deliverance

sometimes I choose sin

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

Ash Wednesday, Carl Spitzweg via Wikimedia Commons

 
Father – the truth about me is that often I choose sin:
    Sometimes I choose hatred.  Sometimes I choose slander.
    Sometimes I choose envy.  Sometimes I choose greed.
    Sometimes I choose pettiness.  Sometimes I choose lust.
    Sometimes I choose gossip.  Sometimes I choose pride.
    Sometimes I choose self-reliance.
    Sometimes I choose self-righteousness.
    Sometimes I choose self-aggrandizement.
    Sometimes I choose dishonesty.
    Sometimes I choose unkind words.
    Sometimes I choose to ignore the obvious needs around me.
    Sometimes I choose to hoard my resources.
    Sometimes I choose to neglect Your command to share the gospel.
The list of things I wrongly choose could go on and on.  And sometimes
I act on these things in ways that are darker than I ever care to state.
Each time I make such a choice, I choose death.
Today, I ask that You breathe life into my soul afresh
    and enable me to choose life – to choose You and Your ways.
 
Kurt Bjorklund, 1968- , American Minister and author  
 
_________________________
 
Romans 6:23
 
For the wages of sin is death,
    but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

_________________________

Question:

What is an area of sin that you are most prone to return to?

Authoritative Prayer

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
 
​In the strong name of Jesus Christ
I stand against the world, the flesh and the devil.
I resist every force that would seek to distract me from my center in God.
I reject the distorted concepts and ideas that make sin plausible and desirable.
I oppose every attempt to keep me from knowing full fellowship with God.

By the power of the Holy Spirit
I speak directly to the thoughts, emotions, and desires of my heart
and command you to find your satisfaction in the infinite variety of God’s love
    rather than the bland diet of sin.
I call upon the good, the true, and the beautiful to rise up within me
    and the evil to subside.
I ask for an increase in righteousness, preace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

By the authority of almighty God
I tear down Satan’s strongholds in my life,
    in the lives of those I love,
        and in the society in which I live.
I take into myself the weapons of truth, righteousness, peace, salvation,
    the word of God, and prayer.
I command every evil influence to leave;
    you have no right here and I allow you no point of entry.
I ask for an increase of faith, hope and love so that,
    by the power of God, I can be a light set on a hill,
    causing truth and justice to flourish.

These things I pray for the sake of him who loved me  and gave himself for me.
Amen.

Richard Foster, 1942- , Quaker theologian and author
Prayer – Finding the Heart’s True Home

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2 Corinthians 10:4-5 

For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh
    but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion
    raised against the knowledge of God,
    and take every thought captive to obey Christ

_________________________

Question

Have you ever been led to pray with the boldness 
    and with the authority expressed in this prayer? 
Ask for an increased measure of boldness in your prayers.

Deliver me from myself

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

Mother Teresa via Picryl

Lord, when I think that my heart is overflowing with love
    and realize in a moment’s honesty
    that it is only myself that I love in the loved one.
Deliver me from myself.

Lord, when I think I have given all that I have to give
    and realize in a moment’s honesty
    that it is I who am the recipient,
Deliver me from myself.

Lord, when I have convinced myself that I am poor
    and realize in a moment’s honesty
    that I am rich in pride and envy,
Delivery me from myself.

And, Lord, when the Kingdom of Heaven
    merges deceptively
    with the kingdoms of this world,
Let nothing satisfy me but God.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta, 1910-1997
HarperCollins Book of Prayers

______________________

Psalm 40:11-13

Do not withhold your mercy from me, Lord;
    may your love and faithfulness always protect me.
For troubles without number surround me;
    my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see.
They are more than the hairs of my head,
    and my heart fails within me.
Be pleased to save me, Lord;
    come quickly, Lord, to help me.

___________________________

Question

Have you had moments of honesty like these,
  where you realized that your best actions
  included mixed, impure motives?

Jesus, fight for me against Satan

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
 
Lord Jehovah,
judge my cause and fight for me against Satan and his host.
Lay the strong one low!
 
I have cast off his yoke, and renounced his cursed power.
He doubly hates this, and longs to seize me as his prey.
 
