Numbers 6:23-27 – “Bless My children. Tell them this: 'God blesses you and keeps you. The face of God shines upon you and is gracious to you. God looks upon you with peace.’ In this way, you will put My Name on My children, and I will bless them.”
We claim this blessing, Lord! Thank You for looking favorably upon us. Thank You for Your promise of grace and peace that give our faces such rest, such shine!
To pray with power for our country, the Ukraine, Russia, China, and every country of concern, let's look for and pray with God's Promises to us in God's Word:
Micah 4:3-5 – “The Lord will judge the nations and decide
what is right for great countries, far and near. They will beat their swords
into plows and their spears into pruning hooks, and fighting between nations
will cease, and they will study war no more. People will sit under their vines
and fig trees, and no one will make them afraid, for God has said so. For all
people will walk in the name of their gods, but we will walk in the Name of the
Lord our God forever and ever.”
Ever since Cain killed Abel, we’ve been at war with one another! Jealousy, pride, and a controlling spirit get in our way – and, oh, get in Your way, Lord!
One tribe sells another into slavery then blames other nations for not
doing what’s right. Forgive us, Lord! Help us to admit and learn from our
mistakes. Help us to walk at peace with You, each other, and ourselves –
forever in the power of Your Name.
Mary Harwell Sayler from her book, Kneeling on the Promises of God
[This following post prefaces the book, Kneeling on the Promises of God, which came together with God's guidance and help from the research capabilities found on Bible Gateway.]
As you have likely heard, the hymn “Standing on the Promises” encourages us to trust God and take Him at His word. But from the very beginning of time, the matter of believing God arose in the Garden of Eden with the doubt-producing question, “Does God really mean what He says?” That contagious thought gave mankind an excuse to disobey, and distrust gave birth to death!
Now, as then, wariness of God brings uncertainty and the ongoing scramble to find, “Who can I trust?” Sometimes we can’t even trust ourselves! So where do we turn? Do we place faith in money, power, politics, institutions, traditions, or trends?
The trouble with those options is that people change their minds. Money changes hands and value. Political leaders come and go. Institutions become something unlike their original selves, and trends are, well, trendy. Facts get disproven as new information comes to light. Even the ground beneath our feet trembles, and stars careen from the sky. Everything changes! But God does not change, and neither does God’s word.
Mysteriously and paradoxically, the Holy Spirit is invisible to us yet the
most solid matter. So, too, are the promises God gives – promises so
stabilizing, we can build our whole lives on them. Promises so truthful and
trustworthy, they can become the basis of our most powerful prayers. But why
should we believe those promises? Why should we place our faith in God?
According to
the Bible, God is Love – forgiving, compassionate love that can always be trusted to do what’s best for us
and our spiritual well-being. Nothing and no one is greater, kinder, holier, or
more trustworthy than God. Nothing and
no one can offer us more power or purpose for our lives. Once we realize we can
totally trust the Lord, we can build our marriages, families, churches, and
occupations on the promises God gives.
We can build our prayer lives on those promises too. We can take God at His word, knowing He agrees with our prayer requests because He has already promised the very things we claim or ask Him to do. Therefore, to kneel on a promise God made means claiming that promise and praying it into our lives.
To put this belief into practice, you’ll find heartfelt, conversational prayers following each Bible promise – promises found in each translation but paraphrased here into everyday English. These prayers are to give you an idea of how you, too, might kneel on the promises in God’s Word.
The hope is that relevant prayers will also come to you as you meditate on the scripture verses, and write down your prayers, claiming God’s promises in the space provided on the lower part of each page. But before doing this:
Pre-pare with pre-prayer!
Pray for the prayers to pray.
Regardless of our denominational affiliations or cultural backgrounds, let’s agree to stand on the promises of God throughout our lives and kneel on those promises as we claim God’s Word each day and night in prayer.
May God bless you and your prayer life in the Lord!
Kneeling on the Promises of God
2 Corinthians 1:20 – “In Christ, every promise of God finds its ‘Yes!’ And also through Him is our ‘Amen!’ for the glory of God through us...