A Personal Prayer: Identity and Optimism

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L.D. Turner

It is often said that prayer is a personal thing and this is a true statement. Prayer is the one place where we can take off our masks, open our hearts, and speak openly and freely with our Creator. At the same time, some prayers are meant to be shared. I know in my own spiritual journey I have often been inspired by the prayers of others. In fact, there have been numerous occasions that the prayerful words of other have triggered new insights and valuable new pespectives on things.

Like most things, I suspect each person has to make up his or her mind about using the prayers of others.

As mentioned above, I have frequently found blessings in using the prayers of other Christians, especially those who have walked the path at a level much deeper than myself. Significant figures of the past immediately come to mind when I think of prayer: Andrew Murray, E.M. Bounds, William Law, Thomas A' Kempis, John and Charles Wesley, just to name a few.

I have especially found the practice of "praying the scriptures" to be of consistent value to me. This powerful practice has received quite a bit of ink of late, but it should also be noted that this sort of praying has a long history in Christian tradition. Further, I suspect that the discipline of praying the scriptures in a positive manner was far more widespread than we are aware of. After all, we only know of those who have published their ideas on the subject, as well as those who have shared their own personal prayers. I don't feel it is a huge jump of faith to believe that for everyone who wrote on this subject, there were many more who simply practiced the discipline for their own edification.

Whenever I pray the scriptures, I keep several guidelines in mind. First, I find passages of scripture that are clearly related to what I am praying about. Second, I always form the prayer in positive terms and, as much as possible, put my words in the present tense. Doing things this way is a result of my own personal experimentation with the discipline of praying the scriptures. Personally, I find my prayer time more rewarding and positive if I use relevant scriptures, couched in the present tense. However, that doesn't imply you or anyone else should pray in this manner. My only suggestion is to keep at it, be persistent and see where the Spirit leads you.

As an example, I would like to share a personal prayer wtih you. Since composing this prayer, I have used it many times with the goal of letting the words and principles soak deep into my sub-conscious mind. That way, the prayer becomes more personal - it becomes a part of me.

A bit of background: this prayer, entitled, "Father of Lights," came to me during a time when I was looking to the Bible for a deeper understanding of my identity in Christ. Paul speaks often of the fact that, as Christians, we are "in Christ" and also states that we should take solace and inspiration from the reality of "Christ in you." As the weeks passed, I experienced a deeper awareness of my new identity "in Christ" and this knowledge gave me an encouraging sense of optimism. If what Paul says is true, and I believe that it is, we Christians have every reason to be optimistic, not only in the next world, but especially in this one.

Feel free to use this prayer whatever manner you discern, with the help of the Holy Spirit, is best for you. If you post the prayer or publish it, please cite its origin.

Father of Lights

Father of Lights, you have said that in aligning with you I am a Child of the Light. I thank you for that honor and privilege and also thank you that you have made me a new creation. Today, I seek to take possession of my reborn identity in you and I thank you for providing me with the ability to do so, through the blessed work of the Holy Spirit.

Father, I know you have placed in me from birth a right, preserving and steadfast spirit and I know that the Holy Spirit will empower me to contact, develop, embrace and enhance those divine qualities, all to your glory and for the sake of others as well as for the purpose of growing in sacred character.

I know Father that above all, you are a God of restoration and a God of renewal. I know that according to your holy Word, that you are, at this very moment, renewing in me the mind of Christ – the most sacred mind. Your Spirit is at work in me today, enabling me to live a life of integrity, enthusiasm and empowering me to maintain a commitment to excellence. I thank you Father for your faithfulness and the blessings you are bestowing on me today, both seen and unseen.

Father, thank you for your unfailing faithfulness. You have proven time and time again that you are there, walking as my companion, even when I don’t see you and even more when I don’t acknowledge your presence. I know that you have said that you desire my best and that all things, whether I can understand them or not, work together for my greatest good. Therefore, looking to you, I expect good and good alone.


Father of Lights:


I thank you for your presence with me;


I thank you for your presence in me;


I thank you for protecting me;


I thank you for providing for me;

I thank you for empowering me.


I am grateful my Lord, knowing that I will find in you all I will ever need.


(In the name of Jesus, the name at which every knee shall bow - Amen)


© L.D. Turner 2010/All Rights Reserved

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• Praying the Scriptures (pjsprayerline.blogspot.com)

Today's Encouraging Word

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God has given you authority and power to take dominion over all things on earth. Your first responsibility, however, is to subdue and take dominion over the only enemy that can defeat you – YOU!

