Prayer Principles for Walking with God

By Vernon B. McDaniel

All worshippersno matter what their religionbelieve in the efficacy of prayer. Yet although the belief in prayer is vast and deep, it is often misunderstand and bedeviled by endless questions. Still, prayer may be the most therapeutic way of quieting our fears, broadening our concepts, deepening our faith, and bringing aid to those among us.

Throughout his ministry and life, Vernon McDaniel has set out on his own quest to find prayer promises, instructions, and the rewards of praying. In a thought-provoking and insightful book of nearly three hundred prayer principles, McDaniel encourages others to grow in their faith by sharing principles from familiar biblical verses and personal wisdom that help deepen the prayer experience for all spiritual seekers. His principles include valuable insight into the chain of command related to prayer, the ability of Gods grace, how to pray for those who are lost, how to transform a Why? prayer into a How can this be used? prayer, and why we should trust God to keep us in perfect peace.

Prayer Principles for Walking with God shares scriptures and biblical wisdom for believers wishing to become prayer warriors for God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jun 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781973629122

Vernon B. McDaniel

Vernon B. McDaniel is a pastor who has served in many churches. He currently resides in Kernersville, North Carolina. Prayer Principles for Walking with God is his first book.

Book preview

Copyright © 2018 Vernon B. McDaniel.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

1 [phone]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

ISBN: 978-1-9736-2913-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-2914-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-2912-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018906078

WestBow Press rev. date: 6/1/2018

Preface

When I was a pastor, I sensed the need for a small-group ministry in the church to study the subject of prayer. At first, it was a lecture ministry in which I did the teaching, but later, it became a sharing session in which we discussed the positive and negatives that hinder prayer.

After several months, I was taught out by lack of time and material, so I devised a different method; I began a weekly mail-out entitled Your Prayer Briefing. It was simply a few prayer requests from my heart to theirs, a prayer verse from scripture; and my exposition.

So what is prayer? I sum it up in three categories.

COMMUNICATION

Prayer is simply a conversation in fellowship with God. Jesus said, Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy burdened, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28). It involves the mind, thinking about God’s and Christ’s love, sacrifice, and provision.

PETITION

Prayer is a specific request to God for something we need or desire. All our needs are supplied by our benevolent God, so this request applies to health, welfare, family, associations, and professions. And sometimes the heart is so full, hurt, or overcome that only a groan ascends.

INTERCESSION

Prayer moves me out of my comfort zone. The word intercession means on behalf of others. It is our reaching out to God with requests for people in our circle of influence, missionaries, and lost individuals we are trying to win.

Throughout my ministry, I have searched for prayer promises, instructions, and rewards of praying. They are simple, helpful, and hopeful for the believer who desires to become a prayer warrior for God.

Introduction

In all religions since the beginning of time whether Christian or non-Christian, whether worshipers evoke the name of God or that of a graven image, they all believe in the efficacy of prayer. However, the ascent of men and women to the values of prayer are misunderstood and does not mean they practice it habitually.

Prayer is vast and deep—believed in but misunderstood. All are bedeviled by endless questions such as when, where, what, how long, and why, but prayer may be the most therapeutic way of quieting our fears, broadening our concepts, deepening our faith, and bringing aid to the weakest and strongest among us.

I hope that these principles will cause hearts and minds to exclaim, I’ve never thought of it this way.

Pray! Use these principles from familiar verses to broaden and deepen your personal prayer experience.

Devotions

on the

Lord’s Prayer

1. Prayer lets us walk the avenues of life fulfilling our good resolves and efforts of faith: Wherefore … we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness, and the work of faith with power, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you … according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thessalonians 1:11).

We make resolutions pertaining to our actions or intentions at the beginning of the year, but we can struggle with them. How do we make them real or make them stick? And how can we help our friends and loved ones who are struggling with the same issues or challenges?

We do not usually keep our promises and commitments to God by our own strength or ingenuity. Yes, we must be dedicated to the task within the boundaries of our abilities or opportunities, but then, God must take them over to build up, strengthen, and release His power within. For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13). If we can come to grips with this concept, include it in our relationships with others, and apply it to ourselves, we will help ourselves and others for His good pleasure or will. Try to tap into this power. It could change your life!

2. We can set apart God’s name in prayer only if He is set apart in our lives. The title without the commitment is meaningless. These are intimate words: Our Father … Hallowed be Thy name (Matthew 6:9).

