Hey, Sweet Things! I’ve been praying for you this very day. I’ve especially been praying for those of you who’ve commented about how much you want to do the Scripture memory but you’re scared of failing. First of all, I pray that God is going to give you a glimpse of what your brilliant little mind is capable of doing when doused in His Word. Second, if you spend the year meditating on 24 verses, I pray that you’ll realize that you cannot fail. It will produce a harvest whether or not you get each Scripture down word for word. The captivated mind that tears down strongholds is what we’re after. Keep that before you. Pray for a supernatural unction to internalize Scripture then thank God for it in advance. He makes a way for us to obey what He wills for us to do.
Now, on to something that I keep pondering this morning. Like many of you, I’m a thinker. Years don’t come to ends or beginnings without me getting caught up in what’s behind or in front of me. That’s good if it leads to change. That’s bad if it leads to dread. We’ve all heard this definition of insanity: doing the same thing the same way and expecting something different. Yet, for the most part, we live life in that maddening loop. One of the things God has taught me along the way is to try to hear from Him about one area at a time that He’s pinpointing for change. Much more than that is too overwhelming. Anyway, He’s a God who’s into process with the lives of His children. We need look no further than Philippians 1:6 for proof of that. What He may begin in an instant He may complete over a lifetime. Instead of making a list of resolutions for 2011 that are broken by the time they’re spoken, is there simply one thing about us we really wish to change? I could think of a dozen things I’d like to change but this is the one I think God is pinpointing as our joint effort for the top of 2011: a mental loop I tend to get into when I get offended or hurt by someone I love. I have come to believe that my first minute’s reaction is what determines the cycle of the next (usually miserable) two days. So, here’s my specific prayer for the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011.
My Dearest Abba Father,
I’ve lived long enough to know that any 12-month period of time on Planet Earth winds a pathway through thicket and thorns. It’s just too long a period of time not to get hurt or offended. I also know that You have tucked many joys in the oncoming year and I don’t want to miss them because I can’t quit obsessing over what’s hard. You’ve gone to measurable lengths in the last year to show me how the enemy of my soul operates in one specific area: he can’t block You from blessing Your children so he tries to block Your children from enjoying it. I do not want him to cheat me of reaping from anything rich You send my way this year. Even the treasures hidden in darkness. As this year ends and a new one begins, I am so thankful that I have Your Spirit without limit in my life and that, with You, change in a long pattern really is possible. You’ve done it before in my life. Come do it again. I am asking You in particular, Abba Father, to run to my aid in that first moment when an opportunity for offense happens and urge me by Your Holy Spirit to head into a thought-loop that spirals upward rather than downward. Simply put, help me to get over things fast. Honestly, Lord, sometimes I just make life harder than it has to be. Some things that wound me aren’t even about me. Help me to see where I’m jumping into somebody else’s loop and to quit getting hung by my own. I choose joy in resting this petition at Your feet, Lord, and I refuse self-condemnation or fruitless regret. You never would have brought this to the forefront and called for it in prayer if You didn’t have something good in mind. You began this work. Now come and take it to the next level. I’m excited about it, Lord, and see a glimpse of liberty on the horizon. Thank You, Father.
If you also want to post a prayer about ONE THING you’re asking God to do in you toward a more victorious 2011, feel free. There’s something about writing it down in a public place that makes it memorable. A record you can go back and read can be a beautiful thing. Try to resist wallowing and writhing in these public requests. It’s Satan who tries to make prayer a dreaded exercise in self-loathing. In God’s economy, even when our prayers are mostly pleas of repentance, they lead us to relief.
Hey, Siestas, let’s not respond to each other’s comments this time. By all means, let’s pray for each other but let’s leave the response space to God.
I’m honored to walk with you into 2011, dear sisters. We’re getting closer to the 1st! Hold your head up or you might miss your new beginning!
Dear Lord, I pray for self discipline for this coming year. I have practiced laziness far too long. I want to be dependent solely on YOU, Lord. I need the energy to complete daily tasks without feeling completely overwhelmed. Help me take it step by step and not feel that it has to ALL be completed RIGHT NOW. I am asking You for self discipline in my walk with You, daily reading Your Word & spending appointed time in prayer. Self discipline in my eating habits, I want to live a healthier lifestyle. Self discipline in keeping my house clean, Lord… You know how much I struggle with this one!! Self discipline in tending to my family when and how they need tending to. I thank You, Precious Lord, right now for giving me the mind strength I need to accomplish great things in the coming year & not to feel completely overwhelmed. I love You, Sweet Lord!! In Your name I pray. Amen
Precious Father, I need you’re help in letting things go quickly, too. Words spoken, especially by someone whose supposed to love me unconditionally, send me spiraling into a depression. I don’t want to obsess over conversations and replay scenarios in my mind. In the moments where verbal darts are thrown at me- give me first the strength, through You, to stand and not wilt. To be silent and still in self control- to NOT jump in the verbal mud pit with the mud slinger. Then, secondly, give me the ability to get over it quickly and on with my life. Remind me who I am to You! I am desperate for You and am eager to learn all that You have in store for me this year….I want more of You.