You cannot triumph over the external world until you subdue and take dominion over you! You will have to wage war against every argument within you that challenges what God has said about you.

You have been taught by the world to see yourself as inferior to what God’s original plan was for you. Your years of conditioning and indoctrination will cause you to doubt what the Almighty said about you. You will find yourself struggling against what God has said. Doubt and unbelief will be unrelenting in their challenge to influence you to believe what God says cannot be true.

It will take some time to undo the conditioning of years of misinformation, but God’s Word is sure and powerful. If you continue hearing the Word of God over and over again, your thinking will become aligned with it and your mind will be renewed. Then, because of our persistent and diligent efforts, your life will be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Bishop Jim Lowe

An Example of Scriptural Affirmative Prayer

L. Dwight Turner

Although we have published a good bit of material on how to construct and utilize positive biblical declarations or affirmative prayers, from time to time readers ask that we publish more of these prayers on line. In reponse to these requests, the following is an affirmative prayer, based on the passage of scripture from 2 Peter 1: 3-7. First, the scripture reads:

His divine power has given us everything need for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and may become participants of the divine nature.

For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love.

(New Living Translation)

The affirmation based on this passage of scripture is:

I am a child of the Living God;
His divine power has provided all I need
To live a life of godly excellence.

I receive and accept God’s great promises,
So I may participate in his divine nature.

• In Christ I am a new creation, filled with faith and goodness.
• In Christ I am a new creation, filled with goodness and knowledge.
• In Christ I am a new creation, filled with knowledge and self-control.
• In Christ I am a new creation, filled with self-control and patient endurance.
• In Christ I am a new creation, filled with patient endurance and godliness.
• In Christ I am a new creation, filled with godliness and mutual affection.
• In Christ I am a new creation, filled with mutual affection and love.

In Jesus most holy name, Amen.

Suggested use: Pray the first part of the affirmation daily, and also select on of the seven affirmative statements and use it for a day. In seven days, you will have prayed through the entire passage.

The value of this kind of prayer is magnified through three forces: positive intention, repetition, and faith. Have as your intention to bring about these positive changes in your life; after the first week, select on of the seven affirmative statements and pray it at least three times a day, preferably on arising, at lunch time, and before going to sleep. As the Master instructed us and as Peter tells us, have faith (even as small as a mustard seed) that God has already provided this blessing for you and you are, by praying in an affirmative manner in good faith, bringing that desired biblical quality into physical manifestation in your life.

Done with faith and consistency, this prayer will change your life.

Why I'm A Christian Optimist

L.D. Turner

I am often asked why I believe so strongly that Christians should be among the world’s most ardent optimists. I normally respond by saying that it is, more than anything else, due to the nature and the character of the God I worship. Most folks leave it at that. On occasion, however, an inquirer might want a bit more detail.

The reasons that I have adopted Christian optimism as my foundational philosophy of life are too many to mention in any short conversation and certainly within the framework of this article. Suffice it to say that once I began to take my walk with Christ seriously and put into practice as best I could a sincere desire to live according to his teachings, the Holy Spirit gradually revealed to me why optimism was the Christian’s inherent approach to life.

As I began to explore scripture through this frame of reference, it is as if the Bible became a living organism, consistently revealing its truths in relation to the nature and character of God. These revelations of God’s love, his faithfulness, and his integrity brought about a positive response in my being and this response flowered into an optimistic approach to life. Over time I came to understand that the optimal way to live is as a Christian optimist. Even our language reflects this reality as optimal and optimism have the same prefix and the same root.

As I said earlier, the confines of this article does not allow for a detailed list of the reasons why I am a Christian optimist. I do, however, want to list a few of the reasons below. Should you desire a more in depth study of the subject, I suggest that you study the Bible, focusing of the nature and character of the Father as revealed in scripture in general and in the persons of Christ and the Holy Spirit in particular.

I am a Christian optimist because:

The Biblical God is a God of love. Further, he loves me.

The God of Scripture loves me with a proactive love, not a passive, indifferent, and conditional type of love. The Bible reveals that God loves me enough to send his only Son to die for me so that I might have life to the fullest and, on top of that, have life eternally.

The God of the Bible further exhibits his proactive love by pursuing me. He chased me down when I ran from him. Consistently acting as the “Hound of Heaven,” the God I worship continues to come and find me when I have strayed from the sheepfold and, wonder of wonders, loves me still.

If ever there was a prodigal on this earth, it is I. Still, my God not only accepts me back after I wander here and there, he comes out on the path to meet me and, in spite of my faithlessness, he celebrates my return. Even though I am undeserving of his love and his grace, he gives it freely.

