrote: “Amen Linda. The key to writing goals is prayer. He gives us the desires of our heart—which are His desires. This is so important. Thank you for sharing.” Indeed, “prayer is the key that opens the storehouse of God’s infinite grace and power”. R. A. Torrey.
Have you taken the time to pray, meditate and to map out at least three goals and the action steps you will take to achieve that goal? Now, if you haven’t written your goals for this year or have not taken any steps to achieve them, forget the past. Begin right now praying and thinking about writing your goals for the year. Take the time to seek God’s face first, pray, and meditate on the Word. Listen to what He states to you and write it down. I find this helps me to accomplish the things that are important to me. Sir Isaac Newton, wrote, “All of my discoveries have been made in answer to prayer.”
Some of your goals could be educational, financial, or involve career and business goals such as to write that book or to start a new business. However, first focus on what spiritual goals you would like to achieve which will strengthen your personal relationship with the Lord. “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things (temporal things, that is) will be added to you” (Matthew. 6:33). Setting spiritual goals can help you keep moving toward maturity. Accordingly, some spiritual goals you may have is to read the through the bible in one year, work on a particular character trait, or read a certain Christian book.
One key spiritual goal should be to improve your personal relationship with the Lord through bible study and improving your prayer life. God wants a relationship with us/you. We should press, stretch and get out of our comfort zones to maintain a prayer relationship with Him. It is the goal that will have eternal benefits. It is the goal that will give us power, wisdom and guidance about all of our other goals such as improving family relationships, getting out of debt, starting that business, writing that book, starting an exercise plan, or healing the relationships issues between black women and men. Prayer is the key to unlocking God’s power in your life to carry out what God has placed in our hearts.
Possibly you may want to grow even more in your prayer life such as praying more consistently on a daily basis instead of a hit or miss or crisis oriented prayer life or to develop your confidence in prayer. Prayer should not be a rushed moment in the morning. Prayer should be a way of life. If Jesus needed extended times of prayer retreat with God, how much more do we? As one prayer warrior remarked “if prayer is to become a way of life for us as it was for Him, we need to change our priorities so we have much more time for prayer”.
Perhaps you want to pray more Kingdom prayers or learn a whole new approach to prayer. Prayer is not exclusively asking God for things for you, but prayer is interceding for others. We should desire to pray Kingdom prayers to seek God for what God wants you to pray and do to carry out His purpose on earth. “If as disciples of Jesus Christ we are going to make a difference, then prayer in all of its expressions must become much more a part of our lives”.
It is my prayer that each of us will grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord (II Peter 3:18) and in our prayer lives. Hopefully you will write some specific goals for yourself in this area. In Part III we will discuss some practical suggestions for writing your goals, whatever they may be.
Linda D. Fegins,
LDFaygo@aol.com
The Prayer Leader, https://ladyofprayer.com
Former Prayer Coordinator and Director (13years), Lydia Circle of Christian Professional and Business Women
Christian Dramatist, “Sojourner Truth”, “Eve” etc.
Sunday School and Christian Education Teacher
Linda’s Report Blog https://instanter.wordpress.com