Why are you praying? Whom are you trying to please? Prayer is an intimate and private conversation between you and God alone in a quiet place. But the term set apart does not mean He is not near; it just lifts Him up in our recognition of His exalted plane, which is not absent or away from us. This mind-boggling concept should move us to adore Him, to be in awe of Him, and to praise and offer our worship to Him.

Think of the greatness of God, who dwells in light which no man can approach (1 Timothy 6:16). Then think and recall Isaiah’s words whose name is Holy but He dwells with him who is of a contrite and humble spirit (Isaiah 57:15). Think of it—the grandiose idea of this holy God dwelling in our hearts. It’s a miracle!

Think of God’s fatherhood and how in heaven He is free or above and beyond our limitations, flaws, and inadequacies in all our relationships on earth. He is a better Father or Parent to us than we are to our children. Grasp this sublime truth, bask in its glory, count it as a blessing, and worship God for it.

3. Praying these three words of the Lord’s Prayer is the stark reality that His kingdom has no validity unless we recognize the King and acknowledge His legitimacy to rule our lives: Thy Kingdom come (Matthew 6:10).

God’s kingdom is not so much a place as it is a relationship. His kingdom exists wherever and whenever individuals crown or enthrone Jesus, God’s Son, as Master and King of their lives.

When this life is over, we will enter the kingdom of heaven by knowing the King, by having a relationship with Him as His children, and by becoming disciples in our earthly lives and followers with loyal hearts, people who allow these precepts of the King to reshape their earthly living.

It requires our taking another step. By announcing to others that we are Christians, we identify with His causes and teachings by giving Him claim above all others on our lives. The personal challenge in praying—Thy kingdom come—is demand to the highest degree because it presumes the challenge Start it with me! It says in effect, Show me my place among my fellow workers—those who have already volunteered in ages past and present.

To extend the kingdom among humanity, Paul offered a roll call of those who were commissioned to extend the kingdom: Tychicus, Onesimus, Aristarchus, Epapharas, Luke, Demas, and Archippus (Colossians 4). And it included the churches in Hierapolis, Laodicea, and the home of Nymphas. Should our names be added to the list?

4. God’s will is none other than ours; it is an in and through me posture of readiness and obedience: Thy will be done (Matthew 6:10).

Most of our praying involves us including something or someone of our own interest. When we pray in total sincerity, we place ourselves insofar as we are willing to be used as a means for answering our prayers. For us to do God’s will on earth as angels do, His will in heaven may be a greater struggle than we realize. It may mean among other things standing in the face of opposition—an uncomfortable place!

When Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, He must have been horrified at the idea of being crucified and being made sin for us. When He said, Thy will be done, He meant to happen.

What are we willing to do to make God’s will happen in the situation for which we are praying? When we give sober thought to it, praying to do God’s will involves the denial of our own. Read this excerpt from Puritan Richard Alleine in 1755.

I am no longer my own, but Thine. Put me to what Thou wilt, rank me with whom Thou wilt, put me to doing, put me to suffering; let me be employed for Thee, or laid aside for Thee, exalted for Thee, let me be full, let me be empty; let me have all things, let me have nothing; I freely and heartily yield all thing to Thy pleasure and disposal. And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Thou art min and I am Thine. And the covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven, amen.

5. We pray for daily bread to honor the Lord God, who made us. To pray for our soul’s Living Bread is to exalt the Savior who died for us: Give us this day our daily bread (Matthew 6:11).

This line in the prayer teaches us to regard our bodies with care and diligence. Substance for our physical survival comes from our loving God, who is concerned that we have food for our bodies, which provide our physical and spiritual houses. For our spiritual and physical natures to operate at their optimum levels, both must be maintained by physical and spiritual food.

Think for a moment. Our daily bread has a rich heritage from manna provided by God in the wilderness to sustain ancient Israel for forty years and Jesus’s miraculously multiplying loaves of physical bread that fed five thousand. It set the stage for a self-declaration: I am the Living Bread Who that came down from heaven, if any man eat of this Bread, he will live forever! (John 6:51, 58). Jesus shared better bread because He was the Bread of Life. He even declared Himself to be better water as the Water of Life because He gives everlasting life—better life. We pray for both, and He gives both freely to anyone who asks.

6. God designed forgiveness to work on the physical and the spiritual planes of everlasting life through His forgiveness: And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors (Matthew 6:11).

