If you know me, you know that I believe in prayer. I’ve written about it and speak on it frequently. I have found prayer to be a great way to soften my own heart and to invite God’s daily transformational work in my life.

Here are five things I pray for myself on a daily basis. There are many other things I pray for myself as well, but I always seem to come back to these five.

1. God, help me to love your Word. Psalm 119 is my favorite Psalm. It’s all about God’s Word and how much King David loved it. I pray many of the verses in that psalm for me. I also pray it for my wife, my kids and all of the leaders I serve with. I want to, when left to myself, have my mind drift to God’s Words. I want to read it, memorize it and yield to it.

2. God, help me to love to pray. This may surprise you, but prayer has never been easy for me. Where I can sit and read the Bible for hours, prayer for me is hard work. So I pray about my prayer life. I pray that I would love to pray and that it would be joyful for me. I often use Isaiah 56:6-7 here–that God would bring me to his holy mountain and make me joyful in his house of prayer.

3. God, help me to hate sin. I’m way too tolerant of my sin. I can, when improperly motivated, explain away just about any bad behavior on my part. And any time you and I start taking our own sin too lightly, we’re on the slippery slope to self-destruction. So pray for a heart of hate when it comes to my sin. It’s the stuff that put Jesus on the Cross, and I shouldn’t wink at it. I pray that it will sicken me.

4. God, make me generous. I’ve always been a giver. I love to give and have always tried to be generous with my time and resources. And, I’ve always (like since I was 5-6 years old and all I had was an allowance) given at least 10% of my income to my home church. But, I still have roots of stinginess, discontentment and greed in my heart. I’m still way too quick to hold “my stuff” too tightly. So, I pray for a generous heart. I pray that I will continually seek ways to keep less and give more. It’s what God did with Jesus, and he expects me to do the same.

5. God, help me to know you better. This one is right out of Eph 1:17. You never arrive spiritually. You never get to where you fully know and understand God (at least this side of heaven). There is always room to grow, room to learn more of God and love him more. So I ask God to do Eph 1:17 in me: I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. That’s a really great pinpoint prayer, and one that I pray for me and many others every day. Lord, give me a spirit of wisdom and revelation so I can know you better!

I hope this helps. How about sharing some of your favorite prayers?

I learned the discipline known as Spiritual Breathing years ago from some members of the Campus Crusade for Christ staff. I believe the phrase was first coined by Crusade founder Bill Bright. Spiritual breathing is one of the most important disciplines I’ve ever learned. It can have an immediate, positive impact on your life and your prayers.

As you know, breathing involves the nonstop functions of exhaling and inhaling. At least twelve times a minute your body discards the poisonous carbon monoxide, which is leftover from the fresh oxygen it took in and processed throughout your body only moments before. Then, as soon as the toxins are out of your body, you once again draw in a fresh supply of life-giving oxygen. The bad air is replaced with good, and the entire process then repeats itself. On a normal day, your body will naturally complete the exhale/inhale process over 17,000 times. If the process is halted for too long, you will die.

Spiritual breathing involves the same two natural functions—exhaling and inhaling—but they’re spiritual activities, not physical. And, they are as vital to your spiritual health and life as your regular breathing is to your physical life. Let me tell you about each of the two functions in spiritual breathing.

Exhaling. When you exhale, you’re literally blowing the bad air out of your body. You remove the toxins and poisons that are leftover after your lungs process the oxygen you’ve inhaled. Spiritual exhaling involves the biblical discipline of confession and it allows you to cast off the sins and spiritual toxins that often pollute your soul. It’s bringing your sin before God the moment you become aware of it and then seeking God’s forgiveness, healing and restoration. Spiritual exhaling is based on the wonderful biblical promise of 1 John 1:9: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Think about your last 24 hours. What sins have you committed? Have you confessed them to God? Have you allowed him to cleanse and forgive you for them? If not, then you’ve got 24 hours worth of spiritual poison built up in your life. Stop right now and confess your sins to God. Be as specific as you can be. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal any sins to you that you may not be aware of. Don’t leave any stone unturned.

As you exhale, pray Psalm 139:23-24, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Then, confess whatever God shows you and immediately seek his forgiveness. Then, move on to the second part of spiritual breathing—inhaling.

