Pray For…

It’s so easy to get caught up in praying for myself, my family, my friends, and my church family.

 

While it’s true, we should continuously pray for those closest to us, our prayers should extend outside of our family and friends. We should pray for our leaders, including pastors, supervisors, government officials, police officers, and oh yes, by the way – we should pray for everyone. Yes, you read correctly, the Lord expects us to pray for everyone.

The Lord recently convicted me, reminding me that my prayers have not been broad enough. What a wake up call. It’s a call that I answered and take seriously. He’s calling you too right now to extend your boarders.

The problem with many of us is that we look around and complain about the happenings in the world. How quickly we forget that we know the answer to every injustice, crime, immorality, infirmity, mental illness and poverty.

 

There’s One answer. For there is ONE God, and ONE mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. (2 Tim. 2:5)

God wants us to have His heart for the world, not condemnation, but mercy, just as He has mercy on us. He desires that we pray for everyone!

Therefore I exhort first of all that you make supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings for everyone, for kings and for all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and honesty,  for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Tim. 2:1-4)

Its starts with us. Let us humble ourselves and pray and seek His face, turning from our sins. Then the Lord we hear us, forgive our sins and heal our land. Let us pray! II Chronicles 7:14.

It’s Your Choice

As I sat reading the word of God and praying, I heard a whisper. You know, the kind of whisper that’s so deep within you until it seems as though it’s your own thought.

The words I heard were simple, yet profound. “You don’t have to worry”. Okay, I thought to myself, The Lord has everything in control and I don’t need to be afraid.

What appeared at first to be a few words of encouragement began to mean so much more as I rehearsed the words in my head. “You don’t HAVE to worry.” If I don’t have to worry, when I do worry, Im making a choice.

When we worry, we subconsciously choose to doubt God and lean on our own understanding. We choose to focus on the situation, instead of what God has said. God loves us and has said He will never leave, nor forsake us. His word tells us that we should always pray.( Proverbs 3:5-6, Isaiah 41:10, Deuteronomy 31:8, I Thessalonians 5:17).

We believe the scripture that states, “through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, we can bring our requests to the Lord”. But our hearts check out before the end of the promise which states, ” and the PEACE of GOD which passes all understanding will guard and KEEP our HEARTS and MIND THROUGH CHRIST JESUS”.
(Philippians 4:6)

Worry is definitely a natural response to the unseen answers we hope for. However as believers in Jesus, there is a better way. It’s our faith that is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” As believers, we have the right to replace our worry with faith. God even commands us to do so!
(Hebrews 11:1, Matthew 6: 31,34, Luke 12:22).

Let’s choose to rest in our faith, and resist our natural inclination to worry. It’s not necessarily an easy battle. But we have the God of all hope on our side, Jesus interceding for us, and the help of the Holy Spirit. We don’t HAVE to Worry!
(Romans 15:13, Romans 8:31, Hebrews 7:25, John 14:26)