Is there someone in your life that you’ve been actively praying for, a family member, a friend, a co-worker perhaps? Are there times you’ve been tempted to throw up your hands and say, I QUIT, they’re never going to change? We’ve all been there. Some of us are there right now! Can I take a moment to encourage you? Don’t give up on that person. Hang in there, don’t quit. Persevere in prayer.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could pray one time and their life was changed. After all, we know God desires that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. But the Word tells us that the god of this world has blinded the unbeliever’s mind that they should not discern the truth, preventing them from seeing. Our ability to persevere in prayer on behalf of that person in key to seeing change. Persistent prayer will cause those blinders to be removed, creating every opportunity for their eyes to be open to see the truth that will make them free.
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We are privileged to live in a time when there is a vast treasure of information about prayer available to us, and I, for one, am so grateful for it. I am encouraged by Biblical accounts of prayer and faith. Elijah, a man like us, prayed that it would not rain and no rain fell and then he prayed for rain and it was released again to earth according to James 5.

Jesus taught men to pray about everything and never lose heart or grow weary in Luke 18. Paul wrote that the prayers of the church were instrumental to his rescue from danger and for the increase of the message of God in 2 Corinthians 1.

In addition to those and many more accounts of prayer changing things and people in the scripture, we have books and sermons, podcasts and CD’s and internet articles to train and encourage us in personal and corporate prayer. WOW! What an awesome time to be alive. We can benefit from the great cloud of witnesses that have walked this walk before us, learning from them and their experiences in prayer!
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So how are you doing on those assignments of prayer – especially for the people in your world? I hope you’ve stepped into your assigned place with confidence in our GOD to hear and answer prayers He has prompted us to pray.

When praying for husbands, wives, children, fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, and all the people our lives have connection to, it’s tempting to pray from the natural position we have with them rather than the higher place we’ve been assigned spiritually. You know you are praying from the natural place when you just pray the problems and issues you see or maybe even the pain or extra work they are causing you. Certainly, we need to talk to God about issues (ours or others) that are troubling us – David was awesome at venting to God about everything, but he never stopped with the vent or the rant. He always moved from the problem to the solution that could only be realized in God.
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Honoring mothers and fathers is not an idea that the greeting card companies thought up. Honoring Father and Mother was initiated by God Himself and should be something we observe daily, not just a day out of every year. We’ve learned from pastor’s messages to mothers and fathers that these titles are actually offices we are graced to fill in a God honoring way. (Listen to Pastor’s recent Mother’s Day message for more on this.)
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Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, “I thank my God I speak with tongues more than ye all;” 1 Cor. 14:18. This passage of scripture is in the middle of Paul’s instruction to the church regarding the appropriate use of praying in tongues in the corporate gatherings of worship. In his day and even more so in ours, the practice of praying in tongues or “in the spirit” has been made into a controversy that divides believers. It’s not my purpose to address the controversy in this brief article, though we have addressed it numerous times in teaching and Bible study available in The Word Shoppe, if you are interested in that aspect.

My purpose here is to pose a question to you that the spirit of God posed to me a few days ago. Are you doing what Paul said he was doing in your private times of prayer?
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The DAY of prayer has come and gone. Thank you, church, for stepping up to BE the HOUSE OF PRAYER God is calling and equipping us to be. Even though the DAY has passed the responsibility to pray for our nation and its leaders is still very much in the present.

What can you or I do in prayer that would possibly make a difference in our nation or any other? God is so glad when we ask those kinds of questions honestly expecting an answer and instruction from Him.
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I hope you can join us on Thursday, May 1, @ 6:30 p.m. for our National Day of Prayer Event @ BCA. We start outside for about 30 minutes mingling with civil servants from local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, fire and rescue (and all their vehicles and equipment!), military personnel, school teachers, and a variety of others taking the opportunity with our children to thank them for their service and to let them know we do pray for them and their families on an on-going basis. We want to bless them and establish them in the place of respect and distinction God gives to them in the eyes of our children and our church community. It’s a relaxed, but impacting few minutes for all of us who participate. Then we move indoors for an hour of families praying together for our nation.

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As we approach the 57th annual National Day of Prayer on Thursday, May 1, we want to open ourselves now to the help of the Holy Spirit as He teaches us how to personally and corporately engage in effective prayer for our nation.

I find as we talk about praying for our nation and its leaders that not many of us even think about engaging in this kind of prayer until some event or crises erupts. It’s just never occurred to us and even if it has we almost immediately begin to consider thoughts like these:
“What difference could that possibly make?”
“Where would I start?”
“How would I even know what to pray for?”
“Me?”
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If you’ve read Prayer Notes part one this will make more sense to you.

Prayer starts when we START TALKING. Then we need to STOP TALKING AND START LISTENING - with our heart. God says we need ears that can hear Him. Those are different ears than the ones on either side of our face, but absolutely essential that we locate and open them to the voice of The Shepherd, which usually requires we STOP listening to the noise all around us and often even in us!
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Recently, the Holy Spirit has been highlighting our essential need for a real life, everyday, all day connection to Jesus. Not a contact – a connection. No vital connection is ever made and kept without talking, communicating.
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