A Heart for Revival is a 21-day prayer guide designed to quicken your spirit and focus your heart regarding personal and community revival.
(I’ll be sharing devotions from it each Tuesday for the next several months — though, if you’d rather enjoy them in a daily format, the eBook or PDF versions are available here for download.)
Last week we contrasted the ability of God to respond in prayer with the needed faith that He will answer our petitions.
The post closed with Mark 11:24 ESV:
“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
A key to this passage and in having prayers answered is found in the next verse,
“And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses” (Mark 11:25 ESV).
Forgiveness is a powerful thing and a uniquely Christian doctrine. “For Jesus, forgiving and being forgiven are the keys to healthy relationships” (Knowles, 2001). Thus, we see where relationship is vital for our prayers to be answered:
• with the Lord (cf. Mark 11:25);
• with the family of God (cf. Matthew 5:23-24);
• with our own family (cf. 1 Peter 3:7).
“In making a request of God, the first thing we have to ensure of is this: Is our relationship right? Once we are convinced by the witness of the Spirit that we are blood-related to the Father and not at variance with others, we can come with boldness to the throne of grace” (Ravenhill, 1962, p. 32).
Prayer Focus
Make sure that your relationships are pure this week. Allow the Holy Spirit to reveal any deep-seated offenses against anyone—God or man—that have kept you in personal bondage.
Release those with whom you may have ought; seek reconciliation from those that you now know by the Spirit are at variance with you; make for peace in your family through repentance.
Practice Colossians 3:12-13 ESV:
