Prayer: A Righteous Slave's Key Ingredient

May 8, 2018

Prayer: A Righteous Slave's Key Ingredient

Romans 6:19

Catherine Couch

Central Truth

When we are slaves to impurity and lawlessness, we run away from God. But when we are slaves to righteousness, we run to Him.

19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

How do we “present [our] members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification”? James 5:16b (NIV) says, "The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective."

Prayer is a powerful ingredient in becoming a slave to righteousness. It's easy for me to be a slave to SELF-righteousness rather than a slave to righteousness. I have learned that in addition to spending time in the Word, I must spend time praying and listening to my Savior. Praying Scripture daily has changed how I live. Below is a simple prayer I have taped to my bathroom mirror. My desire is to hide these verses in my heart and be reminded that I am no longer a slave to my flesh, but fully devoted to living and serving Christ alone.

Precious Heavenly Father, I come before You asking You to:

Please cleanse my heart. Make me humble and show me my sin. (James 4; Romans 12:3)
Renew my mind and give me discernment. (Romans 12:2)
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
Encourage me to seek You first and thirst for You alone. (Psalm 63:1; Matthew 6:33)
Make my mind captive to You and Your Truth. (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)
Create in me a clean heart and protect it. (Psalms 51:10; Proverbs 4:23)
Motivate me to live through Your Spirit. (Galatians 5:22-23)
Help me hear Your voice and not harden my heart. (Hebrews 3:15)
Teach me to rest in You. (Matthew 11:28-30)
Make me a peacemaker. (James 3:18; Ephesians 4:1-3)
Train me to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. (James 1:19-20)
Please give me wisdom. (James 1:5, 3:17)
Help us, as a family, love you, Lord, with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and love our neighbors as ourself. (Matthew 22:37-39)
Enable me to walk in Your strength today and be clothed in the full armor of God. (Ephesians 6:10-20)

I love You and need You. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

This month's memory verse

3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

– Romans 6:3–4

I went through a season in my life when I served countless hours in church, but I got lost in the maze of busyness and performance. I fed my pride by manipulating a room of people with the voice God gave me. Somewhere in all the "good" I did, my own PRIDE and SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS got in the way, and I got lost. I wasn't seeking the Lord or chasing after Him; I was chasing after the praise of others and robbing God of the praise that was due Him. You see, I was a slave. Satan wants us to think that we have to prove ourselves because it gets us off track and leads us away from the Lord. My pride led me down a dark road that I would not wish on anyone. Spending time in the Word, getting our thoughts in line with Truth, seeking the Lord, talking with Him (prayer), obeying and being attentive to what the Spirit tells us to do—THAT is how we are slaves to righteousness.

1. If you feel like you need to prove yourself by what you do or how you live, then you are NOT living as a slave to righteousness, but rather as a slave to self-righteousness. How does being a slave to righteousness lead to freedom in Christ? (Galatians 5:13-25)

2. How would you live if you truly lived in the freedom for which Christ set you free?

3. What are ways you can choose to be a slave to righteousness today?

Father God, I pray over every person reading this Journey devotional today. Open their minds to Your truth. Give them understanding and a desire to know You. May we no longer be slaves to sin. Teach us how to be righteous before You. Amen.