Celebrate AND Pray for Our Nation This 4th of July
The video is part of the Prayer24·365 / Prayercast series, which creates short, devotional-style videos inviting viewers to pray for different nations. This particular video focuses on the United States of America, encouraging prayer for the country’s spiritual, social, and national well‑being.
Jan and I regularly make use of this media resource to aid us in our daily devotional time. Along with the Operation World app, we find these tools to be essential helps to praying specifically for the nations. I highly recommend both!
I encourage you to take five minutes today to watch and pray along with this helpful guide for strategic intercession on behalf of our blessed nation.
On occasion, some younger pastor seeking counsel coaxes me out of retirement. Typically, he unpacks a perplexing story about a shepherding challenge. He hopes to gain some wisdom from my thirty-six-year ministry history to help navigate his latest flock mess. After these heavy-lifting soul-care conversations, I sometimes lighten the mood a bit jesting with this question: Who does this job anyway?
Over the decades of my sometimes wood-hay-stubble, other times gold-silver-precious stones (1 Corinthians 3:12) pastoral stewardship, some realities about my seemingly impossible task crystallized sooner than others. Perhaps most importantly? Undershepherds desperately need their sheep’s ongoing prayers for the Chief Shepherd’s (1Peter 5:4) help. Why else would the apostle Paul close one epistle so succinctly, “Brethren, pray for us” (1Thess. 5:25) and entreat the same more specifically in a second to the same church (2 Thess. 3:1-2)? He appealed to another assembly to strive together with him in their prayers (Rom. 15:30). He pleaded yet again elsewhere, “You also must help us by prayer” (2 Cor. 1:11). Look here for more of the same (Eph. 6:18-20; Col. 4:2-3). Another writer urged his readers to pray more earnestly for him (Heb. 13:18-19). Our pastors need our prayers; the Bible tells us so.
Retirement brings all kinds of reflection about one’s vocational past. I’ve pondered often lately about the whys and hows to pray for my pastors. This pastor-turned-sheep remembers the challenges. He knows the need for tons of prayer support. I’ve landed on some whys that inform various hows in supporting your local shepherds with strategic intercession. In this post I want to emphasize just one.
Pastors Are Beset with Inestimable Weakness
At times the Holy Spirit brings my devotional Bible reading to a full stop over a particular passage. That happened recently with Hebrews 5:1-2.
For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness (emphasis added).
Weakness. Let that word sink in. The frailty to which all human flesh is heir, as one lexicon puts it. Frailty—like ignorance and waywardness—among countless other weights and close-clinging sins (Heb. 12:1) passed down from Adam. Now, let another word sink in. Beset. That’s how the ESV translates a compound of two Greek words—around/to place, i.e., surrounded. Like Paul’s chains fettered [same word] him about in prison (Acts 28:20), new covenant pastors drag around with them the same restraints of remaining sin that encumbered their old covenant counterparts. Just like their sheep, pastors stumble in many ways. Consequently, they await a stricter evaluation at the final judgment given their influential teaching stewardship (James 3:1-2).
Like it or not, though above reproach in character as required (1 Tim. 3:2), your pastor still sins like you and I do (Ecc. 7:20). Sometimes he even sins against you! If he’s at all like I have been and still am, he will battle off and on with things like pride, anxiety, insecurity, comparison, anger, immoderate appetites, fear, entitlement, resentment, selfishness, covetousness, self-reliance, demandingness, and a host of other deeds of the flesh (Gal. 5:19-21). So, you must pray for him, let alone deal gently with him as he does with your ignorant/wayward-tending self.
Specific ways to pray for your beset-with-weakness pastor will have to wait for my next post. In the meantime, please be mindful of this candid testimony of the self-confessed chief of sinners (1 Tim. 1:15), Paul the apostle, in Romans 7:
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
Sufficient for now and always may we pray for our pastors in light of Paul’s answer to his own cry in v. 25: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Pray that your pastor runs his race relentlessly fixing his eyes, not on his sins, but on the One who kept the law perfectly in his stead and paid the price for his every weakness with precious blood spilt at Calvary (Heb. 12:1-2).
