Building Our Character Through Prayer

God created us in His image (Genesis 1:26-27). That means we are to live a life which reflects His character. Such character traits are humility, peace, love, joy, patience, kindness, gentleness, mercy, grace, slow to anger, quick to forgive, etc. We see our best example in the life of Jesus Christ as recorded in the four accounts of the Gospel (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John).

Prayer is one of the most important things in life. Without prayer, you can't live out God's entire plan for your life. Jesus teaches about asking the Father for anything. "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him" (Matthew 7:7-11, NKJV). Of course God will only give us what is according to His will.

Since God created us to be like Him, and the Holy Spirit has made our spirit alive within us, let us pray for the Holy Spirit to transform our hearts and build up our character so that we can reflect the glory of our Lord and Savior to the world around us. God does not do everything on His own, but He wants us to ask Him. If we don't ask, we may not receive.

Below is a list of the type of things all Christians should pray for throughout their life. We should not pray for it just once, but many times. Change takes time and transformation is a life-long process. When God gives us peace, we can ask for more peace. When God gives us joy, we can ask for more joy. When God gives us love, we can ask for more love. Until the Day of Resurrection, we will never reach perfection, and therefore our prayers for such traits should never cease. Often times we change from one day to the next. One day we are filled with joy, and the next day we are lacking the joy we had the day before. Based on experience, when I am lacking joy, I ask God for it and shortly later I have my joy back. Now for the list:

- Humility - Ask God to make you humble.

- Peace - Ask God to fill your heart with peace, no matter what the circumstances in life are.

- Love - Ask God to fill your heart with unconditional love for all people, including your enemies and those who hurt you.

- Joy - Ask God to fill your heart with joy no matter what the circumstances in life are.

- Patience - Ask God to help you become more patient.

- Kindness - Ask God to fill you with kindness towards others.

- Gentleness - Ask God to fill you with gentleness towards others.

- Mercy - Ask God to give you a merciful heart towards others.

- Grace - Ask God to give you a gracious heart towards others.

- Slow to anger - Ask God to help you become slow to anger.

- Quick to Forgive - Ask God to help you become quick to forgive others, no matter what they have done.

- Servitude - Ask God to give you the desire to serve others and put there needs above your own.

God will answer your prayers and open doors for you to put these character traits into practice. God will put people into your life or bring you through circumstances in life that will give you the opportunity to practice these traits. Does that mean that if you don't ask God to build your character, you will avoid such people and circumstances? By no means. When you ask God to build your character, the Holy Spirit will be with you to strengthen you and help you. Otherwise you may have to deal with such people and circumstances without the help of the Holy Spirit. God doesn't force us to change. Let us give Him permission through our prayers.

What happens if you know what is right, but you don't feel like going through the struggle of trying to change, so you just continue to remain the same? What if you just don't have the desire to change? Well, nothing is impossible with God, so you can ask God to give you the desire to change. If we lack the desire, the interest, and the will to do something that we know is right or that we know God wants us to do, then we can ask Him to give us those desires, interests, and wills. In my experience, I loved secular rap music. I told God that I loved the music, that it makes me feel good, and that I want to listen to it. I also told God that I knew He didn't want me listening to that music, and therefore unless He causes me to lose interest in the music, I'm going to continue listening to it. I was addicted to it. God heard my prayer, because over the next several weeks, I began to lose interest in the music. Today I listen to gospel rap. If there is no desire, there is hope in the God who creates desires in our hearts. All we have to do is ask Him and trust Him to do according to His will.

I hope and pray that Christians throughout the world will build their character through prayer and practice. Many come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior not by word-of-mouth, but by living example. By how you live your life, the Holy Spirit will draw many to the Gospel. These people may even come to you with questions. "Do as I say, not as I do" will not save souls. "Do as I say, and follow my example" will save souls. Building up character builds up credibility.

Peace and grace be with you all. You may go pray.