The "Everything" Morning Prayer by Blog Contribitor- Keisha Gilchrist-Broomes

 Prayer was, is, and always will be a Christian's most powerful one-to-one connection with God. As most of us were taught in Prayer 101 (smile), the most effective way to pray is to use ACTS. 

A-Adoration

C-Confession

T-Thankfulness

S -Supplication. 

To break that down a bit...Let your words remind God of how much you honor, respect, and adore him. Confess your sins. Thank God for all he as done for you. Give him your requests for help. 

Is that all that is needed? Pretty much.

So how in the world did my family pull together this huge prayer?

We've always prayed with ACTS model and as we grew, my husband and I started adding in snippets of prayers we'd heard from trusted pastors and teachers. We began to ask for things like strength, protection, and wisdom. 
USE SCRIPTURE: We added in material directly from the Bible, such as Romans 12:2. We added in sentences to cover our marriage. We added in spiritual direction for our children (Colossians 1:9). Then we had to throw in some requests for guidance. We added a paragraph for presenting ourselves as living sacrifices and for putting on the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18). We rounded out with a special love call to the Lord of our lives.

Another goal we had with this prayer, was to keep the focus on the power of God, and to avoid selfishness. God always cares more about our reliance on him and the development of our character than material blessings, talents, jobs, and so on. But we can always be assured that if he grants us wisdom, we can make good decisions. If he grants us strength, we can endure. We stood back and looked at it and the prayer was 11 paragraphs long. And while we certainly do more specific and personal prayers, this is the one that typically starts our day. 

Brace yourself. This prayer is for the prayer warrior in you. 
  Here it goes:

Heavenly Father, we come to praise and worship you in the beginning of this day, in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We recognize and praise you Father as the only God in the universe - the only sovereign and omnipresent God. You are the God of the Abraham, the God of the Angel armies, and the God of everything, everywhere. We love you. We worship you. We praise you.

Lord, as we come to you, we recognize you as Lord. In Jesus Christ name, forgive us our sins. We thank you for forgiving all of our sins in word, mind, body, deed, and attitude. Please hear our prayers, oh Lord.

Our Father, we surrender our full selves to you as obedient children. We choose not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds through Your Holy Word. We beg you, please give us a deeper understanding of your glorious power and your will for us. You alone are God. We are not. May thy will be done in our lives.

Lord, we trust in you with all of our hearts and we will not rely on our own intelligence. Please bless us to bear the fruit of the Spirit to our family, friends, and neighbors on this day.

Lord, in the name of Jesus, according to your word, we present our selves as living sacrifices. May we be holy and pleasing to you. Father, we take on the helmet of salvation so that our minds are focused on you and we think pure, good, and pleasing thoughts today. We buckle the belt of truth around our waists so that we begin the day knowing we are your children. We put on the breastplate of righteousness so that we respond spiritually, and NOT emotionally in all circumstances in which we are placed today. We fit our feet with the readiness of the Gospel of peace so that we stand strong and immovable in Your Word today. In addition to this, we take up the shield of faith, with which we can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. We take the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God so that we can deflect the attacks of the enemy.

Lord and Father, we thank You for giving us victory over temptation, sin, and transgressions because you said in your Word that sin will not be our master. Holy Spirit, be in our lives and direct us on how to take all of our thoughts captive to Christ. Lord, we depend on you to win the battle waged in our minds and lives today.

Lord, we thank you for blessing our marriage and for giving us the ability to achieve intimacy, oneness, pleasure, and fulfillment with tone another. Thank you for blessing us with children.

In Jesus name, with supplication we pray that you would guide, protect, nurture, and save our children. Keep them away from the attacks of the enemy. Place a burden in their hearts that they would seek you, Father, and would not rest until they have a growing intimate relationship with you. Work in their hearts and minds and deliver them completely from any weaknesses, darkness, or unnatural seeds that may have been sent there from the enemy, the world, or a weakness of their flesh. Bless them Lord. Each of them. Give us as their parents, love, wisdom, strength, and courage to raise them to fear, love and serve you.

Father, bless our home that we would concentrate on having healthy minds, healthy bodies, and healthy spirits. Father, we submit all of our plans and schedules to you today to do with as you see fit. Please lead us to be only where you want us to be and have us do only that which you want us to do. Lord, help us to know what is the wise thing to do in every situation, and provide us with the strength and courage to do it.

Heavenly Father, You alone know everything about everything. We cannot see the future. Father, in Jesus name, please enable us to always see trouble long before it gets here. Give us the wisdom to know what to do about it, and the courage to do it.

Lord of our lives, we thank you for loving and blessing us the way that you do. We love you, Father. We love you, Lord Jesus. We love you Holy Spirit. We pray these things to you according to your will in Jesus Christ name. Amen.

Now challenge yourself. What would you like in your "everything" morning prayer? What can you do to develop a prayer that fits your household? If you are single, what would you include to start your day with the Lord? Perhaps you have grown children. What paragraph would you include to pray for them each day? Are you dealing with a chronic, lifelong illness? Can you read the Word and pray back the verses that apply to your unique needs?

Be bold in your morning prayer. Be humble and honest in your morning prayer. Then look for God to move in all the intimate areas of your life. Amen!