Prayer: For Character Change

For a few weeks we are featuring material from Teach Us to Pray  ©1995 by Discipleship Publications International and edited by Tom and Sheila Jones. This week’s post is excerpted and adapted from a chapter by Jeanie Shaw who is a women’s ministry leader in Boston.

                Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place (Psalm 51:6).

As I write this article I look at a piece of torn, battered paper that is like an old friend to me.  It is a page from my prayer list that is prayed through over and over again.  I purposely did not type it up to look fancy, because I wanted its simplicity to remind me that before God, my character is exposed.  I must look at the inner parts, the inmost places.

There are other pages to my prayer list that remind me of people and situations that need my prayers.  No prayer is easy, but when I get to this page I must take a sober, gut-level look at who I am before God.  It is a page entitled “character.”  Here I pray through the things in my character that need to change from weaknesses into strengths.  As I pray through these things, I am reminded of the words in the song “Jesus Loves Me,” “I am weak, but he is strong.”  Praying through them day after day forces me to rely on God and strengthens my faith as I have seen him answer my prayers time and time again.

Too often we stay generic in our prayers:  “Help me be a better person, help me to change, to love you more, God...” Too often we don’t know what specifically we need to change and so don’t have a clear aim in going after it.  When we aim at nothing, that is what we get.  Can you put your character sins and weaknesses into words?  Are they clearly defined in your mind?  If they are not, it is unlikely you will be victorious in overcoming them.

When you pray, ask God to help you see what you need to change.  Ask others what things they see in your sinful nature, those deep-rooted things that don’t go easily. What are they for you?  Self-pity? Arrogance (self-reliance)?  Timidity?  A weak will?  Bitterness?  Being quick to quit? Lacking passion and fire for God?  Lack of discipline? Maybe you have trouble getting on an emotional heart level with people or struggle with respecting your husband or your wife.

How badly do you want to change?  It will show by the way you pray.