Inhaling. Inhaling is your body’s way of taking in a fresh helping of the life-giving oxygen that you need to live.  Spiritual inhaling is your soul’s way of taking in the invaluable and life-giving presence of God, and it involves pinpoint praying for a very specific command of God to become a reality in your life. It takes us to the six words in Ephesians 5:18 that can change your life forever: Instead, be filled with the Spirit. When you inhale spiritually, you ask God right then and there to fill you with his Holy Spirit.

Being filled with God’s Spirit is not a one-time event. Unlike the baptism of the Spirit (also called the gift of the Spirit and sealing with the Spirit) that occurs at salvation and only needs to happen once (see Acts 1:5, Acts 2:38, Acts 10:45 and Ephesians 1:13-14), filling is not a permanent act. The Scriptures tell us that God’s Spirit can be grieved and quenched (see Ephesians 4:30 and 1 Thessalonians 5:19, respectively), and that the most common culprit in both is our own sin. Thus, while you can’t lose the Spirit’s presence in your life, you can definitely deplete his filling in your life. That’s why you need to repeatedly pray for the Spirit to fill you.

When you are filled with God’s Spirit, you are more likely to manifest the fruit of the Spirit that Paul listed in Galatians 5. You will be more prepared to forgive, more prone to be grateful, more inclined to worship, more willing to serve, and more equipped to pray without ceasing. The Spirit’s filling in your life will stifle the fleshy, sinful tendencies that hang around just below the surface of your soul and it will free the life of Christ in you that longs to be fully expressed in how you live and love.

So, are you ready? Breathe.

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In August of 1976, a flash flood raged through the Big Thompson River Canyon just of Loveland, Colorado. In the hours just after sunset, a thirty-foot wall of water came hurtling down the narrow canyon, taking out bridges, homes, propane tanks, trees and tragically, people. One hundred and forty-three people died that night, five of whom were never found.

Christian author and speaker Ney Bailey was on a retreat in the Big Thompson Canyon with several of her fellow staffers from Campus Crusade for Christ. When they heard the warning sirens, Ney and her friends immediately rushed out of their riverside cabin to flee to higher ground. Ney and several others ran out the back door, the one facing the canyon’s wall. The seven others who went out the front door facing the river never made it. They were immediately swept away by the raging waters.

Ney and her surviving friends scrambled as far up the wet mountainside as they could. They huddled together in the driving rain and waited for rescue. Before them was a hellacious scene. Through the lightning flashes, they could see cars–their headlights shooting randomly into the night, with their occupants still trapped inside–being carried down the river. They heard the hiss of propane gas leaking into the air as tanks that had been torn from their foundations were carried along as well. Occasionally they would see an entire cabin, or part of one, being washed downstream.

So how does a Kingdom citizen respond in a crisis like that? How can a Christian see God’s Kingdom in the midst of such a tragedy? For Ney and her companions, their kingdom instincts just kicked in. The group of ladies started singing. They started worshipping. They began declaring that Jesus was Lord, even in that canyon crisis. Their songs and prayers drifted along the mountainside and were somehow heard over the torrent of rain and flood by other survivors. Men and women, some clutching boulders, others stranded in trees, actually began to leave their perches of safety and make their way towards the singing voices. As Ney and her friends continued singing, their little group began to increase in number as flood victims, some actually risking their lives to do so, clamored to be near this unusual safe haven in the midst of their storm. [i]

Ney and her friends are great examples of what it means to “see God’s Kingdom.” They knew that God was sovereign and holy, and was still very much in charge, even though their circumstances said otherwise. They were trained to look for God’s Kingdom. As they did, it changed their lives and the lives of those around them.

Pinpoint Praying is by far the most effective and high-octane form of prayer I’ve ever engaged in. After I started pinpoint praying, my prayer life–my desire to pray, my confidence in prayer and my discernible answers–took off. I’ve never looked back. And, I’ve written four books on the subject. That’s how confident I am in Pinpoint Praying.

What is Pinpoint Praying? Here’s what I wrote in Pray Big: Have you ever noticed the pure simplicity of this (The Lord’s) prayer? Have you noted its brevity and clarity? Jesus obviously was giving us a model outline for how our prayers might flow. But as a simple prayer, the Lord’s Prayer is the perfect example of what I call Pinpoint Praying. There’s no fluff, no fat, no extra words or theologically heavy terms. There’s just simple, spot-on, pinpoint accuracy from Jesus. With a mere 58 Greek words Jesus acknowledged the character and sovereignty of God,  surrendered to the Father’s will, and sought provision, protection and guidance from God. That’s Pinpoint Praying.

