Please Pray for Me

I was just thinking about my time serving God on the continent of Africa.

It’s not that there were no trials there, nor that there was no spiritual warfare to engage in. But looking back, I have an overall memory of God surrounding us with His favor and protection.

As a matter of fact, it seems like I have faced more spiritual warfare this last year since I started this devotional blog from my own hometown, than I did when I was out in the quote/unquote “mission field”.

So, I’m asking myself and talking with God about why that might be.

First of all, when I came home from the mission field, I did not necessarily leave the mission field; I just transferred from one location to another. The mission sending powers that be may have considered me to be no longer on the mission field, but God did not extend me that same pass.

The Lord used a dear saint, who was the speaker at a conference I attended shortly after coming home, to encourage me to continue in ministry.  She brought the following scripture to my attention:

Romans 11:29
“for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”  (NASB)

So, even though I am no longer in a foreign country, I am still serving the Lord, and this last year, the things He has been teaching me have gone out into the blogosphere with the potential to minister to people in other countries.

Secondly, when I was sent out to a foreign country, I had the support and prayers of my church and of a bunch of other churches who had a missionary prayer handbook. They would see our picture and location and lift us up to God in prayer.

My name is no longer in the missionary handbook, but to all of you who know the Lord, I would like to suggest that this blog post is a part of the new “prayer handbook”, and all of you now have the opportunity and privilege to lift me up to the Lord’s throne in prayer.  Would you please do so?

And I would like to take this a step further and say that all of us who are writing for the Lord should take the time to lift one another up in prayer. Our words are making a difference for God’s kingdom, and the evil one knows it, so he throws his fiery darts our way to try to keep us from doing what God has called us to do, get His Word out there for anyone and everyone to have access to it.

So, each of us needs the prayers of the other. I need your prayers, and you need mine.

When the prophet, Samuel, was addressing the people of Israel after they asked for a king, he said to them,

“Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you… Only fear the Lord and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you.”  1 Samuel 12:23,24

I wonder how many of us have considered that we might be sinning against the Lord by not praying for others:

• our pastors,
• our deacons,
• our elders,
• our missionaries,
• our church friends,
• our Christian blogging friends,
• our spouses,
• our children,
• our neighbors,
• our coworkers…

It is so easy to condemn the discouraged saint or to brush off the disappearance of one who drops out. But maybe they wouldn’t have if we had prayed for them.

I don’t say this to condemn anyone for past failure in their prayer life but to say,

This is a new day. Let’s confess our sin of prayerlessness and determine to write a new chapter starting now.

Lord, I pray for my Christian blogging friends, that you would protect them from spirits that would attempt to discourage them and keep them from doing what You have called them to do.  Build them up, Lord.  Fill them with your Spirit, Your joy, Your peace, Your calm assurance that You are with them and are offering them all the love, power, and help that they need.  Deliver us all from the evil one that You may be magnified and that others may be added to Your kingdom.  In Jesus’ name,

Amen.

Linking up with:

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