Prayers that Prevail

Sunday, November 20th, 2011

Today's Passage> Nehemiah chapters 9 & 10
Memory Verse> Nehemiah 9:38

Father, thank You that You never allow our past sins to destroy our opportunity for reconciliation! You love us so much that You made provision for the forgiveness of our sin long before we even acknowledged that we were sinners. We join together today to make some declarations to You in the company of heaven and earth.

We thank You for being a God Who does not deal with us as we deserve. Our ancestors took it upon themselves to create their own gods, then fashion religions of their own to avoid giving You the honor You deserved. Even in spite of that, You provided them with the fulfillment of the things they needed. Still they were hesitant to acknowledge You. In Your great mercy You allowed them to go through a time of captivity so that they could see You and call out to You. This caused them to do so, but only for a short period of time. Generation after generation, they ignored You in spite of Your mercy, and taught their children to do the same.

But today, we Your children turn our hearts away from the acts of our fathers. We renounce and cut ourselves off from every act of rebellion they performed. We declare that we will be totally devoted to You in spite of what our forefathers did. We embrace Your righteousness and renounce the rebellion for the rest of our days. Even as we make a covenant to seek You with all our hearts, we recognize that the enemy is planning strategies to cut us off from You and distractions to pull us away from You. But we refuse to be distracted. We desire You and declare that we will not only turn to You, but will teach our children to do the same.

Today, as we arise, we set our hearts on one accord to walk in righteousness from this day forward. We know that every promise You make, You keep to the third and fourth geneneration to those who fear You. So we will arise and worship You, calling You Holy and giving You the glory You deserve. May all those who have struggled with being double- minded in the past begin to see clearly what an awesome God You are as the scales fall from their eyes. We declare that You will be our God, and we will follow You forever. In the mighty Name of Jesus, Amen.