Today we continue our series entitled “Living the Grace Life,” where we will learn to embrace and walk in God’s unmerited, unearned, and often undeserved favor throughout 2025.
As part of this series, I am teaching you how to pray from a position of God’s grace.
Key scriptures for this year:
2 Corinthians? ?9?:?8? ?TPT??
“Yes, God is more than ready to overwhelm you with every form of grace, so that you will have more than enough of everything—every moment and in every way. He will make you overflow with abundance in every good thing you do.”
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??Galatians? ?5?:?4? ?TPT??
“If you want to be made right with God by fulfilling the obligations of the law, you have cut off more than your flesh—you have cut yourselves off from Christ and have fallen away from the revelation of grace!”
Romans? ?6?:?14? ?ERV??
“Sin will not be your master, because you are not under law. You now live under God’s grace.”
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1 Corinthians? ?15?:?10? ?NIV??
“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”
Additional scriptures for today:
Matthew 6:7-8 NIV
“And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”
Ephesians 1:3 NKJV
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.”
Setting the Stage:
Yesterday, we laid the foundation for understanding prayer from a position of grace. Today, I want to emphasize the contrast between praying from need versus praying from grace. These two approaches to prayer couldn’t be more different. One is rooted in an Old Covenant mindset of performance and earning, while the other is founded on the New Covenant reality of what Jesus has already accomplished. The way you approach prayer reveals what you truly believe about God, His nature, and His finished work.
So, what does this mean to you today? A few things.
1. Understanding the Difference Between Need-Based and Grace-Based Prayer.
The primary difference between these two approaches is your starting point. Are you starting from the position of lack, hoping God will give you something you don’t have? Or are you starting from the position of provision, acknowledging what God has already provided?
How this applies to you:
— Need-based prayer says, “God, I don’t have it; this is what I need, please give it to me.” Grace-based prayer says, “Father, thank You for revealing Your will to me. I can see that you’ve already provided it, and I receive it by faith.”
— Need-based prayer focuses on your lack; grace-based prayer focuses on God’s abundance.
— Need-based prayers are often accompanied by fear, doubt, anxiety, and uncertainty. Grace-based prayers are characterized by peace and confidence. Part of living THE GRACE LIFE is resting, by faith, in what God has already provided, even though it may not manifest in your life for weeks, months, or years.
— Need-based prayer attempts to convince God to act; grace-based prayer agrees with what God has already done.
— Need-based prayer is rooted in the Old Covenant pattern of asking God to move; grace-based prayer is founded on the New Covenant reality that God has already moved through Christ.
— Need-based prayer positions you as a beggar; grace-based prayer positions you as a son or daughter accessing their inheritance.
— Paul said this, “Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all” (Gal 4:1). The Apostle Paul did a great job of explaining the differences between the Old Covenant and New Covenant, especially where our mentality is concerned. Under the Old Covenant, many saw themselves as slaves or servants. Under the New Covenant, Paul is saying; you are not a slave, you are not a servant, you are a son. This is important because you have an inheritance that cannot be delivered to you beyond your level of growth.
— When you understand this difference, you’ll stop approaching God with pleading and start approaching Him with boldness, as a son (or daughter), knowing that you have an inheritance stored up for you.
— This is one of the reasons why Jesus used the name or title “God” when speaking about God the Father to people. But when addressing the Father, He called Him “Father.” When I pray, I address God as my FATHER, because I am a son!
2. God’s Provision Precedes Your Petition.
I made this point yesterday, but I will add to it today. A fundamental truth of the New Covenant is that God has already provided what you need before you ask for it. Jesus made this clear when He said that your Father knows what you need before you ask Him (Matthew 6:8).
How this applies to you:
— The Bible declares that God “has blessed us” (past tense) with every spiritual blessing in Christ (Ephesians 1:3).
— Your prayer doesn’t move God to provide; your prayer accesses what God has already provided by His grace.
— In the model prayer, Jesus said, “Give us this day our daily bread,” not because God is withholding bread, but because He wants us to acknowledge Him as the source of our provision. God wants us to seek Him daily.
— When you understand that provision precedes petition, your prayers shift from begging to receiving. You can receive everything you need for each day.
— This doesn’t mean you don’t ask; it means you ask with the confidence of knowing the answer is already “yes” in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20). Every promise from God has a YES on it. In prayer, you provide the AMEN!
— Prayer becomes less about getting God to do something new and more about bringing to manifestation what God has already done.
3. The Mindset Shift Required for Grace-Based Prayer.
Moving from need-based to grace-based prayer requires a complete change of thinking. It’s not just a change in technique; it’s a transformation in how you see God, yourself, and prayer itself.
How this applies to you:
— You must shift from seeing prayer as a way to get something from God to seeing it as a way to discover and receive what God has already given.
— You must move from viewing God as reluctant to bless to seeing Him as eager to manifest His blessings in your life.
— God wants His will to be done, on earth, as it is in heaven, through you. Therefore, prayer becomes more about you aligning with God and what He already planned, than you asking for things from God.
— One key thing is that you must transition from focusing on your unworthiness to focusing on your righteousness in Christ. You will never be confident in prayer until you see yourself as the righteousness of God by faith.
— You must change from approaching prayer with fear and trepidation to approaching God’s throne with boldness and confidence. God wants you to be confident in Him. Just as you want your children to believe Your words, the Father wants you to approach Him with confidence in what He has said and will say to you.
— You must stop basing your expectations on your performance and start basing them on Christ’s finished work. This means you are not working for God’s blessings, and when God promises something, you cannot disqualify yourself (while you are waiting for it) because it was never based on your performance in the first place.
— You must shift from seeing prayer as a dreadful task to seeing it as restful communion with your Father.
— This mindset shift doesn’t happen overnight, but as you renew your mind with God’s Word, your prayers will naturally transform from need-based to grace-based.
4. The Results of Praying from a Position of Grace.
When you begin to pray from a position of grace rather than need, you’ll experience dramatic differences in both your prayer life and your results.
How this applies to you:
— Your prayers will be filled with faith rather than fear, because you know you’re not trying to get God to do something; you’re receiving what He’s already done.
— You’ll experience greater peace in prayer, knowing that the provision is already established in heaven.
— Your prayer life will be characterized by thanksgiving rather than pleading, celebrating what God has already accomplished.
— You’ll spend less time asking and more time listening in communion as you seek to understand what God has already provided.
— Your prayers will be more effective because they’ll be aligned with what God has already established in eternity.
— You’ll experience greater consistency in prayer because it will no longer be a duty but a delight. You must learn to enjoy prayer; enjoy time with the Father.
That’s enough for today.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, I thank You for transforming my understanding of prayer through Your amazing grace.
I declare that I no longer approach You from a position of lack, but from a position of abundance in Christ.
My prayers are not attempts to convince You to act, but expressions of faith in what You’ve already provided.
I pray with confidence, knowing Your provision precedes my petition in every situation.
My prayer life is characterized by thanksgiving, not begging. I am not a slave. I am not a servant. I am a son, and I have an inheritance.
I approach Your throne boldly, not based on my performance, but on Christ’s finished work on my behalf.
The results of my prayers are manifestations of Your grace, not rewards for my performance.
I am living THE GRACE LIFE in 2025, and GREATER IS COMING FOR ME!
I declare this by faith, in Jesus’ name. Amen!
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and prosper!
