LETTERS: A PRAYER TO HELP OTHERS

To the editor:

Here is a prayer my wife and I have found to be helpful when we pray for others:

Dear Lord, help me search my heart for any unconfessed sin. If there is any sin within me, I confess that sin now, knowing that you are faithful and just to forgive my sings and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me, by the blood of Jesus Christ, who cleanses us from all sin. I thank you, Lord, for forgiving my sins and placing them in the sea of forgiveness where they will surface no more nor be remembered by you. Thank you, Father, for sending your son, who purchased us with his blood. For in him we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins. And, by his blood, we are justified.

I thank you, Lord, that I can come boldly before your throne of grace and enter into your presence where I can give you thanks and praise your holy name. How precious is your name. Because you have given me the spirit of adoption, I can call you Father. You are the good shepherd who leads me beside the still waters. You are my almighty God, my everlasting father, my deliverer and my shield. It is in you I take refuge. You are the strength of my life. You are the Lord that healeth. You are the way, the truth and the life, the beginning and the end. Because of your love for me, you had mercy on my soul and called me with a holy calling. I give you praise. You have redeemed me from the curse of the law. It is you, and you alone, who forgives our iniquities, heals our diseases, redeems our lives from destruction and crowns us with your lovingkindness and tender mercies. You have made us more than conquerors through him who loves us and who has given us the victory. All this we obtained through our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for hearing my prayers and for your promise that you will be listening and answering them before I call upon your name. Teach me to make my prayers more effective, and stir up the gift within me so my prayers will be fervent and will availeth much. Help all who are praying in intercession in one accord to know that we shall receive what we ask for as you have promised.

Let now my will but thy will be done this day as I make my heart silent before you. May the Holy Spirit show me what and for whom I should pray as he makes intercession for me according to your will.

RON FARROW

Cape Girardeau