In the previous post, I wrote of our God’s larger purposes for us and how when we pray for those as our most urgent priorities our lives will begin to align with His life and will in us. There are many purposes our God has in mind for us, purposes that fit under the three main purposes we previously explored. Following are five specific purposes of our God for each one of us that, if we pray for these we can be certain He will work to fulfill them in our daily living.

Pray for a deep, life-altering, self-sacrificing love for your God. From the beginning, our God has sought a people who will love Him above all other loves each day. Jesus told us that to love our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength is our greatest obligation and responsibility. He further defined that love as one that eclipses love for spouse, parent, children and even one’s own life. This is key to living as a true disciple. Our obedience, faith, holiness, and delight all rest upon this kind of love. Without His working this love into us, we will miss the fullness of His life and promises for us.

Pray that your God would perfect a Spirit-driven obedience to everything our God expects and commands. Such obedience comes to those in whom our God is building the love mentioned above. The measure of our faith is obedience; one cannot find faith where there is no obedience. Likewise, the of our love for our God is obedience; “If you love Me, you will keep My commands,” Jesus stated. To pray for Christ to place His obedience into your living is to pray for His faith and love to be poured into you. These are worthy prayers for those who would be righteous and holy. And while you are at ti, pray for the faith that will underlie your obedience. Even our faith must come from our God; we cannot produce it on our own.

Pray for a deep, utter humility in you, and with it a total and absolute surrender of all your living to Him. The call to humility in the scriptures is one of the most common directives given. We cannot be in any way like Christ if we are not humble like Him. He emptied Himself of the prerogatives of His deity so that He could with utter humility be born a human, live a human life, and die a human. For the very creator of all things to do this is an unimaginable humility. It is to humility He calls each of us, and he intends to fulfill that humility in those who will honestly and earnestly seek it from Him.

The key evidence of such humility will our absolute and total surrender of all our living each day to the will of our God. In all things, small and great, we surrender all our own will, living, expectation, and claims. We also surrender all our own efforts to become more holy or Christ-like. We have nothing to offer our God in our flesh, and trying to offer Him our “best efforts” is to no avail. We can only surrender all efforts, self-will and self-direction to Him .

We are to continually have in us the attitude that was in Christ Jesus. Though in the form of God, He emptied Himself of all will, living, expectation, and claims to become like us. He went on in the surrender to the point of death on the cross. He calls us to the same. We have no choice but to follow if we would be His disciple and heir.

Pray for the new heart our God promises – the mind, will, and love of Christ alive in you by His Spirit in you. Ezekiel the prophet foretold of this new heart in us in 36:25-27. “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.  Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put My Spirit within you and bring it about that you walk in My statutes, and are careful and follow My ordinances.” The heart corresponds roughly to the mind, will and emotions. The promise is that for His true followers, our God will remove the old, wounded and corrupt mind, will, and emotions from controlling us. He will replace these with the mind of Christ, the will of Christ, and the love of Christ every day.

We can pray for our God to do this in us, for we know it is His will and that He has the power. What is often lacking is our permission and cooperation. Praying earnestly for the fulfillment of this in us is that permission and cooperation. We cannot do this on our own. We can only agree with our God and surrender ourselves to it. What our God expects of us, He intends to do in us.

Pray that you will begin to overflow with thanksgiving and worship toward your God. The most common directives in the scriptures relate to humility, thanksgiving, and worship. These qualities are important to keeping our God as the foremost in our priorities, commitments, and attitudes. They are the proof to God and to the world that we are indeed His children and true disciples of His Son. If we pray for these character qualities to be grown in us by the Holy Spirit, our God will provide. He will meet us in this, and will complete our transformation over time.

In all of these, remember that what our God expects of us, He intends to do in us by His indwelling Spirit. We must in prayer seek these, yield to His work in them, and present ourselves to Him continually for His work to be accomplished.