Prayer Focus: Knowledge of Spiritual Gifts and Opportunity to Use Them
Central Scripture: “Now about spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be ignorant.” (1 Corinthians 12:1)
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, thank You for giving us Your Spirit to equip us as we walk through this life. Thank You for coming to dwell inside of us, helping us to walk in supernatural power and experience You intimately. Thank You for giving us gifts straight out of Your nature to advance our experience and understanding of You and to spread that understanding to others. Thank You for giving us a part in building and expanding this Body of Christ throughout the world. It is a privilege and an honor to serve You, and it is humbling to realize that You have designed each of us to do a specific job within this Body.
Holy Spirit, I thank You for giving us Your gifts. Having spiritual gifts given to us for distinct purposes gives our lives a holy calling, that we don’t have to live aimlessly and without a sense of mission. Thank You for knitting us together the way that You did, Lord, and for creating us anew in Christ Jesus to do the good words You planned long ago for us to do. We truly are Your masterpieces, God.
Father, I pray today that my family – each member, from the youngest to the oldest – would awaken to a new awareness of their place in Your Body. I pray that my husband, my children, and I would dig deeply into who You are and into who You have made us to be, that we would uncover the beautiful gifts You have placed within us. Help us to realize what our gifts are, God, and help us to embrace them. Sometimes our gifts come with a degree of fear or uncertainty in how to exercise them; I pray that my family would lean in to their fears and get to experience the fullness of Your Spirit as You empower them to act on their gifts. Sometimes we doubt our gifts and wonder if somehow we’ve interpreted things wrong; I pray that we would trust Your design and press in to the One who created us on purpose, for a purpose. Let us embrace and trust our gifts, Lord.
And Father, I pray that we would learn to walk by the power of Your Spirit. Help us not walk by our own strength or abilities, but to walk in faith believing that the gifts aren’t reliant on our skills. Help us to simply be obedient in the use of our gifts, and help us to relinquish the results into Your capable hands.
Lord, help us to seek out and voluntarily step into opportunities to use our gifts. I pray that as my husband discovers more about how he is made, he would eagerly pursue opportunities to exercise his gifts. I pray that as my children begin to understand how their talents and abilities and passions connect to the specific calling You have on their lives, that You would help them to walk in bold confidence knowing they are important and they have a critical part to play in the story of the world.
Father, let us not walk by sight. We may not look like prophets, or preachers, or teachers, or shepherds, but when Your Spirit speaks those gifts over us, help us to walk in faith that we are chosen for that purpose. I ask all of this, God, not so that we would be successful by the world’s standards, but so that we would be in humble reliance on Your Spirit as He works within us. Help us to experience You deeply and intimately as we do things we simply cannot do on our own power. Thank You for this incredible opportunity to play a part in Your story. Be glorified as we learn our roles.
Amen.