With all my heart, all my soul, with all my stength, and yes- with all my mind, I adore you.
In my Saviour’s sweet name, Amen.
I was telling my husband this morning that this is not my favorite time of the year..oh I love Christmas very much and start listening to Christmas music in the summer but I do not like the end of the year when the year is put before you with questions like “what have you done?” and I do not like the coming year presented as “What are you going to do in the New Year?.”
Lord, help me to take one day at a time, not looking backwards nor skipping too far ahead.
Lord,
Thank you for your abundant love and blessing in 2010. As I move into a new year, the ONE THING I want most for you to heal is my constant comparison of myself to others. Jesus, I know you created me specifically for this time and place, you do not make mistakes and my life is not an accident. Please help me to find YOU in the midst of my daily life and not compare my life to those around me. Father, I know that you have specific plans for me to fulfill. Help me to be true to who you made me, and be happy with who I am in you, looking only at your face and neither to the left or right at those around me. Help me to find JOY in your love for others and to REJOICE as one of many who love and serve you. Help me to LOVE others. I claim 1 Corinthians 13 as my banner this year. Father, I know that where your Spirit is, freedom reigns, so I beg you for freedom to love without comparing. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Dear Lord,
I need deliverance from the stronghold of depression and fear. It’s daily beating is wearing me out. I leave things at your feet only to pick them back up again. My peace and joy are gone. This is my cry for the New Year, to continue the good fight and conquer the Battle of the Mind. I need your strength, guidance and wisdom. I praise you and thank you for all my blessings. Please have mercy on me and help me be renewed in you more and more each day.
Father God Help me live in the present. As a participant in my life, in the now, active, walking it out and doing with it what you will.
Lord, my prayer is that my faith will grow in 2011 through the audacity to ask you for the things that seem impossible! No more meager requests, Lord. I’m coming boldly before your throne of mercy and grace and laying down the big, enormous issues of life. Bolster my courage to ask big and believe more, supernaturally strengthen me to not grow weary in well doing, and make me of no reputation to anyone but YOU in the process. Be glorified! In JESUS name! Amen!
Dear Loving Father, you know how my thought life runs amuck; how I allow memories to overwhelm me. My “one thing” for 2011 is that I would learn the discipline of holding my thoughts captive to You! As I feel these memories begin to take control, help me, Father, to turn my thoughts to you – allowing your goodness, mercy and grace to transform me. Thank you, Father.
Dear God – please give me the desire to do what You have planned for me.
Gulp… just posted it today on my own blog so that I would see it and be accountable to it “in my own space”… http://tinyurl.com/2am99n4
Would LPM be willing to do a Badge for the #OneThing prayer to help remind us of it all year? That’s what I’m doing in another area of my life to help me focus on what God is doing … and it would be cool to do it for the one thing prayer too 🙂
Dear Lord,
Please heal Kelsey Blake! She is 15 years old and dignosed with a cancerous mass on her left lung on Tuesday the 28. She is having surgery today at St Judes. She is scared and needs your comfort. Be with her parents,brother, family and all her friends that are heart broken. Please so us a miricle this very day and give her victory in 2011!
Amen
Carol Ann
Lord, You alone can have me ready – spiritually, mentally, and physically – for a ministry opportunity in the Spring. I want YOU to get the glory…can you show me how?
Dear Lord,
As a child who has strayed & is trying to find her way back, I pray that you help me to follow your ways each & every day. I pray that I become the wife I need to be for my husband & give him all the respect he deserves & to help our rocky marriage succeed. I pray that I’m a patient & kind mother & one who my kids can look up to & count on. I pray that you help with all the good & bad that come our way & to keep our family on the right path.
Amen
My Lord and My God,
I worship You. I praise You, for the grace You have given me and the life You have filled me with – Your everlasting life! How I love You, Jesus.
Thank you for the New Year you have given me to live. I want to live it out loud for You – all of it – and all of me – for Your glory.
To that end, I am asking You for help to conquer the food issue once and for all. Show me what the right balance is for me, so that I can operate fully in Your Holy Spirit without being controlled by appetite or diet… only controlled by You. I want to show the world that You have given victory to those who trust in You, to glorify you in my body.
