Praying James 1

Heavenly Father I praise You for Your word that we call the Bible and I praise You for sending the word in the flesh, Jesus Christ, to be a living example of Your word. I praise You for each day the Holy Spirit prompts me to do what is Your will and gives me wisdom on how I should live.

Holy Spirit help me as I pray and learn from James, Christ’s half-brother, and leader of the first Christian Church. Help me to pray and stand on the wisdom that he wrote for us to give us hope: My faith can only grow as I truly live life and face trials, temptations, and storms as well as mountain tops and triumphs. Let me rejoice in the fact that I am alive and pain lets me know that I am alive and not dull and dead. I want to mature in my walk with You, I need to learn endurance in my faith and I must realize that I should never ask for a trial or storm to be removed, but instead walk through it with perseverance and faith as the Holy Spirit guides me. I know I am broken by some of the hardest tests and trials, but I am not destroyed and God uses the broken to do mighty things with faith through Him.

Holy Spirit James tells us if we lack the wisdom to ask for it from You. He tells us that You give it generously and ungrudgingly to us. Proverbs tells us that we should seek, grab hold of, and apply wisdom as if it was a fine ruby or unblemished gold. The value of Your wisdom is the only way I can draw closer to You. It is the only way I can learn to listen, trust and act the way Your Spirit leads me. It is the only way to keep me from whining, complaining, grumbling, or becoming discouraged by my circumstances. I have full faith, trust, and determination that You will give me wisdom that is profitable to my life and how I should live. I ask that You help me not doubt this even when I can not see through the fog of the trial before me.

Help me to never be deceived, fully understanding that all good and perfect gifts are from You, Father, the light of our life. I am starting to understand that I was created with being a first fruit in Your kingdom to be pressed and poured out to serve You with all that I am.

Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given to me all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of God who has called me to His own glory and excellence, by which He has given to me exceedingly great and precious promises so that through these things I might become a partaker of the divine nature and escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. For this reason, help me to make every effort to add virtue to my faith; and to my virtue, knowledge, and to my knowledge, self-control; and to my self-control, patient endurance; and to my patient endurance, godliness; and to my godliness, brotherly kindness; and to my brotherly kindness love. For if all of these reside in me and abound, they will ensure that I will neither be useless nor unfruitful in the knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord. Help me to diligently make my calling and election sure so that when I add all of these areas into my life I will not stumble and will be able to enter into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ which will be abundantly provided for me. In Jesus’ name, Amen. 2 Peter 1:3-11 MEV version