Because you have made the Lord your refuge, the Most High your dwelling place, 

no evil shall befall you, no scourge come near your tent.

 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.

 On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone. 

You will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent you will trample under foot. 

Those who love me, I will deliver; I will protect those who know my name. 

When they call to me, I will answer them; I will be with them in trouble, I will rescue them and honor them. 

With long life I will satisfy them, and show them my salvation.

Psalm 91:9-16

The Cross in Prayer

We too often think of the Cross of Christ as something we have to get through, yet we get through for the purpose of getting into it. The Cross represents only one thing for us- complete, entire, absolute identification with the Lord Jesus Christ- and there is nothing in which this identification is more real to us than in prayer.

“Your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him” (Matthew 6:8). Then why should we ask? The point of prayer is not to get answers from God, but to have perfect and complete oneness with Him. If we pray only because we want answers, we will become irritated and angry with God. We receive an answer every time we pray, but it does not always come in the way we expect, and our spiritual irritation shows our refusal to identify ourselves truly with our Lord in prayer. We are not here to prove that God answers prayer, but to be living trophies of God’s grace.

“. . . I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loves you . . .” (John 16:26-27). Have you reached such a level of intimacy with God that the only thing that can account for your prayer life is that it has become one with the prayer life of Jesus Christ? Has our Lord exchanged your life with His vital life? If so, then “in that day” you will be so closely identified with Jesus that there will be no distinction.

When prayer seems to be unanswered, beware of trying to place the blame on someone else. That is always a trap of Satan. When you seem to have no answer, there is always a reason- God uses these times to give you deep personal instruction, and it is not for anyone else but you.

Copyright © 1992 by Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Ltd. All rights reserved.

Praying as you Walk

Take a walk this week in which you intentionally go somewhere you will likely encounter people: a shopping mall, a commercial street, a supermarket, or a department store.

Begin your walk by becoming conscious of your body and breathing. … Then gently shift your awareness to the people and the objects or stores around you. What catches your attention? What calls to you?

Let the people, objects, or activities you notice become prompts for brief, sentence-like prayers. If you walk past an empty store, you might pray for people who have lost their jobs because a business closed.

If you walk past a school, you can pray for the safety of children at school or for those who teach and learn. If it is a school where you know students and teachers, you could pray for them by name.

When you return from your walk, write in a journal about your walk. What moments of annunciation did you experience? Who were the angels you met without knowing it? How did offering a brief prayer for the people and situations you encountered change your experience?

Thomas R. Hawkins

From pages 90-91 of Every Step a Prayer: Walking As Spiritual Practice by Thomas R. Hawkins. Copyright © 2016 by Thomas R. Hawkins. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Upper Room Books. http://bookstore.upperroom.org/ Learn more about or purchase this book.