I love You, Lord Jesus. Thank You for all you have done for us. I want to serve You with my whole heart and life, this coming year and every year You give me on this earth.
In Your Name,
Hilary
Dearest Beth,
I have always been a believer in that God has a plan and your post on the 29th. is just more proof. I have been thinking about doing the memory verses and just this morning prayed for help and then I open your blog and see that others are also worried about completion and you have such a simple and kind responce. Please know that your words are an inspiration to so many of us who are not “bloggers” but faithful readers.
Father,
Help me to be still, help me to remember that you are in charge of my family and what happens. I pray for reconciliation, I pray for hearts to be changed, I ask for you to help me realize what you have done in me. I thank you for working forgiveness in my life. I thank you for showing me how to let go. I pray Father I would learn how to set boundaries, to not allow them to be stepped on and to stand firm knowing that my hope is in Christ and nothing more. Father God I lift up my family to you. 2011 here we come. Give us peace. I love you Father….in Jesus name.
Precious Lord,
I have no flowery words, not even any right words to say,
You know my heart, I want more than anything to love You with all my heart, mind, soul and strength.
There are things in my life I want to change and do not know how, Lord. You are my Hope, my Joy and my Peace. I feel so helpless,like a little lamb, like a piece of clay_ that I am. Take me and Hold me, Lord.
Use me for your honor and glory. Help me to be more merciful, kind, to show humility, to be patient, to be forgiving and to show love toward others.
Help me listen to the needs of others instead of obsessing about my own heartache. Help me to understand and appreciate life and what I have. Help me to experience Your acceptance, intimacy, trust and love.
Help me to experience the presence of Christ with joy.
Help me feel thankful for His presence. Help me to appreciate the freedom I have to worship, pray and come to You Lord. Help me, not to crawl into a dark hole, but to rely on You_to embrace Your compassion and grace when life is difficult. Help me to remember when my circumstances may not change, I can change my perspective to view life through You and have hope for the future.
Show me how to draw closer to You in my daily walk. Help me share the gospel with others. Help me be the right kind of leader as I share the Bible Studies and up coming brunch with the ladies at church.
Thank you for this ministry and bless those who serve You.
Bless the Siesta Sisters as they seek you and your will.
Lord, I love you, I love you more than anything. You are everything. in Christ, Joyce
(A special thank you to the Siesta Sisters who posted on my last comment about Bible study. I am still praying about it.)
Dear Heavenly Father,
I am excited for what you are going to do in and through my life in the new year to come. One deep desire of my heart Lord is that you would help me to be an encourager for you and your kingdom. Please continue to heal the wounds and obstacles that get in the way of you accomplishing that. My hearts desire is to fall more in love you Lord.
Holy Father my prayer is that you would perfect my faith in you. You are the author and perfecter of faith. May I embrace the story You have given me and through that may lives be change for Your Kingdom! I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
God help me. I love you.
Lord,
I desire to be anxious over NOTHING, and in EVERYTHING give You praise, honor and glory.
Thank you in advance for granting me this desire.
Your servant,
Janet
Father, thank you for this new beginning. You know the step I have taken away from a destructive relationship this week. I claim your victory in restoring my thought patterns toward this situation. I choose light and life. I choose your words in my mind, not the enemy’s.
Heavely Father, you continue to draw to mind all the times I leave you waiting for me as I get caught up in the day…..I’m so sorry Lord, please forgive me. I ask in your holy name that you correct this in my spirit and empower me by your spirit to be an overcomer…..I know you have so much for me that I can get to because I don’t come to you, listen for you and read what you have for me in your word. Help me to daily repent Lord and allow you
the freedom to fix what is broken.
I do love you Lord and pray that this will be a victorious year ………..
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for allowing me to be present at this time for the safe inviroment Beth has provided.
My prayer for this coming year is to lose all my anxiety. To laugh and sing and read the bible without wondering where I am in all this. I have so much fear. Fear of life. You must have a purpose for me, but first I need to learn how you love me. I look back and see your hand in my life but I can’t get it pass my hard heart to translate it to love. Please prepare me, help me to know that you care lovingly, so that by next year I have a success story in your name. Take my fear and anxiety and shred it to pieces. Take my depression and throw it in the lake of fire. Let me scream from the top of my lungs what the Lord can do. I love you Jesus…Rebecca
Sweet Jesus,
Please wrap your sweet arms tenderly around Rebecca and show her in a mighty way just how much you love and adore her.