Pinpoint Praying is just two things:

1. It biblical praying. Just pray the Bible back to God. Find verses that describe what you long for God to do, and start praying them. Let the Bible be your prayer script.

2. It’s specific praying. Tell God exactly what you need or want him to do. No more vague, safe, bland and broad prayers.

And when you start Pinpoint Praying:

1. You will pray more boldly. Pinpoint Praying gives you more confidence as you offer your biblical and specific requests to him. You won’t be afraid to pray.

2. You will pray for bigger things. Pinpoint Praying will inevitably lead you to BHAPs (Big, Hairy, Audacious Prayers). God will ask you to ask more of him.

3. You will see more answers. God honors Pinpoint Praying. It’s the kind of praying that Jesus both practiced and taught. It works. If you don’t believe me, just try it.

Start right now. Think about an area of concern in your life. Find a verse that describes how you need God to come through for you, and then use that verse to humbly ask God in very specific (and even brief) language to move on your behalf. Then, start an answers journal. You’re going to need it.

Want to read more about Pinpoint Praying? Click Here.

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This holiday season, why not give the gift of prayer, hope and encouragement. Guideposts Publishers has put together a beautiful, two-book gift set of
Pray Big and Pray Big for Your Life.

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I was reading today about God’s assignment to Moses and the Israelites. In Deuteronomy 9 he said to them, “Hear, O Israel. You are now about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities that have walls up to the sky. The people are strong and tall–Anakites! You know about them and have heard it said: ‘Who can stand up against the Anakites?‘” (9:1-2). In other words, “I’m giving you an assignment that is impossible for you.” There was no way that tiny and homeless nation of former slaves could dislodge the well-entrenched nations that possessed the Promised Land. And that was the point. God called Israel to do the impossible, so when they did it, he would get the glory.

That’s the typical pattern with God. Be it asking a young man to fight a giant, asking three young men to step into a fiery furnace, asking a disciple to walk on water, asking the disciples to feed a multitude with almost no resources, or asking his few followers to take his message to the ends of the earth, God never calls us to do what we can do on our own.

Have you ever read the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7)? Go try to do any of what is taught in there, even for just a few hours, and you’ll quickly see just how impossible it is. But he commands us to do such things anyway, and the secret is his power, not ours.

So what are you doing today? What are you praying about, working toward and dreaming of? Is it God-sized? Is it impossible? If you can go do it, it’s not big enough.

Pray for a God-sized (impossible) assignment and then have the courage and faith to go pursue it in Jesus’ name. God will give you what you need. He always does.

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From Roberto:

I just received the box from Amazon and I started your Pray Big for Marriage. So far, the only thing I can say is . . . . I am so speechless. What you say in the first few chapters rings so true, that I have tears in my eyes, and this book could not have come at a better moment in my relationship with my wife.

It opens a totally new, yet logical, true, and totally scriptural way to relate to one’s spouse and build a wonderful relationship with the tool of prayer.

And to think I almost lost my wife to my own foolishness  . . . . (long story, for another time).

To learn more, click here.

In the New Testament, the centuries-old promises of God become stunningly urgent and clear in the teachings of Christ. Jesus could not have been more emphatic about his belief in prayer or our ability to seek breathtaking answers from God. Simply put: There is no greater advocate of big prayer in the Bible than Jesus. Consider just a few of the clams Jesus made about prayer:

• But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you, Matthew 6:6
• Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened, Matthew 7:7-8
• Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them, Matthew 18:19-20
• And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive, Matthew 21:22
• And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it, John 14:13-14
• If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you, John 15:7
• You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit–fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name, John 15:16
• In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete, John 16:23-24

In his teachings on prayer, Jesus contrasted God and a wicked judge. He taught that they were exact opposites in the way they responded to needy people. The only reason the judge gave justice to a poor widow was because she nearly pestered him to death. God, on the other hand, looks for chances to answer our prayers and to come through for his followers (Luke 18:1-6). Jesus taught that God was like a loving father who loves to give the very best gifts to his children (Matthew 7:9-10). Jesus also told his disciples that he had given them the keys to heaven, and that as they prayed, they could actually unlock the power of heaven with their prayers (Matthew 16:18). Finally, Jesus told his disciples that with even the smallest amounts of faith, faith as small as a single piece of salt or fleck of pepper, that they could move mountains (Matthew 17:20-21).

Do you see a theme developing here?

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