Silas
Beloved of All
Your burden for pastors, for families, and for the church to hear the Word with faith is a good and biblical burden, and it is right to bring it to the Lord in prayer.
The Scripture teaches that prayer rests on relationship. When you can truly say Father, you have an open way to pray effectively. If a person is not yet a child of God, there is one prayer God is waiting to hear first, God be merciful to me, a sinner. That prayer establishes the relationship through Jesus Christ, who alone is salvation. His name means the Lord is salvation, for He saves His people from their sins. If anyone confesses with the mouth that Jesus is Lord and believes in the heart that God raised Him from the dead, he will be saved. That is the need for any pastor or family member or visitor who has heard the Word but has not yet believed. God desires that none would perish but that all would come to repentance, and His salvation is great because it is open to everyone who will turn to Christ.
The purpose of prayer is not to get our own will done but to see His will done. Prayer begins with God and His purposes which He makes known to our hearts, and we pray them back to Him, and He then accomplishes them. So as you pray for a hunger for the Word as a newborn hungers for milk, for the Spirit of revelation to open eyes to understand the Scriptures, for faith that comes by hearing the message preached, and for the manifest presence of God in worship in spirit and in truth, you are praying according to His will. He has promised that when we ask according to His will He hears us. Pray too that the Lord would keep His people from evil and from temptation and deliver them from the evil one, as Jesus taught us to pray. The pattern He gave is not to be repeated as empty words, but it shows the order, first His name, His kingdom and His will, and then our daily needs, our forgiveness, and our protection.
Jesus Himself, though He was the Son of God, drew strength from prayer for guidance and for life itself, rising to seek the Father. How much more do those who shepherd the flock need that daily devotion, study of the Word, and intercession for the congregation. Prayer does not replace responsible action. We pray and we also keep watch, we teach sound doctrine, we visit homes, we care for families, we gather together as the Scripture exhorts us not to forsake assembling together. God expects us to act faithfully while we depend on Him to work. In that faithful life we are called to depart from evil and do good, to seek peace and pursue it, to keep the tongue from evil and the lips from speaking deceit, and to seek the wisdom that is from above, which is first pure, then peaceable and gentle, rather than the earthly wisdom that brings confusion and every evil work.
Evil destroys relationships, the body, the mind, and the sense of values, and in the end it slays the wicked. The path that turns aside from God always ends in grief. That is why it is right to pray, keep me from evil that it may not grieve me. The Lord redeems the soul of His servants, and those who trust in Him will not be left desolate. He is our ever present help, and He has promised to give His angels charge over us and to protect those who are His. As He once warned His prophet of the plans of the enemy, so He is able to warn and guard His people today across the world from distraction, deception, false teaching, and fear. Guard also what is allowed into the mind and the home, for what the eye looks upon fills the heart with either light or darkness.
May the Lord answer according to His perfect will. May He draw by His Spirit those whom the Father draws, open minds to understand the Scriptures, grant repentance and faith, give knowledge of forgiveness and newness of life through the crucified and risen Lord, and give vision by the Holy Spirit. May He teach us all things, convict and convert, and keep us from the lies of the evil one, that with humble hearts we may receive the implanted Word which is able to save our souls, worship in truth, and walk in His peace which passes understanding, for His kingdom and glory. Amen.
The Scripture teaches that prayer rests on relationship. When you can truly say Father, you have an open way to pray effectively. If a person is not yet a child of God, there is one prayer God is waiting to hear first, God be merciful to me, a sinner. That prayer establishes the relationship through Jesus Christ, who alone is salvation. His name means the Lord is salvation, for He saves His people from their sins. If anyone confesses with the mouth that Jesus is Lord and believes in the heart that God raised Him from the dead, he will be saved. That is the need for any pastor or family member or visitor who has heard the Word but has not yet believed. God desires that none would perish but that all would come to repentance, and His salvation is great because it is open to everyone who will turn to Christ.
The purpose of prayer is not to get our own will done but to see His will done. Prayer begins with God and His purposes which He makes known to our hearts, and we pray them back to Him, and He then accomplishes them. So as you pray for a hunger for the Word as a newborn hungers for milk, for the Spirit of revelation to open eyes to understand the Scriptures, for faith that comes by hearing the message preached, and for the manifest presence of God in worship in spirit and in truth, you are praying according to His will. He has promised that when we ask according to His will He hears us. Pray too that the Lord would keep His people from evil and from temptation and deliver them from the evil one, as Jesus taught us to pray. The pattern He gave is not to be repeated as empty words, but it shows the order, first His name, His kingdom and His will, and then our daily needs, our forgiveness, and our protection.
Jesus Himself, though He was the Son of God, drew strength from prayer for guidance and for life itself, rising to seek the Father. How much more do those who shepherd the flock need that daily devotion, study of the Word, and intercession for the congregation. Prayer does not replace responsible action. We pray and we also keep watch, we teach sound doctrine, we visit homes, we care for families, we gather together as the Scripture exhorts us not to forsake assembling together. God expects us to act faithfully while we depend on Him to work. In that faithful life we are called to depart from evil and do good, to seek peace and pursue it, to keep the tongue from evil and the lips from speaking deceit, and to seek the wisdom that is from above, which is first pure, then peaceable and gentle, rather than the earthly wisdom that brings confusion and every evil work.
Evil destroys relationships, the body, the mind, and the sense of values, and in the end it slays the wicked. The path that turns aside from God always ends in grief. That is why it is right to pray, keep me from evil that it may not grieve me. The Lord redeems the soul of His servants, and those who trust in Him will not be left desolate. He is our ever present help, and He has promised to give His angels charge over us and to protect those who are His. As He once warned His prophet of the plans of the enemy, so He is able to warn and guard His people today across the world from distraction, deception, false teaching, and fear. Guard also what is allowed into the mind and the home, for what the eye looks upon fills the heart with either light or darkness.
May the Lord answer according to His perfect will. May He draw by His Spirit those whom the Father draws, open minds to understand the Scriptures, grant repentance and faith, give knowledge of forgiveness and newness of life through the crucified and risen Lord, and give vision by the Holy Spirit. May He teach us all things, convict and convert, and keep us from the lies of the evil one, that with humble hearts we may receive the implanted Word which is able to save our souls, worship in truth, and walk in His peace which passes understanding, for His kingdom and glory. Amen.
