Table Of Content

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS EUGENE, OREGON Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Verses marked NIV are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. Verses marked TLB are taken from The Living Bible, Copyright ©1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189 USA. All rights reserved. Verses marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189 USA. All rights reserved. Verses marked TEV are taken from the Today’s English Version—Second Edition Copyright © 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission. The TEV is now: the Good News Translation (GNT) and permission should read as follows: Verses marked GNT are taken from the Good News Translation—Second Edition © 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by permission. THE PRAYER THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING is a registered trademark of The Hawkins Children’s LLC. Harvest House Publishers, Inc., is the exclusive licensee of the federally registered trademark THE PRAYER THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING. Cover by Koechel Peterson & Associates, Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota Cover photo © Hemera/Thinkstock Back cover photo © Harry Langdon THE PRAYER THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING® Copyright © 2004 by Stormie Omartian Published by Harvest House Publishers Eugene, Oregon 97402 www.harvesthousepublishers.com The Library of Congress has cataloged the edition as follows: ISBN 978-0-7369-4750-3 (pbk.) ISBN 978-0-7369-4751-0 (eBook) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Omartian, Stormie. The prayer that changes everything / Stormie Omartian. p. cm. ISBN 978-0-7369-1468-0 1. Prayer. I. Title. BV210.3.O54 2004 248.3'2—dc22 2004012033 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America 12 13 14 15 16 17 / LB-KB / 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is dedicated to You, Lord. For without Your power and grace, I know I wouldn’t be where I am today. You have spared my life so many times when otherwise I surely would have died. You still sustain me daily. I am increasingly aware of how I don’t deserve the blessings You’ve given me. You’ve taught me to have Your love and compassion for others and Your heart for their greatest blessings, and yet into the midst of that I interject my selfishness. You’ve given me strong vision for the wonderful things You want to do, and even do through me, but into that vision I sometimes impose my fears, which threaten to derail it. You give me promises to cling to, and they sustain me, yet even then I let doubt sway me. Why You put up with me so much I’ll never understand. That’s because I cannot comprehend the depth of Your love. How You could come to earth to suffer and die for me the way You did is incomprehensible, especially when I’m not certain that I could bring myself to do the same thing for You. I’d like to think I could, but when I frequently pray for my precious brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the world, who are being tortured and even martyred because of their service to You, I don’t know if I could go through what they do. It amazes me that even though I don’t always do or say the right thing, You have still allowed me to live and to serve You. That You have given me the privilege of writing this book is most humbling to me. While I am no expert on anything, let alone praise and worship, one thing I do know is that You are worthy of all praise, both now and forever. My credibility lies in my experience and all that You have taught me. The fact that You would allow the praises of Your people to be to their own greatest blessing is something only an amazing God of love would do. I pray that You will give me the ability to communicate the greatness of who You are and the reasons You are deserving of praise, and also help people to remember to praise You in all situations and at all times. Help me to reveal the full extent of the blessings You have for us when we focus on You in worship and praise. Because You first loved me, I am now free to love You. And I do. Your devoted servant, Stormie Acknowledgments With special thanks: • To Christopher, Amanda, John, Rebecca, Stephanie, Derek, Matt, Suzy, and Louie. Thank you for living. Your mere existence gives me joy and strength. I praise God for you every day of my life. • To Michael. Thank you for being a faithful husband and never giving me any reason to doubt that. I couldn’t do this without your support. • To Susan Martinez. Thank you for your prayers and love, your diligence and organization, your ability to rise beyond the call of duty, your kindness and graciousness to answer calls, letters, e-mails, faxes, and doorbells, the volume of which could have driven a lesser person crazy long ago. • To Roz Thompson. Thank you for being my faithful friend and prayer partner all these years. You have been a strength and an inspiration to me far more than I can ever tell you. • To Erik Sundin. Thank you for all your meticulous help on this project. You are the best. • To Patti and Tom Brussat, Michael and Terry Harriton, Bob and Sally Anderson, Donna and Bruce Sudano. Thank you for your prayers. I don’t see you often enough, but I feel your prayers every day. • To my pastors: Jack and Anna Hayford, Rice and Jody Broocks, Tim and Le’Chelle Johnson, Stephen Mansfield, Dale and Joan Evrist, Jim and Cathy Laffoon, John and Maretta Rohr, Ray and Elizabeth McCollum. Your richness in the things of God has made me rich in my spirit too. I don’t know where I would be without all the great things of the Lord you have taught me and the countless times you have prayed for me. • To my wonderful sisters in Christ and great women of God: Joyce Meyer, Beth Moore, Lisa Bevere, Kay Arthur, and Florence Littauer. Thank you for your love and kindness to me, your wealth of knowledge of God’s Word, and your work for the kingdom. It is with great humility, along with love and respect for you and all that you do, that I count it a great privilege to know you. You have each taught me so much and have been such an inspiration and a strength to me. You have given me encouragement beyond what you can ever imagine. • To my amazing family at Harvest House: especially to Bob Hawkins Jr., Carolyn McCready, Julie McKinney, Teresa Evenson, Terry Glaspey, John Constance, Mary Cooper, LaRae Wiekert, Peggy Wright, Betty Fletcher, and Kim Moore. Thank you for your love, patience, kindness, graciousness, untiring work habits, and professionalism. You make it all happen. Contents Acknowledgments What Is the Prayer That Changes Everything? Part I Fifteen Reasons to Praise God Now Why We Need to Know God Better 1. Because He Is My Creator 2. Because He Is My Heavenly Father 3. Because He Loves Me 4. Because He Laid Down His Life for Me 5. Because He Has Forgiven Me 6. Because He Has Given Me His Holy Spirit 7. Because He Gave Me His Word 8. Because He Is a Good God 9. Because He Is Holy 10. Because He Is All-Powerful 11. Because He Is with Me 12. Because He Has a Purpose for My Life 13. Because He Redeems All Things 14. Because He Is the Light of the World 15. Because He Is Part II Fifteen Times When Praise Is Crucial When We Need to Praise God More 16. When I Am Troubled by Negative Thoughts and Emotions 17. When I Have Anxiety, Fear, and Discouragement 18. When I Become Sick, Weak, or Injured 19. When I Struggle with Doubt 20. When I Don’t See Answers to My Prayers 21. When I Have Problems in a Relationship 22. When I Need to Forgive 23. When I See Things Going Wrong and I Feel Powerless 24. When I Long to Know God’s Will 25. When I Seek Breakthrough, Deliverance, or Transformation 26. When I Need God’s Provision and Protection 27. When I Fight Temptation to Walk in the Flesh 28. When I Am Attacked by the Enemy 29. When I Suffer Great Loss, Disappointment, or Failure 30. When I Sense that All Is Well Other Books by Stormie Omartian Dear Reader New Companion Worship Album What Is the Prayer That Changes Everything? Proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. 1 PETER 2:9 If you’re like me, you don’t want to live a lukewarm, mediocre, “barely making it,” sad, lonely, hopeless, miserable, frightened, frustrated, unfulfilled, meaningless, ineffective, or fruitless existence. You don’t want to be imprisoned by your circumstances or chained to your limitations. You want to live an extraordinary life. A life of peace, joy, fulfillment, hope, and purpose. A life where all things are possible. The kind of life I just described can only happen when we enter into a close relationship with God. I mean really close. There are many people who believe in God. Some of them live their lives with a sense of God in the back of their mind. Others do religious things for God. Still others love God and serve Him to the best of their ability, but they