Sorry, this post is not about Herman Cain's tax plan, but rather refers to Ezra chapter 9, Nehemiah 9 & Daniel 9, all chapters with long recorded prayers. Supposedly the Bible records about six hundred prayers in all. Intercession, or praying for one another, has formed the primary topic of discussion in our group the past two Sundays. We are attempting to equip the saints ( Ephesians 4:12)for the work of ministry as we transition to a monthly outreach gathering. Last week Matt and I tag teamed with me explaining what intercession is, and how we add our prayers to those of the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit who intercede for us before the throne of God, and Matt showing examples of compassion in the life of Jesus as a key element of intercession.
This week we looked at actual examples of prayer. God gave me 1 Chronicles 29: 10-19. We saw a pattern in which David first acknowledged who God is to Him and to those people listening to his prayer before switching to thankfulness (verse 13) and expressing humility (verses 14-17). Finally in verses 18 & 19 he prays first for Israel and then for his son Solomon. We tend to focus on what we want and neglect the rest. The Lord gave Matt Acts 4, where the actual prayer begins in verse 24. Again we saw the saints acknowledged God, this time as the Creator, then praying Scripture from the second psalm, and finally in verse 29 asking for boldness.
Prayer for boldness in speaking about Jesus would not seem to be something that Paul the apostle would need as we look at his ministry as recorded in Acts and the rest of the NT yet we see him asking the Ephesians ( 6:19) to pray for this very thing. If he needed it how much more do we.
We were very blessed with visitors today including our brother Jim from Milwaukee, a young woman from Brazil, and Shaw & Julie, parents of one of the sisters. May God give us many more.
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