Praying with Paul

Romans 4:1-5



Dear Father, friend of Abraham,
Thank you for the wonderful relationship you established with Abraham. Through him you have blessed the world. Through that relationship you have blessed me. Thank you, Lord, that through it you will bring even more blessings, now and for ever.
Thank you that Abraham's relationship to you was not something he earned; it came because "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."
To one who works, wages...

 

Romans 3:27-31



Dear Father, just and justifier,
All praise is due you, Father. Our boasting is totally excluded. Our justification is not by our works, but through our faith in you. So we are convinced by Paul that a person is justified by faith and not by works of the law.
You are God not only of the Jews but of all other nations also. You are the one God, the only God, the God of all people everywhere.
On the basis of whether people put their trust in you instead of...

 

Romans 3:21-26



Dear Father, just and justifier,
Thank you that your righteousness has been manifested to us. You made this happen apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, to your righteousness through faith in Christ Jesus for all who trust in him. How just you are in making no distinction between people on this matter, since every person has sinned and falls short of your glory.
Thank you for justifying us by your grace as a gift...

 

Romans 2:25-3:20



Dear Father, holy God,
Allow me to bear the marks of your covenant in my heart and my mind. May I be a spiritual descendant of Abraham. Let my praise be not from men but from you!
Help me understand that all human beings are under the power of sin, as it is written, "None is righteous, no not one!"
I ask forgiveness for all my sins by reason of your perfect expiation put forth in Christ Jesus. Clothe me with his righteousness, not my own. Having nothing...

 

Romans 2:8-11



Dear Father, holy and righteous judge,
I know that you will render to every man according to his works. To those who are factious and obey wickedness instead of the truth, there will be wrath and fury.
You have foretold tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, to the Jew first and also the non-Jew, but glory and honor and peace for every one who does good, to the Jew first and also to the non-Jew. For you show no partiality.
Help me do...

 

Romans 2:12-24



Dear Father, holy God,
Write the requirements of your will upon my heart. May I live in such a way that my conscience will bear witness that I have striven to live for you, on that day when you judge the secrets of men's heart by Christ Jesus.
Help me to be sincere and to have integrity. If I teach others, let me first teach myself. If I teach against stealing, don't let me take what is not mine.
If I teach against adultery, don't let me lust. If I teach...

 

Romans 2:1-7



Dear Father, holy and righteous judge,
Help me not to condemn myself by passing judgment on someone else when I may be doing the same or similar things. How could I escape your judgment and do this?
Help me not to presume on the riches of your kindness and forbearance and patience. Help me understand that your kindness is meant to lead me to repentance. Take away the hardness and impenitence that may be in my heart. Give me a heart of flesh, not stone...

 

Romans 1:32



Dear Father, righteous judge,
Who could argue against your righteous judgment? Who would claim that those who refuse to see truth should not be left in their blindness? Though they know that those who pervert truth deserve to die, they not only continue to practice perversion, they also glorify it!
Holy God, your judgment is just! Have mercy on these derelict people to chasten them with judgments that will bring them to repentance. And dear Father, save all...

 

Romans 1:24-25



Dear Father, to whom all honor and glory is due,
How sad that some would choose to dishonor themselves rather than to honor you. When they do so, you give them up to their own dishonorable passions. Women exchange natural relationships for unnatural. The men likewise give up natural relations with women and are consumed with lust for each other. Men commit shameless acts with other men and receive in their own persons the due penalty of their error.
Today...

 

Romans 1:26-31



Dear Father, judge of all,
How awful is your judgment. When men do not acknowledge you as God and do not live by your teachings, you give them up to base minds and improper conduct. Then they become filled with all manner of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malignity, they gossip, slander, and hate you. They are insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless...