Praying through Every Emotion
Page 10
He is a hero who saves you.
He happily rejoices over you,
renews you with his love,
and celebrates over you with shouts of joy.
Zephaniah 3:17 GW
The LORD is like a father to his children,
tender and compassionate to those who fear him.
For he knows how weak we are;
he remembers we are only dust.
Psalm 103:13–14 NLT
For Jesus is not some high priest who has no sympathy for our weaknesses and flaws. He has already been tested in every way that we are tested; but He emerged victorious, without failing God. So let us step boldly to the throne of grace, where we can find mercy and grace to help when we need it most.
Hebrews 4:15–16 VOICE
The LORD is merciful and compassionate,
slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
The LORD is good to everyone.
He showers compassion on all his creation.
Psalm 145:8–9 NLT
Victorious
Dear Lord,
As I prepare for battle, I am amazed to realize that You, the Lord my God, go into battle with me. You will fight against my enemies, and You will give me victory through Jesus Christ my Lord.
I will sing my victory song now, as I praise You for who You are and what You mean to me.
Because I am in You, I have been reborn through the work of Jesus, who died for the forgiveness of my sins. Because this is true and because I have faith in You, I have the victory over the whole world.
So, yes, I do believe. I believe that You are the one who fights my battles and the one who wins the war. I am the one who worships and adores You.
You give me overwhelming victories in all my troubles. Nothing can separate me from Your love. Not trouble, distress, persecution, hunger, nakedness, danger, or even violent death can pull me away from You or Your love.
I belong to You because I am Your dear child. This means that I have already won a victory over all who would come against me. I have already won because I am empowered by Your Holy Spirit, who lives in me, for greater is the Holy Spirit in me than the spirit of darkness who lives in this world.
I celebrate You, my Lord, my Savior, my warrior God. Thank You for everything.
In the name of Jesus, amen.
The LORD your God is going with you. He will fight for you against your enemies and give you victory.
Deuteronomy 20:4 GW
Thank God that he gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:57 GW
Everyone who has been born from God has won the victory over the world. Our faith is what wins the victory over the world.
1 John 5:4 GW
What will separate us from the love Christ has for us? Can trouble, distress, persecution, hunger, nakedness, danger, or violent death separate us from his love? . . . The one who loves us gives us an overwhelming victory in all these difficulties.
Romans 8:35, 37 GW
But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.
1 John 4:4 NLT
Wayward
Dear Lord,
It seems I can’t win. I can’t be good enough for You. The payment for my sins will be eternal death.
Except that Your Word says I don’t have to receive death in exchange for my sins. Instead, You offer me everlasting life through Jesus Christ.
This offer sounds too good to be true, but Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one goes to the Father except through me.”
Yes, I would very much like to take You up on this offer. And the first thing I must do is repent, meaning I must recognize that I am a sinner and turn from my sin to Jesus. If I do, Jesus will take my sin off me.
So, yes, I turn from my sin, and I turn to Jesus to be the Lord of my life.
Now I am forgiven, clean, and whole. You refresh my spirit with Your very presence. You are faithful and reliable. Because I confessed my sins to You, You have forgiven me and cleansed me from everything I’ve ever done wrong.
This is something I cannot be quiet about. I have to share this good news with my friends and family so that they can be delivered from the power of darkness. I will tell everyone that I now belong to You, and You will give me the power to live for You. I am now free in Christ Jesus.
In the name of Jesus, amen.
The payment for sin is death, but the gift that God freely gives is everlasting life found in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23 GW
Jesus answered him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one goes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6 GW
And now you must repent and turn back to God so that your sins will be removed, and so that times of refreshing will stream from the Lord’s presence.
Acts 3:19 TPT
God is faithful and reliable. If we confess our sins, he forgives them and cleanses us from everything we’ve done wrong.
1 John 1:9 GW
So, go ahead—let everyone know it!
Tell the world how he broke through
and delivered you from the power of darkness and
has gathered us together from all over the world.
He has set us free to be his very own!
Psalm 107:2–3 TPT
Weak
Dear Lord,
You are all I need. You give me grace because Your power works best in weak people—like me.
I am a weakling compared to You. But in this I take great delight because the strength of Christ’s power is explosive and infuses me so that I can conquer every difficulty.
When I am in You, being weak is a blessing. Even troubles are a blessing because to win my battles, all I have to do is entrust my troubles to You.
Your Holy Spirit also helps me with my weakness. It doesn’t matter that I’m not smart enough to know exactly what to pray because the Holy Spirit is praying for me in groans too deep for words.
The thing I must watch for in my weakness is temptation. The spirit in me is willing to ignore temptation, but my weak flesh would allow me to cave in. So, Lord, I call on You to give me strength in my flesh to overcome temptation. Please give me victory so that my life pleases You.
Lord, You are the one who gives me strength. You make my way perfect. You make my feet like those of a deer so that I can leap onto craggy rocks with sure footing.
Lord, You train my hands so that I can shoot arrows in battle. In You I will win every battle, for You are my strength. You are my victory.
In the name of Jesus, amen.
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV
I find that the strength of Christ’s explosive power infuses me to conquer every difficulty.
Philippians 4:13 TPT
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
Romans 8:26 ESV
Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
Matthew 26:41 ESV
God arms me with strength
and makes my way perfect.
He makes my feet like those of a deer
and gives me sure footing on high places.
He trains my hands for battle
so that my arms can bend an archer’s bow of bronze.
Psalm 18:32–34 GW
Worried
Dear Lord,
You are the one who rescued me and brought me back to life with Christ. I can’t ignore this miracle, and in the face of worry, I must turn back to You. You have called me to focus on the thing
s that are above—where Christ holds the highest position.
Therefore, because of Christ and because You care for me, I give You all my worries and cares. I give them to You as a gift, a gift You desire.
You do not want me to remove my focus from You and place my focus on my worries. Neither do I. I worship You, not my worries. I need to focus on Your greatness instead of the things You’ve already taken care of.
So I will not worry about my life, or what I will eat or drink, or what I will wear, because life is more important than food and my body is more important than clothes. You will make sure these needs are cared for.
And besides, I am convinced that You will provide for my every need out of Your abundant riches of glory through Your Anointed One, Jesus Christ.
You have plans for me, and You do not want my worries to distract or sidetrack me. And I don’t want to miss Your plans, which are for peace, not disaster. They are plans to give me a future filled with hope.
In the name of Jesus, amen.
Since you were brought back to life with Christ, focus on the things that are above—where Christ holds the highest position.
Colossians 3:1 GW
Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.
1 Peter 5:7 NLT
I tell you this: Do not worry about your life. Do not worry about what you are going to eat and drink. Do not worry about what you are going to wear. Is not life more important than food? Is not the body more important than clothes?
Matthew 6:25 NLV
I am convinced that my God will fully satisfy every need you have, for I have seen the abundant riches of glory revealed to me through the Anointed One, Jesus Christ!
Philippians 4:19 TPT
I know the plans that I have for you, declares the LORD. They are plans for peace and not disaster, plans to give you a future filled with hope.
Jeremiah 29:11 GW
Worshipful
Dear Lord,
I will sing to You. I will worship You for all the wonderful things You have done for me.
From this moment on, I realize that worshiping You, Father God, isn’t a matter of location but a matter of my heart. As an act of worship, I submit my heart to You, made clean through the power of Your forgiveness of sin, a place Your Holy Spirit can rest.
You, God, are a Spirit, and You long for me to mingle my heart with Yours through worship. You long for me to adore You in the realm of Spirit and truth.
So I worship You now. I worship You in a deeper way as I present my body as a living sacrifice to You. May my body be holy and acceptable to You.
I praise You in Your holy place, Your mighty heavens. I praise You for Your mighty acts and for saving me for Yourself. I praise You for Your immense greatness. I worship You with the sound of horns and harps. I worship You with tambourines and dancing. I worship You with stringed instruments and flutes and loud cymbals.
I praise You with all my heart, with all my strength, and with all my mind. May everything that has breath praise You, Lord.
Hallelujah!
In the name of Jesus, amen.
Sing to the LORD, for he has done wonderful things.
Isaiah 12:5 NLT
From here on, worshiping the Father will not be a matter of the right place but with the right heart. For God is a Spirit, and he longs to have sincere worshipers who worship and adore him in the realm of the Spirit and in truth.
John 4:23–24 TPT
Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Romans 12:1 ESV
Hallelujah!
Praise God in his holy place.
Praise him in his mighty heavens.
Praise him for his mighty acts.
Praise him for his immense greatness.
Praise him with sounds from horns.
Praise him with harps and lyres.