My God is a God of mercy, not justice. I shudder to think what life would be if I got what I actually deserve.

The Biblical God gave up a part of himself so that I might be forgiven; and he sent another part of himself so that I might live the kind of life he wants me to live. I am optimistic because I am forgiven and I am empowered.

God allows me to partake of his divine nature.

The Christian God has already blessed me with all that I need to live a holy life and has further blessed me by indwelling me with the power to make that life manifest on a daily basis.

The Biblical God has placed within me the same power that raised Jesus from the dead.

he God I worship has made me a New Creation and has promised that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

My God has said that he has prepared even greater things for me in the next world.

The God revealed in Scripture has told me that Christ will, indeed, come again.

Obviously, I could go on and on here but by now I hope you get the picture. As a Christian I have every right to be an optimist. In fact, I could be nothing other than an optimist. Sure, life has problems and will always have problems. The Christian life is not a pleasure cruise. Far from it. Yet in spite of this, I am an optimist because I know that I have the power within me to handle any situation that may arise. God has promised me that he will never make me face more than I can handle.

I am a Christian optimist because he that is within me is greater than he who is in the world.

© L.D. Turner 2010/All Rights Reserved

On Being a Christian: What Does It Mean?

L.D. Turner

Christians seem to have an uncanny knack for taking simple truths and complicating them through debate, dogma, and doctrine. I don't mean to imply that these issues are not important. Certainly doctrine and dogma have their place. But I often wonder if Christ smiles in approval when he hears us debating his simple truths to the point that we divide ourselves into countless denominations and sects and tear asunder the Body that he meant to live in love and unity. On the contrary, I suspect this endless hairsplitting and theological nitpicking brings tears to his eyes.

During the early 1980's I enrolled in several Religion courses at a small university near my home in north Alabama. I recall one course in particular that centered on the life of Jesus. My fellow classmates were an interesting group. Some were undergraduate students pursuing coursework in Religion and Philosophy in preparation for seminary. Others were ordained pastors of small local churches who, after preaching for a number of years, felt the need to further their education. Others, like myself, were there seeking a deeper understanding of the Christian faith as well as its history and traditions. Then there was Henry.

No one knew exactly why Henry was enrolled. He rarely spoke and when he did, it was with a soft, slow voice with a pronounced rural southern brogue. Considering the diverse make up of the class, it was natural that heated discussions would often break out. The professor often encouraged this in fact. The class argued about many issues. The nature of the Trinity, immersion versus sprinkling, the permanency of salvation, the list is endless. I admit I often enjoyed these ballyhoos as they lent a degree of excitement to the proceedings and made the class time pass more quickly. One night the class was engaged in a verbal free for all centering on the Virgin Birth. I remember clearly hearing a wide range of viewpoints on this, mostly in support of the indisputable validity of the doctrine of virgin birth. I for one remained on the periphery of this dispute mostly out of ignorance. The doctrine of Virgin Birth was not for me an issue of central importance to my daily experience of the Christian path. In fact, unless it was brought up for discussion, I rarely consider it. It was one of those issues that I had placed on the theological back burner.

After a lengthy discussion, the professor looked to the back of the room and said, "Well Henry, you've been mighty quiet in this discussion. Why don't you share your thoughts on the Virgin Birth with us?"

After a long pause Henry folded his hands on the desk, looked cautiously around the room and said:

"Well, I've been a settin' here for over an hour listenin' to you gents discussing this here thing about the Virgin Birth of Christ. I guess ya'll know a heck of a lot more about all this than I do. You must or else you couldn’t talk about it for so long. All I know is this. Jesus loves me and I love him and try to do what he says. I reckon it don't matter much to me what his momma done."

Point taken Henry, end of discussion.

One issue that I have often heard brothers and sisters discussing, often in heated tones, is the order of salvation. Some say that we repent and then we are saved. Others say that we repent because we are saved. I imagine one could make a case for either side of this issue by citing various passages of scripture but in terms of our response to God's grace I don't see that it matters much on a practical level. The fact is God makes His offer and we respond. The mere act of responding is in itself an act of repentance. We accept that we are accepted, complete with our cuts and bruises, our shortcomings and short-fallings. This is the meaning of grace, pure and simple.

Yet the response doesn't stop here. We are amazed at God's grace and this radical amazement leads to a more consecrated repentance. Brennan Manning describes this response:

The saved sinner is prostrate in adoration, lost in wonder and praise. He knows repentance is not what we do in order to earn forgiveness; it is what we do because we have been forgiven. It serves as an expression of gratitude rather than an effort to earn forgiveness.