My precious Savior,
You put my marriage back together again through the pain of cancer, then you healed my body of the cancer. I had never seen a healing before…so mine was the first. I know You healed me for a purpose and I long to fulfill that purpose..this year I ask that you direct my path towards what You have in store for me. Lead me to the scripture You want me to memorize and let me retain as much as possible. Thank You for Your immeasurable love and patience with me. I want to make a difference, Lord….
Praise You Jesus for her healing of cancer and her marriage! You are so awesome!
“That means do your best to avoid jotting your verse on a stick note and planting it on your bathroom mirror where your man can see it and repent of his sins. He probably won’t because he’s got your game. I bet you can guess how I know that.” Oh how well you know me. Except, we have separate mirrors, so I just go ahead and put verses for him on his own mirror.
So excited to hide more of God’s Word in my heart!
Sweetest Heavenly Father, Here I am again. I praise you and thank you for never leaving. I pray that in 2011 I can rest in you. You have me here for a purpose, and it is not to worry, compare, or compete with any other woman or mom in the earth. I want to be used for your glory and not get caught up in the stuff that has consumed me for so long. I love you sweet Jesus.
Father God, You are worthy. Thank You for this past year and for the year ahead. Thank You for the truth of Philippians 1:6. Help me to apply this very truth to my mind and heart this year. I want this truth to run deep, and I know You want it for me. You did the work, You are doing the work, and You will do the work – period. This is the year I stop believing the lie that anything good comes from my sick flesh. This is the year I stop counting on good works for justification or worthiness. I am not worthy. You are worthy. And I am humbled by Your love and favor. Moreover, I am justified by the work of Jesus Christ alone. May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world (Galatians 6:14). I am claiming freedom from self-reliance this year. Do Your thing, Father. I love watching You work. My life and my love are Yours. It is in the very mighty name of Jesus Christ my Lord that I pray, Amen.
Dear Lord,
Just yesterday you showed me in a practical way that I am not to worry about the future. Help me to rest in You today and be thankful for Your Presence in my life today and not worry about tomorrow. Help me to live and believe that Your grace is sufficient for me and is all I truly need. May Phil. 4:6-7 and Matt. 6:25-34 bring me into Your rest and peace.
Lord, I humbly ask that I be able to draw closer to You in the New Year. I have been your reluctant daughter at times, and I pray that I shed my reluctance and embrace You with every fiber of my being. Help me to use every day as an opportunity to learn more about You and your greatness, to study, learn, and hide your word in my heart, and to serve and hold your people close to me. As I grow in You and your word, I pray that I will grow in love for You, for all others, and that those who come into contact with me will see You through the love and happiness they see in me. I can only do this through and with You, Father. Love, Amanda
And THAT is why I love Beth Moore….we share so many similar struggles. I am not “copying” your prayer request for this coming year…I wrote it in my journal three days ago. I have the same need as you, to not obsess about conflict and hurt and to be able to get over it quick and move on. It can’t be done in the flesh or with more desire or will power, it is a work of His Spirit!
Groans that words cannot express (Romans 8:26) are often prayers God cannot refuse…C.H>Spurgeon
I am praying as you are Beth that God will help me “get over” things quickly…and to look UP as I do…
I’m excited I have my spiral and have two verses in it already. I have memorized the first and working on the second one. Thank you my Heavenly Father for what you have done in my life for without you I an nothing. Thank you Beth
Father,
My prayer for 2011 is to fall deeply in love with Jesus and to make him Lord over every aspect of my life including my weight. Lord God, I cannot do this in my own strength, but in You, all things are possible. When I am tempted to turn to chocolate or other sweets when I am stressed, Lord, quietly call me to turn to You.
Dear Lord,
Please deliver me from this awful phobia and OCD that wears me down. Please help me be intimate with You – only that will cast out these strongholds.
I love you Jesus.
Well, Lord, I’d like to sound more profound at the moment, but I believe my “one thing” that You’re desiring to bring new victory in is: less TV watching. How silly. And yet, how sad that I could potentially let a little box steal time away from reading, talking, listening, praying, or anything-ing that You may have for me this coming new year. Please strengthen me against my own laziness. Refute the old excuse of “togetherness” when a little time away not only blesses me, but sets the right example for the very ones I pretend I’m “fellowshipping” with. Thank You for continuing to show up and show Yourself more clearly. Thank You for always believing I’m capable of ever so much more than I am. And making me ever so much more than I was. Jesus, thank You for making this conversation a reality! Amen.
Dearest Heavenly Father:
Thank you for loving me, even when I don’t deserve it. Thank you for remembering me and taking care of me, even when I forget you. Help me to grow closer to you God. Help me to depend on you God. Help me to BELIEVE you are who you say you are and that I can do all things through you. Help your WORD to become alive and active in me.
Help me God in those times of need where I feel defeated, unworthy and am spinning in a wasteland of negativity and worrying about something upsetting or fixing something I can’t fix. Help me to think positively first. Help me to send the devil packing when he plants seeds of doubt and to teach my beautiful girls the same.
God grant me focus and help me to set my sights on you in a messy world. Help me to show my daughters that they can make Godly choices (even when it’s tough or unpopular.)
I love the way you love me Lord!
Father,
Help me to finish what I’ve started! Help me to focus on what I CAN do and not what I CAN’T do so that you can do your miracles in my life Lord!
Amen!
Dear Lord: In the new year of 2011, please help me to let things go quickly and stop dwelling on them.
For 2011 I choose self-control!!!
“Lord, please help me to make every effort to add to my faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control, and to self-control, perserverence…”
Lord Jesus, teach me to float in the Living Water. May I know you – really know you – as my Prince of Peace.
Faith, please. The smallest portion of belief, a negligible amount will do, I long to be set free.
Dear Heavenly Father, In 2011 may all I say and do Profit others, Purify me, and Promote your kingdom here on earth!
I have been asking God to give me an overall theme for 2011 and I feel He is asking me to leave the events of 2010 in 2010. The hurts, fears, betrayals and lies that brought me to my place of desperation for Him.
God, You continue to speak to me that because of You I am able to do things I could never imagine or accomplish based on my own abilities. Help me not only to trust in You but to obey You. I’ve put these things at Your feet, please give me the courage to leave them there and never pick them up again.
“I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” Philippians 3:12-14 (NLT)
Lord,
You know I need help with healthy boundaries. I need help with boundaries at home, at work and in all of my personal relationships. You know I am a pleaser, and my lack of healthy boundaries causes me to over commit, take on more than my share, and take on junk that is none of my business. This causes me to be resentful, depressed, angry , clench my jaw and tense up the muscles in my back. I want to be free from this.
I know at the root of this is the stronghold of pride; as well as, some problems with Idolatry. Plus, I can be controlling and manipulative to get my people pleaser fix. Help me to assess my talents and limitations, and step out as you lead me. Help me Lord to be brave to find my life’s work.
Thank you Lord that nothing is impossible with you. That you are the wonderful counselor that will teach me in this area of my life. Thank you that: ” The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.”
Dear Lord,
I pray that this year I would be more open and honest in my prayers to You. This once was easy for me, but I have become lazy over time. Please forgive me for not including parts of my life in my prayers, just because that’s easier to do, to ignore them. Help me to be diligent with this task. Help me to have the freedom that comes with being honest with You in talking to You about everything that goes on in my life, good or bad. Thank you, Jesus, for Your help and for your goodness. I love you. In Your name I pray, Amen.
Father, My prayer for 2011 is that You produce a steadfast spirit within me. 2010 was full of so many things that were the opposite of standing firm. Everything was variable it seemed, including my walk with you. I pray that the things you have put in my heart for 2011 (spiritual, financial, physical, emotional, etc) – You would give me the ability to stand firm and see things through. To keep things simple and just remain faithful and firm in the little things each day so that I will be firmly planted much like the blessed one in Psalm 1, yielding fruit in due season. Forgive my complanceny in my walk with you and thus complanceny that trickled down to every area of my life this past year.
Psalm 51:10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Beth,
Please may you pray about coming to Zimbabwe to give some of your inspiring talks
Thanks
Wendi Brooking
Harare
Zimbabwe
I need you Lord to remove these feelings of insecurity that rob my peace and joy.
Lord, I want to take my thoughts captive to You – especially the ones born out of pride, fear, and doubt. Let the strongholds come down and Your glory rise up!
Father, I approach Your throne with that one request that keeps coming up. I desperately need Your grace and peace to raise our three foster children in a way that makes them feel safe, secure, loved, and purposeful. I feel that I have failed them in many ways so far that I question if my husband and I are the ones to raise them. I thank You for your patience with me and your many confirming mercies as I learn to be a mom of three at once, Your forgiveness when I fail them and You, and the moments when I regret our decision to give part of our adventure of being newlyweds up for the sake of Your call. I want to be a Godly mom who takes time for the things that are important to these little ones, and I want to be someone who raises them to trust Jesus with everything. Holy Spirit, I invite You to prune as You please to make these things come to pass. Thank You for Tabbi, Heather, and Ty. Heal their wounds by adding Your grace to our inadequacies that we might love with Your perfect love.
Thanks for Your love Lord. We are counting on You alone!