Numerous gains have come with our age of advanced technology. Few, however, will deny the reality of certain losses as well. Among them I count the utility of a printed church directory in favor of a tap-of-the-app digital kind. Granted, an online database makes accessing member contact information a convenience-lover’s dream. But in all the year’s I’ve employed these 21st century church versions, I’ve failed to find them as beneficial to my spiritual life as a good old, handheld, picture-containing church directory.
Major props to the officers of our church for favoring the ancient paths by providing a printed member directory. Who cares if it becomes outdated the moment you publish it? So what if a few more trees must be harvested to print the next edition? Maybe I’m just old and set in ways that prefer to turn pages of a book held in my hands rather than swipe them on a screen, but I find my printed directory so much more conducive to reaping its benefits than my digital options.
Whether you favor the new paths or the old, please consider three ways to use your church directory to the glory of God, the benefit of your church, and the growth of your faith.
One, to keep a covenant promise. Among the sacred things to which we commit in our membership vows is this: “Ever mindful of our fellow members, fellow heirs with Christ, we promise to walk with them in faithfulness, patience, grace and love” (emphasis added). Ever mindful. Talk about a high bar. Our directory contains twenty-nine pages of members with four households per page, except for the last with just two. That’s 114 units. I counted twenty-five of them I’ve yet to meet or know anything about after attending eight months at Grace Fellowship. I expect that number to decrease gradually, but in the meantime the directory helps me keep the still unmet in mind too, along with the rest with whom I already have some connection. More below on how it does that.
Two, to grow in brotherly love. Peter admonishes us, “Above all, love each other deeply” (1 Peter 4:8). Question. Do you feel loved when someone new in your life remembers your name? Of course you do. Names matter. Just read through Romans 16 and Colossians 4. Paul takes great pains to shout out by name all kinds of people and their service to Christ’s church. No matter how hard Jan and I try to recall names on Sundays, we constantly ask each other for help in remembering. But now we have a printed tool with color photos to help us match and review names and faces. And we can make important connections like family relationships that we often miss when just meeting a spouse or another family member. We also recall requests others have asked us to remember on their behalf. Our love for the body grows as a result.
Three, to help with intercessory prayer. None of us survives the battle with spiritual forces without the prayer support of other saints (Eph. 6:18-20). The directory adds a weapon to my devotional life the use of which use doesn’t require all that much additional time or effort. Take one page a day—that’s only four households—and pray a passage/verse of Scripture for each. This month I’m asking the Father to make 2 Peter 3:18 a reality in each household’s life. I add anything personal I know about them as well. Then I pick one of those households and text or email them a quick message of encouragement letting them know I’ve taken them before the Father that day. Do that consistently, or some version better suited to your schedule, and who knows what the Lord might do in our church as a result.
One 9Marks pastor considers a church directory the second most important book a pastor owns. He argues from Hebrews 13:17 for a pastor’s unique accountability for his members’ care which he does not have for Christians elsewhere. They are the sheep of his pasture, not someone else’s. The directory helps keep his priorities focused accordingly. Similarly, members of a local church steward unique accountability and support to their other covenant members in ways unlike other believers they know. Shouldn’t that make our church directories terribly important to us as well?
Brothers and sisters, let’s make good use of our tried-and-true church directories.
