PRAYER HABITS | The Burden Exchange
If you wake up burdened, this prayer practice is for you!
As new Christians, much of our prayer life is revolved around bringing our needs and burdens to God. While this is a valid form of prayer, it can be just the entry point into devotional fellowship, meditation and intercession.
When our hearts are crowded with our own fears and burdens, we rarely are able to take time to enjoy His presence, listen to His voice or pray HIS burdens. (i.e. intercession) While the Lord indeed cares about our burdens, some of the greatest riches in prayer take place when we began to ask Him, “Lord, what is on YOUR heart today?”
Psa. 55:22 Cast your burden on the Lord, And He shall sustain you;
He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.
John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.
"Can Jesus Christ see the agony of His soul in us? He can't unless we are so closely identified with Him that we have His view concerning the people for whom we pray. May we learn to intercede so wholeheartedly that Jesus Christ will be completely and overwhelmingly satisfied with us as intercessors." - Oswald Chambers
DISCOVERING HOLY HABITS
For your prayer time: (15 min)
1. RELEASE your burdens to Jesus. This may be done by listing all that may be troubling you and releasing them one by one to the Lord. Sometimes visualizing them actually being lifted or “cast upon the waters” can help hand the burden over. Take only 5 min or less to do this.
2. ASK Jesus to reveal HIS burdens to you. This can be done by saying, “Lord what is on Your heart today?” You can also choose a topic from a prayer list that is NOT about yourself. (such as the “Freedom Church 7 areas of prayer”)
3. DECLARE and pray God’s promises over the areas or people that He highlights to you. Spend 8 to 10 min of your time here.
4. GIVE THANKS. End your prayer time with thanking God in advance for these answered prayers.
The deeper places of prayer begin when we start to ask the Lord, "what is on YOUR heart?"