Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again (1 Kings 18:37)
Scripture: 1 Kinda 18:36-39
Song: "The Battle Belongs to the Lord"
As Elijah's battle with the false prophets demonstrates, answered prayer has an amazing way of getting the attention of unbeilevers. It can make a real splash!
Notice Elijah's heart in this passage. His motivation was the welfare of the onlookers. He wanted a manifestation of God's power, not so he could be a big shot in town, but so the people woul know that God wanted their hearts backs. In other words, Elijah already knew how awesome God was. He wanted the people to know too.
Sometimes, however people are like the prophets of Baal-they aren't ready to be prayed for until they have exhausted all other possibilities. They are convinced that can solver their problems without God. This leaves them in control, and often they have to try everything before becoming desperate enough to let us pray for them.
Are there people in your life who has already tried everything to make life worth living-but still long for more? Perhaps now is the time to pray for them aloud, on purpose, in their presence.
Prayer: Lord, show me if there are people in my life right now who are ready for me to offer prayer on their behalf. Give me the boldness to ask them, and to do it so You can reveal Your love in a tangible way. Through Crhist, amen.
- taken from 365 Devotions by Standard (Pocket Edition)
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5 comments:
This really hits home with my family. As my family is an example of doing perfectly fine without God in their lives. And they dont' recognize that we've been soo blessed because by Him.
And the worse part is as time continues, we're becoming more successful in our careers, financially, health wise, etc.. in my family and I feel that it will draw them further away from God. Now I pray that through all these blessings, something inside of them will see and trigger a will to seek Him. I hope through me as an example, it'll show that being Christian isn't all bad.
I guess deep down, what I'm really afraid of is praying for brokenness in my family. As I love them more than anything on Earth (not including God) and don't wish to go this route till we have to. I just pray that God will show me what He wants me to do to bring my family back home. For if I die and they're still not christian, I feel as I have failed in life.
Brian Yee -> posting rbk later tomorrow as I just posted it in the previous post.
sometimes i feel that i dont know how to pray... especially when i pray aloud in groups.
i'm not sure why but i used to be able to pray outloud, freely, and with confidence.. but now i wonder where that confidence has gone to.. so i would like to request that i find the confidence that i used to have and to apply it not only to open prayer.. but to evangelism as well.
thanks guys
-Jon rbk (2,1)
Praying outloud is awesome, but it can also be pretty intimidating sometimes I suppose.
Fear of judgement from others would be the biggest hurdle.
To get around it I close my eyes and pray even louder, as if to say "Yeah, judge me all you want, but by this you will know that I belong to God. Bring it!"
It helps to make me feel more confident praying in front of complete strangers who aren't Christian. Somehow in situations like that... when the prayer is done there's a smile on my face.
Give it a shot next time you guys feel insecure!
- Jono Rbk (2,1)
I've gotta be more open period. forget being open with my faith. Then theres that too, so theres two degrees of open-ness I gotta work on i'm also rather distant with my parents (both sets), tho my father and step mother are christian.
-drew rbk was posted just recently. something like 2.1
I love praying aloud. Sometimes it brings attention to things that people wouldn't normally see, and in prayer anything is possible with God.
Thats why i love everyone praying aloud at once. It really shows me a glimpse of heaven. Everyone talking to God, bring their issues to God.
It also helps distinguish those who are sleeping and those who are earnestly praying! =P!
But yeah~ sometimes, i do feel the same way with what brian said. There are times where i KNOW my dad is just like, everything is ok with me, i don't need God. ANd i really dont know how to speak out to him about it. I can only pray that God reveals himself strongly to him and make him undeniably there.
Its hard, to see family members like that. :(
-jacky rbk(5,1) (i think...)
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