I flee to you and to your cross for help.
He would win if you did not deliver me – but you have already defeated him.
 
Do not let him conquer me! Put him to shame, O Lord my God! 
Give me victory!
 
It is not strength that wins; my weakness is my shield.
In lowly trust we fight the fight, and weakness wins the battle.
 
So give me a lowly heart, and cast away each prideful thought.
Let gentleness and love come in instead, and abide in my life.
 
Your will, not mine, be done. I resist my selfish desires.
Let me ever and always be your servant only.
 
Jesus, I flee to you. I cling to your cross.
Save me from Satan’s hellish power and pluck me from his grasp.
 
So I will praise you, Lord, and adore your great name.
With Father and Spirit one, forever and ever, amen.
 
Ephrem the Syrian, c.306-373, Syrian hymn writer and theologian
 
____________________________
 
 
Be sober-minded; be watchful. 
Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 
Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering 
   are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 
And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, 
    who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, 
    will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 
To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
 

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Son of God, deliver us

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
Photo by Johannes Plenio via Pexels
 
You who guided Noah over the flood waves:
    Hear us.
You who with your word recalled Jonah from the deep:
    Deliver us.
You who stretched forth your hand to Peter as he sank:
    Help us, O Christ.
Son of God, who did marvelous things of old:
    Be favorable in our day also.
 
Scots Celtic Prayer
 
______________________
 
 
The Lord is king! He is robed in majesty.
    Indeed, the Lord is robed in majesty and armed with strength.
The world stands firm
    and cannot be shaken.
Your throne, O Lord, has stood from time immemorial.
    You yourself are from the everlasting past.
The floods have risen up, O Lord.
    The floods have roared like thunder;
    the floods have lifted their pounding waves.
But mightier than the violent raging of the seas,
    mightier than the breakers on the shore—
    the Lord above is mightier than these!
Your royal laws cannot be changed.
    Your reign, O Lord, is holy forever and ever.
 

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Lord, raise up my soul

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
Gregory of Nazianzus, by Peter Paul Rubens via Wikimedia Commons
 
The breath of life, O Lord, seems spent.
My body is tense, my mind filled with anxiety,
Yet I have no zest, no energy.
I am helpless to allay my fears
I am incapable of relaxing my limbs.
Dark thoughts constantly invade my head,
And I have no power to resist them.
 
Was ever an oak tree buffeted by wind,
As the gales of melancholy now buffet my soul?
Was ever a ship tossed by the waves,
As my soul is now tossed by misery?
Did ever the foundation of a house crumble,
As my own life now crumbles to dust?
 
Friends no longer want to visit me.
You have driven away my spiritual brethren.
I am now an outcast from your church.
No longer the flowers want to bloom for me.
No longer the trees come into leaf for me.
No longer the birds sing at my window.
 
My fellow Christians condemn me as an idle sinner.
Lord, raise up my soul, revive my body.
 
Gregory of Nazianzus, 329-389, Archbishop of Constantinople
____________________
 
 
Hear my prayer, Lord;
    let my cry for help come to you.
Do not hide your face from me
    when I am in distress.
Turn your ear to me;
    when I call, answer me quickly.

For my days vanish like smoke;
    my bones burn like glowing embers.
My heart is blighted and withered like grass;
    I forget to eat my food.
In my distress I groan aloud
    and am reduced to skin and bones.
I am like a desert owl,
    like an owl among the ruins.
I lie awake; I have become
    like a bird alone on a roof.
All day long my enemies taunt me;
    those who rail against me use my name as a curse.
For I eat ashes as my food
    and mingle my drink with tears
 because of your great wrath,
    for you have taken me up and thrown me aside.
My days are like the evening shadow;
    I wither away like grass.

But you, Lord, sit enthroned forever;
    your renown endures through all generations.
You will arise and have compassion on Zion,
    for it is time to show favor to her;
    the appointed time has come.
 

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Jesus, Lord of Salvation

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
 
 
How is it, dearest Jesus, 
    that you graciously reached down to visit your chosen, 
    even so long before your time on earth? 
To tell your people that your thoughts were good, and not evil?
 
