PRAYER FOR TODAY SUNDAY 17TH SEPTEMBER 2023 – A PRAYER FOR WHAT COUNTS

DAILY PRAYER AND SCRIPTURE FOR TODAY.

Engage these Daily Prayer and Scriptures for today. Take to God all that you desire in prayers, while you watch restfully as he steps into situations to bring out beauty and colour in your live. Today, as you commune with God, know that God has settled all that concerns you, Just believe and pray with faith in your heart. Remain blessed in Jesus name, Amen.

Today’s Prayer is Authored by: Meg Bucher

Prayer Focus For Today 17th September 2023: A Prayer for What Counts

“It doesn’t matter whether we have been circumcised or not. What counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation.” – Galatians 6:15 NLT

Unworthiness is an epidemic. In a world bent on “self,” there are so many lost in search of themselves. Anxiety and depression are sky-high. We weren’t meant to live for ourselves but for something so much greater. Someone so much greater. In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he addresses one behavior out of a million ways in which people try to gain favor in life. If only we accomplish the next goal or reach the next level. But unworthiness is quick to remind us …it’s never enough. So, what is?

Circumcision was a ceremonial process God’s Old Testament people participated in out of obedience. “In the Bible this word is used both literally and figuratively,” Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary explains, “Uncircumcision represented unbelief and disobedient to the covenant of God.” Paul used an extreme example that would be familiar to all parties involved in the conversation: Jews and Gentiles. Both people groups were having a hard time accepting the fact Jesus came to free and save all of them. The VOICE paraphrase reads:

“Let me be clear: circumcision won’t save you- uncircumcision won’t either for that matter – both amount to nothing. God’s new creation is what counts, and it counts for everything.”

God’s people struggled to understand their unworthiness. Circumcised or not, they were all unworthy without the sacrificial blood of Christ Jesus, as are we today. “Paul asserted that mere externals- circumcision or the lack thereof- mean nothing. Instead, for Paul, the cross- a shameful means of torture and execution- was a cause for boasting,” Moody Bible Commentary explains, “It brought two things: a decisive break from worldly perspectives (world …crucified to me) and real spiritual life (new creation).” The inner change is more important than the outer changes in our behavior. Ceremonial or not, we all wake up each morning the same sinners we were when we laid our heads down to sleep. The difference for those living in the love of Christ Jesus is the new mercy we receive every day from the Lord through Him. The change on the inside affects what others see from the outside.

Through Christ, we find our sense of worth. The purpose God built into the fabric of who we are When we stay in touch with our Creator, we see and understand everything around us from a fresh, godly perspective. Everything changes from the inside out.

PRAYER FOR TODAY.

Let’s pray today not to get caught up in what we do or do not do but to focus on who we are in Christ Jesus.

Father,
Today we pray for a fresh perspective. Help us to see life through Your eyes, Father. Your creation is good! Yet, in a world surrounded by so much wrong and tainted with sin and evil, it can be hard to see. Continue to change us from the inside out, God. Show us what really matters. Help us to let go of what does not. Bless our lives with the eternal purpose You created us to walk out. Let us not be distracted by the enemy or entertain any lies of unworthiness. Every human being on this earth is loved. No one is an accident. You love all of us and are faithful to meet us right where we are at. There is no need to do anything to gain Your love, Father. Please, for anyone who does not know how loved they are by You or does not know who Jesus is …let today be the day everything changes …from the inside out.

In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.

This Is the Assurance of Answers to Your Prayers – Matthew 7:7-11

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will YOUR FATHER WHO IS IN HEAVEN GIVE GOOD THINGS TO THOSE WHO ASK HIM!