In thinking about this month’s Concert of Prayer on Sunday night at 6:00 PM, I got quasi-inspired and wrote the following:
You Alone Can Help Us
To the tune of “You Alone Can Rescue”
Who, O Lord, will pray with me
Storm the throne of grace
Bring to You our many needs
In simple hope and faith
Who, O Lord, will heed the call
To ask and seek and knock
Who, O Lord, will join the cause
To plead for your dear flock
You alone can help us
You alone can save
You alone can loose our binding chains
If we do not ask You, we will not have from You
Free us from our self-reliant ways
Who, O Lord, will pray with me
Come in Jesus’ name
Who, O Lord, will use this means
Promote the Savior’s fame
Who, O Lord, will feel the need
Souls lost near and far
Who, O Lord, will make the plea
Melt the scarred and hardened heart
You alone can help us
You alone can save
You alone can free the captive slaves
When you answer for us, we will bless and thank You
We’ll glory in your kind and giving ways
We’ll glory in your kind and giving ways
Bridge
We call on Your name
We call on Your name
You’re the Giver of gifts
We call on Your name
We call on Your name
You’re the Giver of gifts
Hoping for a number of intercessors to do all of the above each and every time we call a time of corporate prayer.
This morning’s message, “The Jewelry of Grace,” from 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 is now on the web. You can listen to the audio here.
Following the service, someone approached me about the sermon. She called the yearly emphasis on prayer “inspiring” and “overwhelming.” I appreciated the honesty and vulnerability. Then she asked me if I could recommend any practical resources by way of follow up that might help with making prayer as a spiritual discipline more real in her life. I did and actually lent her the book from my library.
That got me thinking today about the best books on prayer I have read and their value to me. I don’t mean to imply that other resources don’t exist that perhaps equal or even outstrip these in value. But these have meant a lot to me.
Paul Miller’s A Praying Life. The final section where he gets down to the nitty gritty about making prayer practical has numerous helpful suggestions. It was this book I spoke of above.
E. M. Bounds’ Power Through Prayer. For an inspirational resource on prayer, this can hardly be beat.
D. A. Carson’s A Call to Spiritual Reformati0n. Carson examines the prayers of the Apostle Paul as a template for praying specific, biblical prayers as a follower of Jesus.
Dick Eastman’s The Hour That Changes the World. The author explains how to spend an hour alone with God without it feeling like the time will never pass.
Andrew Murray’s With Christ in the School of Prayer. A classic. Enough said.
John Piper’s A Hunger for God. This is the best treatment on prayer and fasting I have ever read.
R. J. Short’s, The Diary of George Muller. For a biography of a praying man, this will convict and inspire.
Jason Mandryk’s Operation World. No Christian with a global heart for God and missions should be without this definitive prayer guide for the nations.
I certainly have read my share of books on prayer. Now if I will only learn actually to pray more.
This Sunday I continue my series of New Year’s messages, Lord willing, beginning a two-part sermon on prayer from Luke 11:1-13 entitled With Christ in the School of Prayer.
By way of reflection in preparation for this Lord’s Day, I offer you this Puritan prayer from the Valley of Vision collection:
O Lord, in prayer I launch far out into the eternal world, and on that broad ocean my soul triumphs over all evils on the shores of mortality. Time, with its gay amusements and cruel disappointments never appears so inconsiderate as then.
In prayer I see myself as nothing; I find my heart going after Thee with intensity, and long with vehement thirst to live to Thee. Blessed be the strong gales of the Spirit that speed me on my way to the New Jerusalem.
In prayer all things here below vanish, and nothing seems important but holiness of heart and the salvation of others.
In prayer all my worldly cares, fears, anxieties disappear, and are of as little significance as a puff of wind.
In prayer my soul inwardly exults with lively thoughts at what Thou art doing for Thy church, and I long that Thou shouldest get Thyself a great name from sinners returning to Zion.
In prayer I am lifted above the frowns and flatteries of life, and taste heavenly joys; entering into the eternal world I can give myself to Thee with all my heart, to be Thine for ever.
In prayer I can place all my concerns in Thy hands, to be entirely at Thy disposal, having no will or interest of my own.
In prayer I can intercede for my friends, ministers, sinners, the church, Thy kingdom to come, with greatest freedom, ardent hopes, as a son to his father, as a lover to the beloved.
Help me to be all prayer and never to cease praying.