When you appeared to Joshua in human form 
    as Captain of the Lord’s host, 
he instantly knew your glorious character as Mediator, 
    and fell to the earth in adoration.
 
Hail then, you almighty Lord, you Captain of the Lord’s host,
    and of my salvation! 
You have entered the holy war and led captivity captive.  
You have fully conquered Satan and sin, and death, and hell, 
    for your people.
 
And you will surely conquer all those tremendous foes of ours, 
    in your people, and bruise Satan under our feet shortly. 
Indeed, dear Lord, you have already brought them under, 
    for by your sovereign grace in the hearts of your redeemed, 
    you have made your people “willing in the day of your power.”
 
By the sword of your Spirit, you have convinced my soul of sin, 
   and by the arrows of your quiver, 
    you have wounded my heart with deep contrition for sin. 
Lord, I fall before you, as your servant Joshua did, and worship you.
 
And with all the church of the redeemed, 
    both in heaven and earth, we cheerfully confess  
  “that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” 
Amen!
 
Robert Hawker, 1753-1827, Anglican Priest
 
_____________________
 
 
When Joshua was near the town of Jericho, 
    he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him 
    with sword in hand. 
Joshua went up to him and demanded, “Are you friend or foe?”
“Neither one,” he replied. “I am the commander of the Lord’s army.”

At this, Joshua fell with his face to the ground in reverence.

“I am at your command,” Joshua said. 
“What do you want your servant to do?”

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Separate us from forgiven sins

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
image, Steve  F, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
 
Father, when You forgive sins, 
You separate them as far from us as the east is from the west
 
Bury them in the bottom of the deepest sea
and put up a sign for the devil that says,
NO FISHING.
 
Corrie Ten Boom, 1892-1983, Dutch Holocaust Survivor and author
 
______________________
 
 
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
    so great is his love for those who fear him;
 as far as the east is from the west,
    so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
 

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expel the devil from this man

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
image by Lawrence OP via Flickr
 
O Lord, holy Father,
almighty and eternal God,
expel the devil
and the paganism from this man,
    from his head, from his hair,
    from his brain, from his back,
    from his front, from his eyes,
    from his ears, from his nostrils,
    from his lips, from his mouth,
    from his tongue, from under his tongue,
    from his jaws, from his throat,
    from his neck, from his heart,
    from his whole body, from all of his members,
    from inside and the outside of him,
    from his bones, from his veins,
    from his nerves, from his blood,
    from his senses, from his thoughts,
    from his words, from all his works,
    from his strength,
    from all manner of conversation,
    for this, and in the life to come,.
But may the power of Christ, our mediator,
work in you, that we may attain life eternal,
through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, Amen.
 
Antiphonary of Bangor, Prayer over a Person who has a Devil, #96
 
___________________________
 
 
And he called to him his twelve disciples 
    and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, 
    and to heal every disease and every affliction.

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deliver and protect us, O Lord

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
Son of God, Viktor Vasnetsov, Wikimedia commons
 
 
O Lord God, strength of our health
    who avenges the poor and maintains the cause of the helpless,
  deliver us, O Lord,
    and preserve us from the evil and the wicked,
    that neither their example may corrupt us,
    nor their counsels mislead us,
    nor their prosperity scandalize us,
    nor their strife disquiet us,
    nor their mischief disturb our safety;
but do cover our heads in the day of battle and contestation
    against all our bodily and ghostly enemies;
    that although they hunt us to overthrow us,
  yet we may prosper on earth under your favor and protection,
    and at last, being removed from all fears and sadness and dangers,
    may continue in your sight among the congregation of the just forever,
through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
 
Jeremy Taylor, 1613–1667, English cleric, imprisoned during the Protectorate
 
________________________
 
 

Guard me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked;                                                                                  preserve me from violent men,
    who have planned to trip up my feet.
The arrogant have hidden a trap for me,
    and with cords they have spread a net;
    beside the way they have set snares for me. 

I say to the Lord, You are my God;
    give ear to the voice of my pleas for mercy, O Lord!
O Lord, my Lord, the strength of my salvation,
    you have covered my head in the day of battle.
Grant not, O Lord, the desires of the wicked;
    do not further their evil plot, or they will be exalted!