Christian Prayer 2
Help 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. As artists we like formulas, recipes and step by step instructions. We hope that in diligently following them we could be assured of certain results.

If you thought that I was going to dissuade you from such a happy hope, you are wrong. I am going to do the opposite! While I cannot give you a formula, I can guarantee success if a few prerequisites are met.

The Bible is replete with Christian prayers prayed by ordinary people in all sorts of desperate situations. If you began anywhere and diligently prayed ANY of them, trusting in the God of Universe to hear and answer you, your life would never be the same!

Being Transformed
Watercolor
Sara Joseph
22x30"

Being Transformed, watercolor by Sara Joseph

We are obsessed with discovering a method to follow, while God is eager to pursue a relationship. We would love to disassociate our hearts and 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 our spirit, our 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 often flippantly declare. 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.

There is a caveat to having our prayers answered. Nothing will be granted to us if we harbor bitterness or anger toward another, or approach any Christian prayer with a skeptical mind. Faith and obedience is what God responds to, not any formula or memorized words.

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.
  • 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.

  • To be right-side up once more, I'll just follow His way.

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 answer to this prayer in my own life? Absolutely! Yet in so many ways, only in part. I have determined to stand fixed before that curtain of understanding. I have watched in awe, as it was parted just a little, thrilling me beyond measure and filling me with the determination to remain steadfast for more.

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.

In conclusion, here is my current favorite Christian prayer in its entirety. Tomorrow I may be led to another one that is just perfect for my circumstances. This is a marvelous journey with Jesus, listening, obeying and being led one step at a time!

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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