Praying with Paul

Romans 9:21-24

Dear Father, ruler of the ages,

You, O God, are the potter who has the right over the clay to make of it whatever you please. What if you, desiring to show your wrath and to make known your power, have endured with much patience the objects of wrath made for destruction? What if you put up with sin in order to make known the riches of your glory to the objects of mercy prepared for glory?

Thank you for selecting your chosen ones from every nation of the earth. And...

 

Romans 9:19-20

Dear Father,

All who are descended from Israel do not belong to Israel, nor are men counted as Abraham's children by mere physical descent.

You, O Sovereign Lord, have chosen, according to your own desire and purpose, those you want to continue your work in the world.

Thank you, dear Father, that your choice and mercy has reached to me. Thank you for all that you are doing in my life. Thank you for teaching me to love the descendants of Israel by the flesh. May my...

 

Romans 9:1-18

Dear Father,

Keep me and all who are related to me from any hint of hatred toward Israel, your ancient people.

Let us love them and pray for their good always, longing so much for their salvation that we, like Paul, should have sorrow and unceasing anguish because of their alienation from you.

Father, you gave such honor and wonderful gifts to them: You called them by your name; they are Israelites. To them belong the sonship, the glory, the worship, and the promises...

 

Romans 8:38-39

Dear Father, faithful God,

Fill my heart with the deep conviction that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate me from the love which you have for me in Christ Jesus.

Amen. Let it be so for me! Fill me with the joy and peace of so believing! I praise your holy name and the name of Jesus through the Spirit for your...

 

Romans 8:34-37

Dear Father, our ultimate security and joy,

Since Christ Jesus, who died, is at your right hand interceding for us, who shall separate us from your love? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? No, not even the sword, for it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered."

Shall any of these terrible things change your love one bit? No, in all these things...

 

Romans 8:28-34

Dear Father, who is totally "for-us,"

How wonderfully reassuring to know that in everything you work for good with those who love you, who are called according to your purpose.

Thank you that whom you foreknew you also predestined to be conformed to the image of your Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren. Thank you that whom you predestined you also called; those whom you called you also justified; and those whom you justified you also glorified...

 

Romans 8:26-27

Dear Father, who knows my secrets,

Help me to wait patiently for my redemption. Thank you for giving me your Holy Spirit to make up for the inadequacies of my body and spirit. I know not how to pray as I should, so I praise you for your Spirit, who takes my inexpressible groanings and lifts them to the Lord Jesus, thus sharing in his intercession for me.

I thank you that the Holy Spirit searches out the remotest cranny of my heart, knows me in a way that I cannot even...

 

Romans 8:15

Dear Father, creator and re-creator of the world,

Whatever I may have to suffer is nothing compared to the glory you will reveal in your people, and therefore in me.

Your creation waits in eager longing for that better day in which we, your children, shall be revealed in glory. Your glory will be shared with us, and ours with it!

Inwardly, Father, I groan while bearing the frustrations of life and the weakness and pains in my body. I long for the time when the adoption...

 

Romans 8:9-15

Dear Father, who indwells me,

Show me that I do not really live in the flesh, since your Spirit really dwells in me, else I would not belong to you. So with Christ living in me, my spirit is alive because of righteousness, even though my body is dead (doomed for decay!) because of sin.

May the same Spirit which dwelled in Jesus continue to dwell in me and give life to my mortal body. Enable me by the Spirit to put to death the deeds of the sinful body, and thus find...

 

Romans 8:1-8

Dear Father,

Thank you that there is no condemnation for me now that I am in Christ Jesus. Through the principle of the Spirit of life in him I have been set free from the principle of sin and death.

You, my God, did what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. You sent your own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. Through him you condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in your people, of which I am...