1. Heavenly Father, your law instructs us to love one another. However, my attempts to love always fail. My fleshly efforts fall short and end up being self-serving. I realize that you are the source of true love. Since the fruit of the Spirit is love, I ask you, Holy Spirit, to fill me and love others through me. (Rom. 13:8-10)
2. Oh Lord, I once thought your law was an impossible goal toward which I should strive. Now I see that the law of God is imbedded in the person of God – the Lord Jesus Christ. And since I have received you, the law is now written in my heart. You are here to fulfill the law. Therefore, I trust you to accomplish your will through me. Your commandments are no longer grievous; they are my delight. (Ps. 40:8)
3. Dear God, you made it so simple: All I need to do is obey you. Yet obedience is so hard – in fact, impossible. You know that lip service or rituals won’t help me and certainly won’t glorify you. Your life in me makes it possible to obey you from my heart, because the Spirit lives there. Cause me to exercise faith in you so you can accomplish your purposes through me. (Rom.16:26)
4. Father God, as my creator, you invite me to give myself back to you so you can enable me to live life as you intended. I thank you, Lord, for your provision for my life. Therefore, I give myself completely to you. I trust you to cause me to find purpose and fulfillment in my life as you live your life through me. Thank you for being my wisdom in all I say and do! (Ps. 90:14)
5. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. (Ps. 51:10-12)
6. A champion’s prayer life is part of his personal walk with God. Intercession is informed by the Lord’s counsel and inspired by joy. “I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel; my heart also instructs me in the night seasons. You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Ps. 16:7-11).
7. When trials are headed our way, we need to determine ahead of time that we will be steadfast in our faith in God’s goodness, adequacy and sovereignty. The prophet demonstrated this resolve: “Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; though the labor of the olive may fail, … yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation” (Hab. 3:17-18).
8. During the Last Supper, the Lord Jesus warned his disciple, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren” (Luke 22:31-32). As we face spiritual warfare, pray with the assurance that Christ intercedes for us and will even overrule our failures as we take refuge in him.
9. Although the worldliness in each of us is a hindrance, we have the potential to prayerfully yield to God’s Spirit, trusting him to bear fruit through us. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Gal. 5:22-25).
10. Prayer is so important that the Creator gives a personal invitation and promise to Jeremiah and to us. “Thus says the Lord who made [the earth], the Lord who formed it to establish it (the Lord is His name):‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know’” (Jer. 33:2-3).
11. The psalmist wrote “my heart trusts in Him” when he thought of God. Pray for God to deepen men’s trust in him as they face the challenges of being a husband and father. (Ps. 28:7)
12. Fear and anxiety are often contributors to anger, but a man who trusts in the Lord “has no worries in a year of drought.” Pray for fathers to model this trust and walk in peace before their children. (Jer. 17:8)
13. When husbands have difficulties with their wives, pray that they will trust God enough to share all of their concerns and frustrations with him. (1 Pet. 5:7)
14. As the head of the home, men can feel burdened by the need to choose between competing options when decisions have to be made. Pray that these men will trust God enough to walk by faith and not by sight. (2 Cor. 5:7)
15. In times of trial, pray for husbands and fathers to demonstrate the power of trusting God and accepting his will before their children, neighbors and communities. (Job 1:21)
16. Lord, what kind of fasting pleases you? Is a day of fasting only a time for us to humble ourselves? Is it only for bowing our heads like reeds and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what we can call a fast, a day acceptable to you, Lord? (Isa. 58:5)
17. You have shown us the kind of fast that you prefer: one that loosens the chains of injustice and unties the cords of the yoke, that sets the oppressed free and breaks every yoke, that shares our food with the hungry and provides the poor wanderer with shelter. When we see the naked, we should clothe them, and we must not turn away from our own flesh and blood. (Isa. 58:6-7)
18. You also have shown us that when we honor you in these ways, our lights will break forth like the dawn, and our healings will quickly appear; our righteousness will go before us, and your glory, Lord, will be our rearguard. (Isa. 58:8)
19. We will call, and you will answer; we will cry for help, and you will say, ‘Here am I.’ If we do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if we spend ourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then our lights will rise in the darkness, and our nights will become like the noonday. (Isaiah 58:9-10)
20. You will guide us always; you will satisfy our needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen our frame. We will be like well-watered gardens, like springs whose waters never fail. (Isaiah 58:11)
21. We will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; we will be called Repairers of Broken Walls, Restorers of Streets with Dwellings. (Isa. 58:12)
22. When you invited Jesus into your life as your savior and lord, he immediately started the process of transforming you from within. Pray that he will continue this process by filling you day by day with the Holy Spirit. (Phil. 1:6)
23. When Jesus is in charge in your life, your everyday life becomes a miraculous journey. Praise his holy name today and thank the Lord that he defeated death when he rose from the grave and that he now offers to live in and through you. (Gal. 2:20)
24. When you fear God, you don’t have to fear anything or anybody else. Under his protection, nothing can harm you unless he allows it to happen. Praise him for his omnipotence, and give him thanks for his limitless love and concern for you. (Matt. 28:18)
25. The Lord has not left us on our own to live the Christian life. He sent the Holy Spirit to enable and empower us. May we as men seek daily fresh fillings of the Holy Spirit so Christ may live in and through us. (John 15:1-8)
26. We are called to be witnesses for Christ but are not asked to do this in the power of our own flesh. The Holy Spirit empowers us to be his witnesses. Let us humble ourselves before the Lord regularly, seeking his empowerment to be faithful witnesses for Jesus. (Acts 1:8)
27. The Holy Spirit represents the Trinity on earth, yet many times he is ignored and grieved. May we be careful not to grieve the Holy Spirit by relegating him to the sidelines as an impersonal force; rather, may we honor him as the third coequal member of the Godhead. (Eph. 4:30)
28. The Bible admonishes us to be filled with the Spirit. Pray that men will hunger for and seek after the fullness of the Holy Spirit in order to live Spirit-controlled lives that maintain victory over the flesh. (Eph. 5:18)
29. The fruit of the Spirit cannot be manufactured by our fallen nature. Often, we become discouraged because we try to produce the fruit of the Holy Spirit with the energy of the flesh. Pray that men will die to their own flesh and yield daily, even hourly, to the Holy Spirit who alone can create his fruit in and through us. Pray that your life will reflect the love of Jesus, so other people will see glimpses of him in your life. (2 Cor. 4:11)
30. Statistics show the outstanding impact that a believing man has on the well-being of his family. Pray that the Lord will continue to use the efforts of TWR’s men’s ministry through prayer, programming and discipleship groups to encourage Christian men to be the godly leaders of their marriages and families.
