Praying with Paul

Passage

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Prayer

Dear Father, God of the living,Thank you that Christ's revelation of himself within my soul as Lord of my life and as the living Spirit of truth and holiness testifies that he is not dead but alive forevermore.Thank you that he lives in my heart.By your grace, and by my faith in what you did, I am what I am. The resurrection is preached and I believe it. Thank you, Father! Thank you that I don't have to believe that death ends it all either for...

 

Passage

1 Corinthians 15:5-10

Prayer

Dear Father, God of real history,Thank you for the testimony of eyewitnesses who saw Christ alive after his crucifixion: Cephas, the twelve, more than five hundred brethren, and James. Thank you for the testimony of the apostles and for Paul.I am grateful that I am not following cleverly devised myths, but the reality of history! I believe their testimony! And yours!In the name of Jesus I come, thanking you for your resurrection power and asking...

 

Passage

1 Corinthians 15:1-4

Prayer

Dear Father, God of the living,Thank you for the Good News that Jesus Christ, your Son, is risen from the dead. Thank you that by it I am saved and in it I stand, if I hold it fast - unless I believed in vain - which I did not.Thank you for the important message we received - that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, - thank you, Lord! - that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance to the Scriptures...

 

Passage

1 Corinthians 14:26-33

Prayer

Dear Father, God of intelligibility and peace,When we come together and each of us has something to contribute, may everything be done to build up the body. Let us do things one by one, or by pairs or triplets at most, so that all may learn and be encouraged.For you, our God, are not like the pagan gods, a god of confusion and hysteria, but are a god of peace. Let us honor you by doing things decently and in order.Submitting to your commands of...

 

Passage

1 Corinthians 14:13-25

Prayer

Dear Father, God of intelligibility and peace,Let our praying, singing, and preaching be aimed at informing the minds and spirits of others, that they may be built up and respond, \"Amen.\"Give us the attitude of Paul, who said, \"I would rather speak five words with my mind, in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue.\"Let us be babies when it comes to evil, but not in our thinking. In our thinking, may we be mature, and...

 

Passage

1 Corinthians 14:1-12

Prayer

Dear Father, God of intelligibility and peace,Thank you for reversing the curse of Babel when you poured out your Holy Spirit on believers in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost.Even in the confusion of many tongues you proclaimed your Good News to every tribe and nation under heaven, with every person hearing it in his or her own language.Thank you too for the gift of prophecy in the common language, believers speaking to one another for their...

 

Passage

1 Corinthians 13:8-13

Prayer

Dear Father, O God of love!Let me possess love, for love never ends. I know that prophecy, tongues, and knowledge will pass away, for they are all incomplete and unfinished.When the complete and perfect comes, everything incomplete and unfinished will be gone.Enable me to put away the things of childhood - the way I reasoned, the way I spoke - and help me become mature. Now I see through a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part...

 

Passage

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Prayer

Dear Father, give me love!May I one day possess fully all the qualities of love, as did your son, Jesus, the Messiah!May I be patient and kind, not jealous or boastful, not arrogant or rude, not insisting on my own way, not ever irritable or resentful.May I rejoice always in what is right, never in anything that is wrong.Help me to bear all things and endure whatever I must, to trust in all circumstances, and to be hopeful in all trials.By Jesus's...

 

Passage

1 Corinthians 13:1-3

Prayer

Dear Father, O God of love,If I could speak in all the languages of men and angels, and did not have love, I would be no more than a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.If I had all prophetic powers, and could understand all mysteries and all kinds of knowledge, and had all faith, so as to remove mountains, and did not have love, I would be nothing.If I gave away all that I possessed, and delivered my body to be burned, and did not have love, it would...

 

Passage

1 Corinthians 12:12-30

Prayer

Dear Father, God of order,You have invested the inferior parts of the body with greater honor. You have given the weak parts of the body indispensable roles. You have given some who are unpresentable a greater modesty.Your ordering of people in the body of Christ is altogether wonderful. You have called all of us to be humble, loving, caring. You want us to prefer one another in honor and to count others better than ourselves. Help me to be this...