That’s what one writer calls concerted prayer for the cause of the revival of true religion among God’s people. It normally includes intercession for three things to see God move by His Spirit across a church and/or region:
For grace to confess sins and humble ourselves.
For a compassion and zeal for the flourishing of the church and reaching of the lost.
For a yearning to know God, to glimpse His face, and see His glory.
For these things and more we will pray this Sunday evening in our monthly concert of prayer from 6 to 7:30 PM in the conference room at the church. Dear ones, these precious realities will not likely come our way unless we earnestly ask, seek, and knock at the throne of grace for God to bring them.
My challenge in 2013 is that we zero in on praying for these precise things in our private prayer times and our corporate ones. Also, may I ask that each of our households make it a goal that someone from the family would attend at least one of our monthly concerts of prayer?
There is power when God’s people come together to pray!
I opted to preach from Hebrews 13:4 for my wedding sermon last Friday night.
Let marriage be held in honor among all.
The context at the end of chapter 12 urges the reader to offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, since He is a consuming fire. Presumably the bullet points at the top of chapter 13 spell out what that looks like in all kinds of ways, like esteeming marriage as an honorable estate.
But for this post, my attention turns to the first thing on the writer’s list in Hebrews 13:1 – Let brotherly love continue.
Now I can think of a host of specifics which flesh that out in the everyday covenant commitments among followers of Jesus, but none perhaps more virtuous than that of intercessory prayer.
This is the highest charity. He loves me best who loves me in his prayers. This is for our soul’s health. It enlarges our sympathies and expands our hearts. This is for the benefit of the church. The wheels of all machinery for extending the gospel are moved by prayer. They do as much for the Lord’s cause who intercede like Moses on the mount, as they do who fight like Joshua in the thick of the battle. This is to be like Christ. He bears the names of his people, as their High Priest, before the Father. Oh, the privilege of being like Jesus! This is to , be a true helper to ministers. If I must choose a congregation, give me a people that pray.
This morning in our weekly prayer/staff meeting six of us prayed through the Tuesday group on the OGC prayer/directory call list. Am I ever glad we did.
Is it time to dust off your copy of that sheet with all those names and phone numbers? Why not lay a little charity of the highest form tomorrow on the J through Ms?
And then just keep on rolling through the rest of the week and beyond so that love of the brethren might continue in our precious flock.
Someone shared a website with me where you can submit your email to receive daily prayers that utilize the Bible in the first person. The purpose of the site, edited by Ligon Duncan and others, is to encourage, promote and assist biblical prayer.
For example, I received this copy today:
Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you or in comparison with you. When my flesh and my heart fail, Lord, be the strength of my heart and my portion forever, Psalm 73:25-26(ESV) the chosen portion of my inheritance in the other world and of my cup in this; and then I will say that the lines have fallen for me in pleasant places, and that I have a beautiful inheritance. Psalm 16:5-6(ESV)
Your name and remembrance are the desire of my soul; my soul yearns for you in the night, and my spirit within me earnestly seeks you. Isaiah 26:8-9(ESV)
As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God; my soul thirsts for God, for the living God, Psalm 42:1-2(ESV) who commands his steadfast love by day, and at night his song is with me; a prayer to the God of my life. Psalm 42:8(ESV)
O that I may come hungering and thirsting after righteousness, Matthew 5:6(ESV) for you fill the hungry with good things, but the rich you send away empty. Luke 1:53(ESV)
O that my soul may thirst for you, and my flesh faint for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water; that I may see your power and glory, as I have looked upon you in the sanctuary. Your steadfast love is better than life; Psalm 63:1-3(ESV) my soul will be satisfied with that as with fat and rich food, and then my mouth will praise you with joyful lips. Psalm 63:5(ESV)
The site is called Matthew Henry’s Method of Prayer. Click on here and sign up for your daily email and begin personally praying the Scriptures back to God. You will find these prayers a great encouragement to your abiding in Christ!