Few of us think about it when we pray these words, but they have both earthly and heavenly ramifications. Some writers say this sentence means Forgive us in the same measure that we forgive others. The pendulum swings as far to the right as it does to the left to keep perfect time. Likewise, I cannot walk peacefully and contentedly with God if I have hate or evil toward anyone in my heart.

Unjustifiable, inexcusable, and indefensible wrongs are committed throughout the world every day. Some of these offenses come directly into our lives or the lives of people we know. Regardless of what label they are given, it is difficult if not all but impossible to forgive. We have courts to assist in making restitution or payment for wrongs committed between persons.

These thoughts are tough pills for any of us to swallow, and in objection, we hear these words: Someone should have to pay! And He did. Jesus Christ died on that cruel cross for the sins of the world. We know this, but in our minds, we still object many times with an unforgiving spirit toward others. Beware the pendulum!

Occasionally, we need to measure our personal barometers of forgiveness of others, their forgiveness of us, and God’s forgiveness of all through the sacrifice of His Son.

7. Life is a spiritual minefield, but God designed prayer to be our minesweeper: And do not lead us into temptation (Matthew 6:13).

Our world and its distorted system of values are filled with attractive things that lure us into the dark realm of unknowns. This part of the prayer asks God to keep us out of some of the pitfalls of life we are unprepared to overcome. In other situations of exposure, His purpose is to strengthen us so we may overcome the temptation or snare of the evil one designed for no other purpose than to make us fall into sin.

Consider carefully the design of this part of the prayer. First, it is a phrase of faith that dreads the possibility of a fall. At the same time, it is the intent of God in His providence to keep us from falling and making a way of escape. Tests often come at the points of personal weaknesses, and we submit to them rather than face the rigors needed to conquer and become overcomers.

This part of the prayer is every believer’s plea: Lord, no temptation, please! But we know this is not realistic because life is filled with temptations outside the framework of God’s will. When so faced, read 1 Corinthians 10:13 and cry out in prayer, Lord, I want a way of escape!

8. Our desire to escape the evil one is matched by God’s ability to deliver us from him: But deliver us from evil (Matthew 6:13).

We need deliverance because we are in danger. When we are tempted, we are standing unsuspecting on the hole of an asp. Satan’s first appearance to Eve was in the form of a snake. Consider the prayer of warning from the Church of England’s prayer book mentioning all our dangers.

From sin, from crafts and assaults of the devil … from all blindness of heart; from pride, vain-glory and hypocrisy, envy, hatred, malice, all uncharitable-ness; fornication, and all other deadly sin, from the deceits of the world, flesh, and devil … from sudden (unexpected, and unprepared) death, hardness of heart, and contempt of the Word and Commandments Lord, deliver us!¹

This covers the waterfront and should convince us of the jeopardy we face when we are tempted. Look at Psalm 91:14: Because He hath set His love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him and honor him! Thy will be done means literally to happen. What are we willing to do to escape Satan’s snares? To pray this sincerely certainly involves the denial of self and selfish ambition.

9.Prayer can be a song that reveals a good God who hears our confessions of sin and liberally forgives us. (2 Chronicles 5:13, 6:39, 7:17–18). For He is good, for His mercy is everlasting.! Psalm 100:5

Prayer is an attitude of gratitude from our hearts and our lips that prompts the grace, mercy, peace, and goodness from a benevolent God of love, and Jehovah is His name.

In 2 Chronicles 5–7 is the ancient song of the Israelites that came from their hearts when they finished building the house of worship in Jerusalem. It was a glorious song of praise with a great choir accompanied with the aid of all types of instruments, all singing in single voice, For He is good, For His mercy endures forever!

These same attributes of God are expressed in our modern hymn at the beginning of formal worship; the Doxology is sung the world over by all denominational churches. Psalm 23:6 says, Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. All the way from Adam in Genesis to John in Revelation, God’s goodness and mercy are His beginning and final invitation: Come! And whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely. God’s goodness and mercy are open to all of us through the doorway of prayer: God be merciful to me, a sinner! Confession and thanksgiving are good ways to begin the journey of prayer into the bounty of God, Who is good, whose mercy is never-ending, and whose love endures forever! (Psalm 23:6, my paraphrase).

