Are you feeling discouraged?  Are you feeling defeated?  Are you feeling broken and unworthy?  God cares and is ready to help you when you pray.  Even when things seem hopeless, God can work miracles.  Here is a prayer claiming the Bible verses to help you connect with the power of the resurrection of Christ.

A Word of Encouragement

I don’t know what your circumstances are today.  I don’t know what your situation is or what, in your life, this moment, needs redeeming.  I do know that if you knew some of the sins I have committed, you most likely wouldn’t think of me as someone who could help you.

Israel Mary Loud 119But I have written this as one who serves a Redeeming and Risen Savior, Who did not ask me to clean up my act before coming to Him; Who did not put me on probation to see how long I could hold it together; Who did not avoid the sins I had committed.  But through them and, to a great extent, because of them redeemed me and is making me into a trophy of His grace.

That’s what He wants to do for you and will do if you will surrender your brokenness to Him.  According to the Scriptures, Satan plotted against Jesus during the entire 30 + years of His life, in the flesh, here on planet earth.  The ultimate plot was to kill Him.

And on that Friday afternoon as Christ hung on the cross, it seemed Satan could taste victory.  And surely when Nicodemus and Joseph placed His body in the tomb and rolled the stone in front of the door celebration broke out in Satan’s evil kingdom. (See Matthew 27:57-66)

BUT THE CELEBRATION WAS PREMATURE!

The very means Satan would have used to destroy God’s plan of reconciling us back to Himself — the death of His One and Only Son, Jesus, crucified on a cross — became the means by which God would redeem us!

That’s what He wants to do for you and will do if you will surrender your brokenness to Him. Here is a prayer to help you approach God for His redeeming  power in even the most difficult situations in your life.

Prayer for God’s Power When Feeling Defeated, Lost or Broken 

Glorious God,

We celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus before You today!

We stand in awe of Your creation and we are reminded of Your ability to bring life where death abounds.  That You created light and life, in all its many forms, from nothing is beyond our ability to understand.  But just as awe-inspiring is the fact that you can take a broken life and create a trophy of grace from it.

You can . . .

Turn an orphan into Your child;

Make an ambassador for Your kingdom out of Your enemy;

Create a bondservant out of the deepest places of rebellion.

You can . . .

Bind up the brokenhearted;

Set captives free;

Release prisoners from darkness;

Comfort all who mourn;

Exchange our ashes for a crown of beauty;

Change our mourning to gladness;

Exchange a spirit of despair for a garment of praise.

We offer You praise, honor and glory because You have redeemed us by Your mighty power.  You have defeated our enemy!  And Your victory is eternal!

Make us, as Isaiah says, OAKS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, A PLANTING OF THE LORD,

That we would forever show ourselves to be children of the Most High God, a display of Your splendor.

In the Name of our redeeming, victorious and resurrected Savior, Jesus Christ.

AMEN!

Scriptures claimed in this prayer:

Ephesians 2:12,13 “Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.  But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.” NIV

II Corinthians 5:16-21 “So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view.  Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.  Therefore, if anyone is n Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!  All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.  And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.  We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.  We implore you on Christ’s behalf:  Be reconciled to God.  God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  NIV

Isaiah 61:1-3    “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion – to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.  They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.” (NIV)

Capture Dianne SCopyright Dianne Stavropoulos 2013.  All rights reserved.