A Powerful Christian prayer
for the artist
Is there a Christian prayer that is certain to bring about a radical result in the life of an artist? I am asked that a lot.
There seems to be a desire for a formula, something that, if you were faithful to do, would bring a guaranteed result.
The Bible is replete with Christian prayers. If you began anywhere and diligently prayed ANY of them, your life would never be the same! That the question should come up at all, is rather revealing.
We are obsessed with discovering a method to follow, while God is eager to pursue a relationship. We would love to disassociate our minds, perform some religious action, and move on to whatever has currently caught our fancy.
How easy it is to repeat a memorized Christian prayer a couple of times, and then get on with our lives! But having our prayers answered, requires fully engaging the mind and all our senses. Surely that is no challenge for us as artists!
This Christian prayer is my current favorite and guaranteed to be answered, if prayed in faith. Straight out of the Bible, this Christian prayer is therefore backed by God’s authority and integrity.
“Seeing is believing.”, people flippantly say. True, but it is "seeing" in a different realm that brings swift answers – one that as artists, we should find easier than most, to enter into. So go ahead and ‘see’ this Christian prayer as granted when you pray. Hold fast then to the mental image of the answer, until the result is something that you ‘see’ tangibly with all your physical senses.
One other thing – nothing will be granted to us if we harbor bitterness or anger toward another, or approach any Christian prayer with a skeptical mind.
So with those preconditions fulfilled, join me in this prayer that is centuries old and is as powerful today, as it was then. Just put your name in as you pray it. Paul prayed it for the people of the church in Colossae, and you can pray it too!
Let’s break it down and consider its ramifications.
Col:1:9-12
I ask God to fill you(ME)with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
- Consider the peace of having the full knowledge of His will.
- No more striving with our own plans
- No more stress about what to do next
- No more fear about tomorrow.
- As we pray this we are filled with the knowledge of His will.
That will is perfect for us for the moment, despite how it may appear to us. The next moment is not our concern. When we get to it, we will be filled once more with full knowledge!
Determine that as soon as we know His will, we WILL obey it, cheerfully and immediately.
And I pray this in order that you (I) may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way:
- Deciding to do His will, as it is revealed, makes our lives worthy.
- Aspiring to live a life worthy of Him, pleases Him.
I've found that He is more than willing to grant me wisdom to understand what pleases or displeases Him, as well as what He considers worthy.
(It must come as no surprise that it is diametrically opposite to what popular culture deems worthy!)
Bearing fruit in every good work,
- To bear fruit, we must first be filled with His wisdom, then LIVE out that wisdom in our lives, which in turn pleases God.
Growing in the knowledge of God,
- Then, and only then, does He give us glimpses of who He really is.
- To be right-side up once more, I'll just follow His way.
A friend of mine loves to call it ‘an upside-down-kingdom”. God's kingdom is actually right-side-up. Our familiar world is what is truly upside-down.
That is why we are puzzled when all our striving only brings emptiness, when our grasping leaves us empty handed and when our lofty ambitions eventually leave us cold.
Being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, so that you (I) may have great endurance and patience,
Invariably, righting our upside-down world takes discipline, persistence and constancy. I can also guarantee that you will face immediate and powerful opposition. But He knew that. So if we weary or weaken, we have been promised strength to persist and endure, until we are
joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you (ME) to share in the inheritance...
- The details of this inheritance are so vast, that the title deed to it is what the Bible is all about! I certainly can use wisdom to understand and avail of it.
After all what good is an inheritance, if it remains unused, locked away, its riches never enjoyed?
of the saints in the kingdom of light.
- Then in this kingdom of light, I finally ‘see’ as I was meant to see, (not blindly groping about in darkness)
- I'll create as I could never have otherwise created.
Like a curtain being slowly drawn aside, little by little the reality of this immense prayer, if believed, can be phenomenally transformational.
Have I experienced the truth of this prayer in my own life? Yes, in part. I have determined to stand fixed before that curtain of understanding. I have indeed watched in awe, as it was parted just a little.
In faith, I am confident that as I continue, more will be revealed to me, until my final hour when I will step beyond and ‘see’ completely.
Given below is my current favorite Christian prayer, in its entirety. Tomorrow I may have another one! The Bible has depths that will take more than my lifetime to plumb!
The sooner we begin the journey, the farther we'll travel, wouldn't you agree?
Col 1:9-12 NIV
For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.
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