God is a loving God, a God concerned with making our lives fuller, richer, and more rewarding. He calls to us from a heart of compassion, seeking our affirmative response to his offer to come and reside within us, his offer to make us holy and whole. He is a God who desires to give us peace amidst the storms and tribulations of life in this harried world. In the words of Hannah Whithall Smith, as we look at the life of Christ and listen to His words, we can hear God saying

I am rest for the weary; I am peace for the storm-tossed; I am strength for the strengthless; I am wisdom for the foolish; I am righteousness for the sinful; I am all that the neediest soul on earth can want.

God offers and asks that we accept. Acceptance is the beginning of the process of conversion, which means a turning around. In essence, we accept God's gift and then turn our faces in a different direction.

It is at this very point of turning that a very critical and very real event occurs. This event is not all that complicated in the sense that it doesn’t involve any kind of doctrinal debate or theological nit picking. It is highly personal, it involves and analysis and a decision, and ultimately, a commitment to action.

Once we accept the fact that we are accepted, and here I mean truly accepted by the magnificent and unimaginable being that created all that exists, we first come to a deeper understanding of just who we are, what Christ has accomplished for us, and finally, if we indeed take on his yoke, what that commitment means in our lives – not the life of anyone else – but instead, your life as an individual believer now committed to walking with Jesus on a daily basis. We have to answer the basic question: What does it mean for me to be a Christian? Peter Vardy, in his remarkable little book And If it is True?, cogently explains this decision making process:

Christianity calls each of us to believe and trust in God, a belief and trust based on love. This is not simply a matter of intellectual assent….It is a matter of the truth of Christianity becoming ‘true for you’, as an individual. Only when Christianity becomes true for you so that you are willing to stake your whole life on it, does it really become true in your own case.

Belief that God exists does not come near to what Christianity is about. It is only when the factual truth of Christianity becomes “true for us” so that it becomes the center of our lives around which our whole existence revolves that we, as individuals, can see what Christianity involves….it means each of us coming to understand what it is for Christianity to become ‘true for me’, what Christianity is going to involve when it is taken on board and lived. Once we see and understand this, we then each of us have to decide whether or not we wish to try to live it – but that is our free choice. Until we have understood what is involved, however, we cannot even make the decision.

Christianity requires passion and total commitment – a commitment to a lived love relationship with God. The relationship has practical consequences and these can, to an extent, be foreseen.

“What does it mean to be a Christian?” ….The important way of looking at this question, however, is to see it as asking each of us, “What does it mean for me to be a Christian?” This is much much more uncomfortable and challenging. There is no single right answer – each of us needs to think the answer through for ourselves.

Before going any deeper into this, I want to pause for a few days and make a suggested assignment to those of you who might be interested. Each day for the next seven days, set aside some time for prayer and reflection. Your reflection should be on this simple question, “What does it mean for me to be a Christian?” Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you, teach you, and pray for wisdom, insight, and discernment.

Write down you answers to the question each day. The only caveat is this: you cannot repeat any answer. In other words, if on the first day one of your answers is, “It means that I will pray daily,” you cannot use that answer again for the next six days. Each day will contain answers never used before. It may seem like a struggle, but believe me, it is worth it.

At the end of the seven days, write a short essay about your experience. You may be very surprised at your new ideas.

© L.D. Turner 2009/ All Rights Reserved

A Prayer for Deeper Faith and Removal of Doubt

The Holy Spirit nudged me to post this prayer, which I composed some years ago, on this site today. Whenever I receive such a leading by the Spirit, I am not one to resist. I have found that these messages from the Spirit are pregnant with great possibilities. Perhaps there is someone out there right now who needs to see this prayer and begin to repeat it in his or her life. It is my sincere prayer that this is so. The prayer, which you should speak over your life every morning for at least a month, is as follows:

Lord, I trust your word and your word tells me that if I have faith, even faith as small as a mustard seed, then what I speak in that faith will come to pass. I thank you Lord for giving me this power and this privilege and I pray that you increase my faith day by day, hour by hour, and minute by minute.

I declare and proclaim in faith right now, at this very moment, that any vestiges of doubt, known and unknown, are removed from my heart and I go forth in confidence as a child of the Living God, declaring blessing over my life and that of my family. I trust in the power of faith that fills my spoken word and, just as the Father’s word does not return empty, neither does mine.

I firmly believe in these divine principles because they have been laid down by the Master, the very matrix through which the world and all that is in it was created.

In the name of Jesus I pray…

Amen

(c) L.D. Turner 2009/ All Rights Reserved