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:
Hebrews 4:16 NIV
“Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
1 John 3:20-21 NIV
“If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God.”
Romans 8:15-16 TPT
“And you did not receive the ‘spirit of religious duty,’ leading you back into the fear of never being good enough. But you have received the ‘Spirit of full acceptance,’ enfolding you into the family of God. And you will never feel orphaned, for as he rises up within us, our spirits join him in saying the words of tender affection, ‘Beloved Father!'”
Ephesians 3:12 TPT
“We have boldness through him, and free access as kings before the Father because of our complete confidence in Christ’s faithfulness.”
Setting the Stage:
In our journey through grace-based prayer, we’ve explored understanding prayer from grace, the difference between praying from grace versus need, Jesus’ finished work, praying in alignment with heaven, accessing God’s power, the authority we have in prayer, praying from our seated position in heavenly places, and discerning God’s will in prayer. Today, we will focus on how grace gives us confidence in prayer.
Many believers approach prayer timidly, feeling unworthy or uncertain if God will hear them. They pray with apologies, acknowledging their faults, flaws, and failures before making their requests, hoping this will somehow make their prayers more acceptable. The problem is that most don’t realize how this hesitant approach to prayer a) robs them of any confidence and b) causes them to focus on a performance-based mindset rather than a grace-based relationship.
Under the New Covenant of grace, confidence in prayer doesn’t come from our performance but from Christ’s finished work. The blood of Jesus has cleared the way for us to approach God’s throne with boldness, not based on what we’ve done but on what He has done for us.
So, what does this mean to you today? A few things.
1. Grace Replaces Fear with Confidence in Prayer.
Fear is one of the greatest hindrances to effective prayer becuase you need your prayers to be full of faith, and fear cancels out your faith. Embracing God’s Grace replaces fear with a supernatural confidence that transforms how we pray.
How this applies to you:
— The Bible tells us that “perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18). John flat-out tells us that there is no fear in love. God’s grace is the manifestation of His perfect love toward us, removing the fear that hinders our prayers.
— Many believers pray with an underlying fear of rejection or disappointment. Grace assures you that God receives you with delight, not reluctance or irritation. He welcomes you as a son or daughter with open arms.
— Under the Old Covenant, approaching God the wrong way could result in death (remember Uzzah, who touched the ark). Under grace, we approach God with confidence, knowing the price for our acceptance has been paid in full.
— When you pray with fear, your prayers are hindered. Fear tolerated is faith contaminated. Grace removes that fear, allowing faith to flourish in your prayer life.
— Fear makes you hesitant in prayer, carefully measuring your words. Grace gives you the freedom to pour out your heart genuinely before God.
— Many, because of fear, feel like they are bothering God or taking up too much of His time when they pray. Grace reveals that God delights in your company and welcomes extended communion with you.
— Fear makes you settle for less in prayer, afraid to ask for “too much.” Grace emboldens you to ask according to God’s abundance, not your perceived limitations. In other words, grace helps you to dream God-sized dreams and make God-sized requests in prayer.
2. Grace Removes the Barrier of Condemnation.
One of the biggest obstacles to confident prayer is a condemning heart. When we feel condemned, we either run away from God, or we approach God with hesitation rather than confidence. Grace removes this barrier.
How this applies to you:
— Romans 8:1 declares, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” This means you can pray without the weight of guilt and shame.
— A condemned heart leads to prayers full of fear, doubt, and unbelief. But grace assures you that God has forgiven your sins, making way for confident prayer.
— When your heart doesn’t condemn you, you have confidence before God (1 John 3:21). This isn’t because you’re perfect, but because Christ’s blood has cleansed your conscience.
— Under grace, prayer becomes less about convincing God to overlook your faults and more about receiving what His love has already provided.
— If you feel disqualified from answered prayer because of past failures, remember that God’s grace is greater than your sins. His mercy triumphs over judgment.
— When you pray with a condemning heart, you pray with doubt. But when you pray with a heart cleansed by grace, you pray with faith. And faith-filled prayers move mountains.
— Grace teaches you to distinguish between conviction (which leads to repentance) and condemnation (which leads to hiding from God). The Holy Spirit convicts to restore the relationship; satan condemns to destroy it.
3. Grace Transforms Your Identity in Prayer.
How you see yourself affects how you pray. Grace gives you a new identity that revolutionizes your prayer life.
How this applies to you:
— Under grace, you’re not a beggar hoping for crumbs from God’s table; you’re a beloved child with legal rights to your Father’s resources. You pray as a son or daughter, not as a slave or a servant.
— Romans 8:15-16 tells us we’ve received the Spirit of adoption. We don’t approach God with fear but with the intimate cry of “Abba, Father!” This family relationship gives you confidence in prayer.
— Grace gives you the consciousness of being accepted in the Beloved (Ephesians 1:6). This acceptance isn’t based on what you do but on who you are in Christ.
— When you understand your identity under grace, you stop beginning your prayers with “God, I know I’m not worthy, but…” Instead, you pray with the confidence of one who has been made righteous by Christ’s blood.
— Your identity as God’s child means you don’t have to convince Him to be good to you. He is good to you because you’re His, not because you’ve earned it. God wants to bless you because God is good, not because you are.
— Grace teaches you to pray from who you are, not what you’ve done. Your identity in Christ–righteous, holy, beloved–becomes the foundation of your prayer life.
4. Grace Eliminates the Performance Trap in Prayer.
Many believers fall into what I call the “performance trap” in prayer–believing that the effectiveness of their prayers depends on how well they pray, how long they pray, or how well they do after they prayed. Grace frees us from this trap.
How this applies to you:
— Under the performance mindset, you might think God answers prayers based on your spiritual track record. Grace reveals that God answers based on Jesus’ perfect record credited to your account.
— Many believe they must “qualify” for answered prayer through spiritual disciplines like fasting, extended prayer times, or acts of service. While these disciplines are valuable, they don’t earn God’s response.
— The performance trap leads to comparing your prayer life with others: “She prays for hours daily; no wonder God answers her.” Grace frees you from these comparisons.
— Performance-minded prayer often includes bargaining: “God, if You do this, I promise I’ll…” Grace-based prayer rests in what Jesus has already done, not what you promise to do or not do.
— Under performance, unanswered prayer leads to self-examination: “What did I do wrong?” Under grace, you rest knowing that God’s timing and wisdom are perfect, and His apparent “no” is either a “no” for now, a “no” because you asked for the wrong thing, or simply God protecting you from something that was not His best for this season.
— Performance measures prayer by results: “Did God answer my prayer?” Grace measures prayer by relationship: “Do I know that I am walking with God and He is walking with me?” Under the latter, the answers to your prayers may still be in motion, but your connection to God is stable and secure.
That’s enough for today.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, Your grace has replaced the fear I once had with confidence when I come before You in prayer.
I declare that I am free from condemnation, allowing me to pray with a clear conscience and unwavering faith.
Under Your grace, I embrace my identity as Your beloved child, approaching You as “Abba, Father” rather than as a distant deity.
I pray from a position of acceptance, no longer feeling the need to convince You of my worthiness.
My confidence in prayer comes from Christ’s finished work, not my spiritual disciplines or personal worthiness.
I release all fear of rejection or disappointment, knowing You receive me with delight whenever I approach Your throne.
I no longer begin my prayers with apologies but with assurance, knowing You welcome me with open arms.
I am living THE GRACE LIFE in 2025, and I pray with confidence that GREATER IS COMING FOR ME!
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and prosper!
