5 Good Things To Pray For Daily

Here are five things we should pray for every day.

Pray to Avoid Sin

Jesus was asked by His disciples to teach them to pray as John the Baptist taught His disciples to pray (Luke 11:2) so Jesus tells them, not to pray this prayer, but to pray like this: “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation” (Luke 11:2-4). One of the most obvious things in this pattern of prayer is the desire to be kept from temptation, which is really “testing” because the Greek word, “peirasmos” simply means “an experiment, proving, or trial,” so we can pray for God to keep us from tests or trials or proving us beyond what we’re able to endure. God doesn’t lead anyone into temptation or sin but He does test the hearts, not that He would discover something new about us, but that we would see just how strong or weak our faith in God is, so it is not so that He will know, but that we will know.

Pray for a Divine Appointment

I love to ask God in the morning prayers for a divine appointment and God has answered this prayer in very powerful ways. What I mean is pray for God to have someone cross our path who is hurting and their hearts are softened and open to hear and receive the gospel. We might think we are directing our own steps, but God is actually sovereign over all that happens in our lives, and each and every day, everything works out for our best, according to His own purposes (Rom 8:28). Solomon understood that “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps” (Prov 16:9), so actually, “A man’s steps are from the LORD” (Prov 20:24a). Even Jeremiah the Prophet must have known this as he wrote, “I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps” (Jer 10:23), so pray for a divine appointment and that God would use you as a means to save someone today.

Pray for God to be Glorified

Since the heavens were created for the glory of God (Psalm 19:1), we too, as part of His creation, must also live a life that seeks to glorify God. Moses wrote, “Ascribe to the LORD, O families of nations, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength, ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name. Bring an offering and come before him; worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness” (1st Chron 16:28-29), for only He is worthy of all honor and glory. Isaiah wrote of God, “I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols” (Isaiah 42:8). The first Christian martyr was Stephen, a deacon in the church, and just before dying, “Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:55). The Apostle Paul says we can glorify God, and we can do that if we’re “filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God” (Phil 1:11).

Pray for God’s Kingdom

Continuing to look at what to pray for every day, we read more of the so-called Lord’s Prayer, which is actually a model or pattern that we should use to pray like. Jesus says we must pray to the Father, “Your kingdom come” (Luke 11:2). As suffering around the world increases, including the Christians in the world, we should seek earnestly for God’s kingdom to come when all of the suffering in the world will end. More than that, we should desire that great day of His appearing when “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Rev 21:4). That’s something to pray for every day. The only reason that Jesus has not returned yet is because of the “fullness of the Gentiles” has not yet been fulfilled (Rom 11:25). We know that God doesn’t desire than anyone perish apart from faith in Christ (2nd Pet 3:9), so pray for God’s kingdom to come every day because every day we’re that much closer than the day before.

Pray for Protection

We should pray for God’s divine protection every day because it is a fallen world and evil abounds. It seems that the world is growing more wicked and violent every day and so we can pray what the Psalmist wrote, “Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man” (Psalm 71:4) because he knows, “you are my strong refuge” (Psalm 71:7b), so pray every day, “O God, be not far from me; O my God, make haste to help me” (Psalm 71:12). Only God is our refuge for what can man do to us if God is for us (Rom 8:31)? The answer is nothing. They can kill the body but not the soul which will be in the presence of the Lord at death. Jesus said almost the exact same thing when He said, “do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt 10:28).

Conclusion

For we who are in Christ, we have peace with God because the condemnation has be lifted (Rom 5:1, 8:1), however for those who have all their lives rejected Jesus as Lord and Savior, they only have the wrath of God abiding on them right now (John 3:36b). God says to you who refuse to believe in Christ, that it is “because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed” (Rom 2:5) when “He will render to each one according to his works” (Rom 2:6), and “for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek” (Rom 2:8-9). That is your future (Rev 21:8) outside of trusting in Christ.

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.