Personal Prayer.

3/8/2022

Psalm 145:18 "The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth."

As I have stated before, it is easier for me to lift others up in prayer than to pray for myself. There was a time, however, that my only prayers were for myself. I know that sounds odd, but it was during my healing from a very dark and destructive place, and self-prayer was really all I had the strength to do. Turning to God every waking minute of ever day during that time is the only reason I can actually sit here and write this blog; it is only by His grace. 

Jesus prayed for himself in the garden of Gethsemane, shown in Matthew 26:39: "And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying 'My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.'" He was carrying the unimaginable burden of what was to come, and cried out to His Father. 

There is a life-changing and critical prayer that we pray for ourselves in the sinner's prayer: our profession of faith. Romans 10:9-10 "Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is the Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved." This prayer is an intensely personal one between the individual and God. It is the prayer of submission and yielding to Jesus as the Messiah. This powerful and transformative  invocation is the beginning of a new life of faith. It is the prayer of accepting the most precious gift ever given. It is the prayer of salvation. 

If not for those times of personal pray, I would never have come to know Jesus, and I would have never learned true submission to my Heavenly Father.