This is No Time for Timid Prayers

I have stopped preaching in prayer meetings. Prayer always seems to take second place unless we purposely make it the priority.

This is spiritual warfare. This battle is not going to be won in the streets with torches, it is going to be won on our knees. God’s people need to get serious about prayer—about fasting and prayer in fact.

Wednesday night is prayer meeting night in most fundamental churches. I am going to spend my Wednesdays from now until the election fasting and praying as I go about my business. Anyone care to join me? Maybe some churches would like to join us in forgoing the traditional preaching/teaching time in their midweek services and go back to the primary purpose of those services—praying.

What should we pray for?

Pray for revival.

Yes, I said it. It seems fashionable in our circles these days to minimize the idea of spiritual revival. I get pushing back against the idea that God must do what He did in previous centuries, but the concept of revival is essential. Revival is simply a return of God’s people to their proper heart condition before Him that results in a lifestyle of aggressive commitment to the Great Commission and lifestyle of godliness and true holiness. It is a work of the Spirit that happened often in scripture—during the times of the judges, under Haggai. It is up to God to determine the method and nature of such a revival, but God does know we need it.

Pray for an awakening.

There have been moments in history where a work of God in the hearts of an unbelieving world sweeps multitudes of souls into the Kingdom. It happened at Pentecost and we have seen awakenings at other times in history. As we go, bearing the good news of the gospel let us pray for the open door and receptive spirit that seems to have been so rare in recent years in this nation. It is God that ultimately does this work. He draws souls to Himself. He opens the eyes of the blind. As we pray, we need to pray expectantly, preparing ourselves for God to answer such a prayer. It is time to cast aside our distractions and doubt. He desires to save people, He draws people, He sent His Son to die for people. God is not unwilling to do such a work, it is at the heart of His revealed will for this age.

Pray for God to bless the efforts of those who honor him. God has humbled and used unbelieving and ungodly governmental leaders throughout history. He did it with Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus. In the New Testament, He did it with Sergius Paulus and the Philippian Jailer. We pray for the souls of our governmental leaders, but we also pray for Him to bless their efforts that comply with the values of His word. Pray that God will make the way prosperous of those who genuinely seek to protect the lives of the innocent, defend our freedom to worship, honor the biblical concepts of family and marriage, and administer justice without partiality.

Pray for God to frustrate the plans of the wicked.

Then someone told David, saying, “Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom.” And David said, “O Lord, I pray, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness!” (2 Samuel 15:32)

It’s time to quit being nice in our prayers. Like David’s prayer regarding the counsel we MUST pray that God will turn the counsel of the ungodly to foolishness. We can ask God to turn every evil scheme of the wicked one and his wicked ones back again upon itself. Ask God to do whatever is necessary to defeat the work of Satan and snatch souls back from the fire. The amazing truth is that we can trust the wisdom of God in these prayers. If we were to try to come up with our own plans, we would inevitably fail, yet our omniscient God can providentially turn the events of this world in ways we cannot possibly imagine. Remember Joseph’s words to his brothers. “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.”

Pray for brothers and sisters in Christ that we do not know.

Our tendency is to increase our urgency in prayer when our own world is turned upside down. We need to look up. Right now brothers and sisters in Christ around the globe being persecuted and martyred for their faith. We must remember them.

Pray like only your own personal prayer matters.

Sometimes we minimize the power of the prayer of a Christian individual. We tend to view prayers like votes—ours is only one among many millions and God somehow looks at the collection of prayers before Him instead of the heartfelt cry of an individual. The Bible never presents prayer like that. James 5 does not say “the effectual fervent prayers of a large group of righteous people accomplishes a lot.” The individual prayer of one righteous person can change the world. Small groups—“two or three”—are powerful as God’s people agree together and hold one another accountable for the spirit and biblical nature of their prayers. Your small prayer group touches the ear of the Creator of the universe who is ultimately powerful and sovereignly active in the affairs of the world that He created.

It is time to pray boldly. Our God is in the business of answering prayer.