Praise him with tambourines and dancing.
Praise him with stringed instruments and flutes.
Praise him with loud cymbals.
Praise him with crashing cymbals.
Let everything that breathes praise the LORD!
Hallelujah!
Psalm 150 GW
Conclusion
I know the LORD is always with me.
I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me.
Psalm 16:8 NLT
I am a different person at the end of this writing than I was at the beginning, transformed by the power of the Word as I prayed and wrote these pages.
The themes of God’s love and His promises to empower us in both our lives and emotions are truly phenomenal.
I felt His power as I explored the Scriptures and walked into deeper peace and felt deeper love for God and those He placed in my life. My prayer for You, my dear readers, is that You will also feel this same transformation power.
You are loved, and no matter what is happening in Your life, God is there. Trust Him, and you will see His beauty and feel His peace.
It is well with my soul. May it also be well with your soul.
I love you!
Dear Lord,
Your promises of love and care for me are amazing. Your call to trust You is profound. Your promises to empower me with Your Spirit are wondrous.
You are my God, and I belong to You. I pledge that despite my circumstances I will remember that You love me and that You are working everything out for my good. I pledge to trust You in the no-matter-whats of life.
Empower me by Your Spirit to overcome.
In the name of Jesus, amen.
A Gift to My Readers
I loved writing these prayers so much that I wrote too many to fit into the pages of this book. I have over a dozen prayers that I’d love to give to you as a gift. To receive my free download, please go to: www.EmotionPrayers.com.
Love,
Linda Evans Shepherd
Acknowledgments
A special thanks to my dear friend Rhonda Rhea, who suggested I write this book. Great idea! Also a special thanks to my editor Vicki Crumpton and the wonderful team at Revell of Baker Publishing Group; my brilliant agent, Janet Kobobel Grant; my dear family members, who lend me their patience and support as I write book after book; and the hundreds of women of the Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, my team of prayer warriors who have prayed for me through so many trials. I love you all! And of course, a special thanks to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You are my Rock.
Linda Evans Shepherd is an award-winning author of thirty-five books, including the bestselling When You Don’t Know What to Pray and When You Need to Move a Mountain and Empowered for Purpose.
Linda is an internationally recognized speaker and has spoken in almost every state in the United States and in several countries around the world.
She is the president of Right to the Heart Ministries and the CEO of the Advanced Writers and Speakers Association (AWSA), which ministers to Christian women authors and speakers (www.AWSA.com and www.AWSAProtege.com). She is the publisher of Leading Hearts magazine (www.LeadingHearts.com) and Arise Daily (www.AriseDaily.com), a daily e-devotional written by the members of AWSA. She is the voice behind the Arise Esther Movement (www.AriseEsther.com).
Linda loves to hang out with friends and family and hubby, Paul. She is the mother of two wonderful kids, one in Austin and the other in heaven. She covets your prayers and asks that you pray for the readers of this book.
To learn more about Linda’s ministries, go to www.GotToPray.com. Follow Linda on Twitter @LindaShepherd or on Facebook at LindaEvansShepherdAuthor.
Go to www.EmotionPrayers.com to sign up for a free download of additional emotion prayers.
GotToPray.com
Sign up for announcements about upcoming titles.
Twitter ● Facebook ● Pinterest
Table of Contents
Cover
Praise for When You Need to Move a Mountain
Half Title Page
Book
s by Linda Evans Shepherd
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Epigraph
Contents
Introduction
Addicted
Angry
Annoyed
Anxious
Betrayed
Bitter
Blessed
Bold
Broken
Burdened
Compassionate
Confident
Confused
Content
Cynical
Depressed
Devoted
Disappointed
Discouraged
Disillusioned
Distressed
Doubtful
Empty
Exhausted
Faith
Fear
Foolish
Free
Give Up
God’s Presence
Grace
Grief
Guilt
Harassed
Hate
Hope
Hurt
Impatience
Jealous
Joy
Lonely
Loss
Love
Lust
Offended
Oppressed
Overwhelmed
Pain
Peace
Perplexed
Powerless
Prayerful
Regret
Remorse
Sad
Self-Conscious
Selfish
Shamed
Shocked
Stressed
Strife
Strong
Suffering
Suicidal
Tempted
Troubled
Trusting
Unworthy
Victorious
Wayward
Weak
Worried
Worshipful
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Back Ads
Back Cover
List of Pages
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
9