Drawing Close Prayer Challenge Day 5

Well, hello there, prayer warrior!

Ready for today’s prayer topic? It’s a really good one:

Spiritual Growth

There are few things I long for more than deep roots. Thick, sprawling roots that plunge ever deeper into my Savior’s love. Ever further into grace. Ever stronger into faith. Ever more securely into the knowledge of Him.

I foolishly used to think spiritual maturity was primarily a function of time. That if you’re a Christian long enough, you eventually become godly.

But while time is certainly a factor, it’s far from the most important one. Some people who have claimed the name of Christ for decades are no more than spiritual infants. Others, though, grab onto Him and hold on for dear life, growing leaps and bounds in a fairly short amount of time.

So how do we become godly?

In a word: grace.

The same grace that saves us sanctifies us. It’s what gives us the desire and the ability to seek His kingdom and His righteousness. To acquire a knowledge of Him. To emulate His example and to live His life instead of our own.

So let’s ask Him for that grace. Let’s share with Him our desire to grow, and beg Him for the grace to do so.

Prayers for Spiritual Growth

1. Ask the Lord to fill you with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. (Colossians 1:9-10)
2. Claim God’s promised blessing upon your life as you refuse to walk in the counsel of the wicked, to stand in the way of sinners, or to sit in the seat of scoffers. Share with the Lord that you delight in His law; ask Him to help you meditate on it day and night so that you may be like a tree planted by streams of water that brings forth its fruit in its season, with leaves that don’t wither. Ask that in all you do, you will prosper and flourish as you look to Him in faith. (Psalm 1:1-3)
3. Pray that you, speaking the truth in love, would grow up in all things into Christ who is the head of the Body, and that He would make the entire Body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Ephesians 4:15-16)
4. Ask God to help you be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of the wicked and fall from your own steadfastness, but would grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 3:17-18)
5. Acknowledge to the Lord that every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that you may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17) Ask Him to give you a love for His Word, and a desire to meditate on it all day long. (Psalm 119:97)
6. Praise our great God for His divine power which has granted to you all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called you to His own glory and virtue. Thank Him for granting to you His precious and exceedingly great promises, that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust. Ask that His grace would empower you to diligently supplement your faith with moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patience, and patience with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. Remind the Lord of His truth that if these qualities are yours and abound, they keep you from being idle or unfruitful to the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:3-8)
7. Pray that God would help you to count it all joy when you fall into various temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Ask that the Lord would let your endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4)
8. Marvel over the truth that you have been crucified with Christ. Acknowledge to God that it is no longer you that lives, but Christ who lives in you. Ask that He would help you remember that the life you now live in the flesh you live by faith in the Son of God, who loved you and gave Himself up for you. Pray that He would keep His grace ever before you, for if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nothing. (Galatians 2:20-21) Implore the Lord to keep you from trying to muster up spiritual growth on your own, instead holding you always in the grasp of grace.

Dear Heavenly Father, Your grace amazes me. I pray that I never get over the wonder of it. Thank You that even as I grow my whole life long, I can never outgrow Your grace. I pray that You transform me into Your image with ever-increasing glory, until the day when my growth is complete and I finally see You face-to-face. It’s in the name of my Savior, Jesus Christ, that I pray. Amen.

Guess what? You completed FIVE DAYS! But we’re not finished yet. I have a BONUS sixth day for you! Click here to navigate to the main page, and scroll toward the bottom to find the final day of the challenge.