Volume No. 2009 Issue No. 2 Date: January 18, 2009
Publication of the BIBLE BAPTIST MINISTRY, 48 Alexie Rd, Hanover Township, PA 18706
Phone: 570.829.5216 pdmikBBM@aol.com pastormiklas@aol.com
In I Thessalonians 5:16-18 we read, “Rejoice evermore. (17) Pray without ceasing. (18) In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” A.W. Tozer wrote,“When we sing ‘Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord,’ we are not thinking of the nearness of place, but of the nearness of relationship. It is for increasing degrees of awareness that we pray, for a more perfect consciousness of the divine Presence. We need never shout across the spaces to an absent God. He is nearer than our own soul, closer then our most secret thoughts.”
As we enter into this NEW YEAR of 2009 there are so many, many things that compel us to pray, and it seems that the list of pressing matters grows every day. Could it be possible that the pressure of events in our world would draw all of us closer to the Lord? If so, would it be a blessing in disguise that so much has un- raveled in the land? While none of us are happy about recession, war, etc., they may nonetheless turn some hearts where they would not ordinarily have been. Here is an itemized list of concerns from my perspective:
1. Pray for our churches that the divine mandates will be reset in thousands of congregations across the land.
2. Pray for our preachers that they will be faithful, fearless and fervent. Pray for their protection too. Pray that they will be anointed of God. Pray that they will set the pace in their town.
3. Pray that our soul winners would catch a vision and develop a hunger for souls in their town.
4. Pray for our national leaders! Pray for people who govern need godly wisdom. Pray’ that national leaders will balance the budget and live within national means.
5. Pray for our moral compass! Pray for the reestablishment of the moral conscience of the people of our nation. Lying, stealing and cheating have long since become a part of the way our nation does business. The moral values of the Ten Commandments, the Book of Proverbs and the Sermon on the Mount need to become our nation’s norm.
6. Pray for our families! Pray that the definition of marriage will not be lost. Pray that the breakup of families will become the exception rather than the rule. Pray that parents will get serious about how they rear their young.
7. Pray for our missionaries, the servants of Christ, who invest themselves in nations all around the globe! Pray for their protection, their needs and their success in ministry.
8. Pray for our sanity on issues! Pray that pro-life, pro-family and pro-traditional marriage attitudes will prevail. Pray that anti-alcohol, anti-drug trafficking, anti-abortion and anti-homosexuality advocates will succeed.
9. Pray that real revival will shake our nation and the world. Revival will come when our people seek the Lord once again.
10. Pray for our daily bread! Each day we need the Lord’s provision for food on the table, clothes on our bodies and shelter from the weather. Pray for our daily needs.
11. Pray for our protection from enemies! Pray that wicked tyrants, hate-filled terrorists and ruthless criminals will all be stymied. Pray that there be a hedge of protection around us.
12. Pray for our domestic adversaries! Pray for the failure of the ACLU, Hollywood, the National Organization of Women, People for the American Way, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the homosexual advocacy groups, among others. These groups oppose all we hold dear. They are our enemies.
13. Pray for our national media! Pray that those who are pro-America, pro-moral, pro-God, etc., will flourish and that the amoral, atheistic, humanistic, anti-God elements will totally flop and fail!
14. Pray for our Christian schools! The Christian school movement has faltered in the past decade. It needs to regain its footing and enroll millions of young people. Pray for Christian school revival!
15. Pray for our Christian colleges! We have a good number of great schools. We should pray that they will proliferate and prosper.
16. Pray for our young people! Over the next few years, there will be the need for hundreds of thousands of our young people to commit themselves to Christian service, especially in the ministry. Pray that they will listen when the Lord calls.
“Never forget that a life of prayer is spiritual warfare. Prayer is a battle, and God wants to bring us to the front lines of the battlefield.” “Prayer is the language of a person burdened with a sense of need.”
In His Amazing Grace,
PS: In order to access the Weekly SERMON, please click the link to Weekly Sermon Library, where you will be able to choose: Plain Text (TXT), Microsoft Word document (DOC), Rich Text (RTF), Web Page (HTML) or PDF (Portable Document Format), any of the format(s) you desire. After you decide on the appropriate format(s) you may then print a copy of the Weekly SERMON, save it to a file on your computer, or download it and save it to a disk for future use. Your use of this material is meant to be flexible.