Our strong desire for spiritual blessings grows out of prayer. Therefore, I say unto you, whatever things ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. Matthew 21:22

Humanity has a strong longing for spiritual blessings. Recall Jacob’s encounter with a man he did not know in Genesis 32:24ff. He had no clue He was God, but His identity dawned on him gradually throughout the day. When darkness veiled God’s face, the conversation became so intimate that Jacob’s name was changed to Israel in a combative bout of the will of God versus the will of humanity. With his new name, Jacob emerged upon a new day with a dependence on God he never knew, a limp that would constantly remind him of his struggle with God, the mark of God’s blessing on his life, and the corporate blessing on the future nation of Israel. Jeremiah 29:13 affirms this: And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye search for me with all your heart. Our desire for spiritual blessings from God should be as all absorbing as Jacob’s.

10.We can trust God to keep us in perfect peace because our minds are fixed on all He is for us: Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusts in thee. Trust ye in the Lord forever; for in the Lord is everlasting strength (Isaiah 26:3, 4).

Our minds become the barometer of our character and formulate the attitudes and habits that mold us into the persons we are. Isaiah was speaking of our God who holds us secure so we can focus our hearts and efforts to become all God wants us to be. The Hebrew word YAH in verse 4 carries the meaning of that which is formed in our minds that forms our attitudes and habits. We say in conversation, my mind is made up, meaning we are confident. So, the scripture is admonishing us to hang confidently on Jehovah forever for He is an everlasting rock. He is always I AM … a name above every name lasting forever. He walks with us along our path of life, assuring us of the everlasting reliability of God. The familiar hymn Rock of Ages reveals that in Christ we are a new creation and Jehovah God is YES, IN HIM! Our minds are changed, our hearts are made new, and we are kept in His peace.

11.Prayer can change us and our circumstances if we understand the heart of the benevolent God who is always prepared to hear our helpless voice and give access to our needs: Before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear (Isaiah 65:24).

We can never catch God unaware of our circumstances or needs. To pray is like opening a door and seeing someone we had just been thinking about. To pray is to expose to God the distressing cries of our bodies and souls. We immediately think of God when our loved ones are ill or in critical danger, and we pray. We think of God and pray for forgiveness of our sin when we have committed an act of aggrieved wrong to the rights of others or broken a distinct command.

Embedded in the experiences of both men and women as well as the nation of Israel, prayer was the common denominator that imparted direction, blessings, and forgiveness to a wayward people. Just as a mother is always open to the helpless cry of her infant, God is always open to our helplessness, and it is the real secret that impels us to pray. The simplest definition of prayer is an attitude of helplessness!

12. Faith and trust in God do not always mean yes to our hopes or dreams: These all died in faith, not having received the promises but having seen them afar, were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth (Hebrews 11:13).

Eons ago, people struggled with the same problems and answers to life’s most probing questions. Chapter 13:1 of Hebrews begins with the definition of faith: It is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Faith is the foundation of our trust and hope in God. It is the scaffold on which we erect our belief and hope in Him. In Hebrews 11:7, Noah was given as an example of believing God even before the flood came. With the eyes of his mind and heart, he confirmed what he had not yet seen; he was moved by godly fear, and he convinced his will to build the ark.

The roll call in this chapter is awesome indeed, but all that is embraced in faith does not materialize in this life. God is teaching us to live by faith, not to produce pat or concise answers to all of life’s baffling questions. There is another dimension to faith—all its realities are not presented in this life alone; there is more to come if we embrace the same faith Abraham had in 11:10: For he waited for the city whose builder and maker is God. Peruse the promises of this chapter and through the eyes of faith see what all these patriarchs saw and believed.

13. A strong desire for spiritual blessings from God grows out of unwavering faith in Him: Therefore, I say unto you, whatever things ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye shall receive them, and ye shall have them (Mark 11:24).

The fruit of our faith is the consummation of the miracle we expect. It is the assurance (in our hearts) of what is hoped for, a conviction of (yet) unseen realities (Hebrews 11:1). A strong, heartfelt desire in the spiritual realm gives believers the impetus to pursue and possess it. In our material world, the phrase has become Go for it! with purpose, fervor, and all the drive we have. But this is precisely where the rub comes in as well as much misunderstanding.

Spiritual goals or blessings cannot be reached through works, paying to receive them, or through cunning devices like shortcuts, bribing God, or faking knowledge. They are the outgrowth of devotion of heart, consistent prayer, Bible study, and an earnest desire for God’s best. The previous things mentioned cannot be absorbed by the process of osmosis in