What We Pray...
Wednesday, May 23, 2012 Good afternoon,
Tonight is Wednesday Night Supper! A meal will be served from 5:30-6:15 and then again after service.
Today, don’t under estimate the power of prayer, the necessity of prayer, or your own ability to pray.
You can pray. You are expected to pray. Part of growing as a Christ Follower is developing a prayer life. Our prayer life is an indicator of the quality of our relationship with God. The what, when and often the where tells a lot about how close we really are to God.
Are you close? Do you value your time with Him? Do you value His voice? Do you believe you hear His voice?
Today let’s start with the “what.” What should we pray? What we are praying reveals our walk with God and our communion with the Holy Spirit.
Some really get bogged down when it comes to the subject of what we should pray for. The list could get very lengthy. Now don’t jump to conclusions and judge this right off the bat, but not everyone is supposed to come to God with a list of “prayer requests.”
Everyone is asking for prayer. If you receive email, participate in FaceBook, and have a Twitter...you have access to a lot of prayer requests.
Here is what some of those lists could look like: President and all in authority (that is a lot of people), Aunt Mae’s Bursitis, Uncle Ray’s leg, 85 people who need a job, everyone in the community that needs to be saved...
If we stop right there, you have spent quite a bit of time in prayer and you have not even got to your personal prayer requests.
So here is the deal. What should you pray for?
I believe you should pray for what is on your heart and pray for what you can be effective towards. When you come to the Lord for a time of prayer, pray what is on your heart that day at that time. Most do not have hearts that can carry the needs of the entire world. You cannot be burdened with everyone’s situation. That is why we have the body of Christ.
When it comes to prayer we need each other, not necessarily everyone. Scripture speaks to us in James and says confess faults and pray one for another. We are told where any TWO agree...
Some hear a prayer request and instead of taking it to the Father, they take it to a friend.
I try to call out the names of everyone in our church family everyday to the Father. I sometimes fail at that for various reasons. I sometimes have a list, I sometimes just want to call the names that come to me, I sometimes walk between the pews where people sit thinking of them.
As I go through that process, I do not always pray lengthy prayers over each person or family, but I do pray what is on my heart. If Josh calls me and says pray for Ava we have to take her to the doctor, then that will be on my heart. The Holy Spirit can call and also put things on my heart. He could call and say pray for Robert Neyra today and then give me those specifics. Otherwise, I pray what is on my heart.
I have a prayer time that is Spirit led and spirit led. What does that mean? Both the Holy Spirit and my spirit influence my communication with God, not the circumstances going on around me.
If you have a child being made fun of at school. That may be on your heart and you will pray for that instead of the mayor. You may have a co-worker that has revealed they do not believe in God, and that is on your heart instead of praying that the service at church goes good.
What do we pray for when we pray? Whatever is on our heart! Some may say, what if our heart is selfish and we pray for the wrong things? Be patient. God is big and He is creating a clean heart in you. Like I said yesterday, in times of prayer our heart is revealed. It is one of the few times that we really look at it.
So when you pray today, what will you pray about? Let’s all say it together...WHATEVER IS ON MY HEART!
So if you do not make it to pray for the District 12 judge, the Texas State Comptroller or all 190+ nations in the world that is ok, if that was not on your heart. Maybe today a friend is on your heart, a hurting family, or your spouse. Just know this: James 5:16 - The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
Tonight at BONAFIDE Youth we have a SPECIAL announcement that the peeps do not want to miss plus we are going to be ministering to them on DOWNLOADS FROM HEAVEN. (hearing the voice of God)
Have a blessed day!
- Pastor Randall
