Pray for authorities

TODAY'S SPECIAL: 1 Timothy 1-2; Psalm 19

TO CHEW ON: "Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence." 1 Timothy 2:1-2


The instructions to pray for rulers and authorities must have been especially difficult for members of the early church. Their rulers were often cruel and repressive with no qualms about giving Christians a bad time. Followers of "The Way" were frequently scapegoats, accused of and then killed for crimes they had never committed.

In spite of this, Paul tells Timothy to instruct the people in his congregation to intercede and give thanks for all in leadership and authority positions. Still today, whether we like them or not, agree or disagree with their politics and decisions, we are to pray for those who rule and have authority — in our land and all over the world.

Dick Eastman in his book Love On Its Knees gives us some specific ways we can pray for leaders and authorities. First, he lays out a general "Micah Plan." It is based on praying out of Micah 6:8 — Micah's description of the lifestyle and conduct of a leader:

"He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?" 

From this Eastman suggests:

"- We must pray that a particular leader will do justly....that he or she will govern truthfully with a spirit of sincerity.
- We may pray that a leader will love mercy. This means he or she will govern compassionately with a spirit of generosity.
- We may pray that the leader will walk humbly with God. This means he or she will govern modestly and with a spirit of sensitivity."

Eastman then goes on to list seven specific things we can pray for leaders of our country and countries around the world:

1. That unjust leaders will make mistakes that help advance the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Psalm 109:26-29).

2. That tyrannical leaders will fall from power by receiving unsound advice (Psalm 5:10).

3. That godly leaders will discover spiritual wisdom to govern their nations (Proverbs 28:2).

4. That all leaders will receive a personal message of God's love (Isaiah 52:7).

5. That leaders in troubled nations will grow weary of continuing bloodshed in their lands (1 Kings 5:3-4).

6. That corrupt leaders will recognize their evil ways and turn to God (2 Chronicles 33:11-13).

7. That all leaders will realize that God alone gave them their positions of authority (Daniel 2:20-21) — Dick Eastman (Dick Eastman On Prayer: Love On Its Knees, excerpted from pages 97-101).

Let's spend some time praying for those in authority today.

PRAYER: Dear God, I confess I have often neglected to pray for the leaders of my land, province and city. Today I pray for my Prime Minister (or president or king...), the premier of my province (or governor of my state...), and the mayor of my city. May they be blessed with Your wisdom, have a personal sense of Your love, and acknowledge Your role in bringing them to their position and helping them carry out their responsibilities. Amen.

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 19

The Bible Project VIDEO: 1 Timothy (Read Scripture Series)




MORE: More authorities to pray for...

Elected, appointed, or self-appointed political rulers are not society's only authorities. Many other people have such positions, not formally recognized perhaps but by reason of their influence. Other authority figures for which we can and should pray could be:

1. Judges and members of law enforcement, including the police and the military.

2. Educators which would include teachers, college and university professors, even our kids' sports coaches.

3. Cultural authorities such as entertainers and sports figures.

4. Commercial authorities such as business leaders, and members of the media.

Perhaps you can think of even more...

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Prayer—fighting the darkness

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Daniel 10-12; Psalm 58

TO CHEW ON: "Then he said to me, 'Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words. But the prince of the Kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days.'" Daniel 10:12,13


Daniel 10 tells the interesting story of Daniel spending a considerable time in mourning-prayer and fasting as he seeks to understand a message he has received.  After three full weeks he gets a heavenly visitor, a "man"—obviously an angel (Daniel 10:5-6)—who appears to him and says, "...from the first day that you set your heart to understand, your words were heard..."

So why does this angel wait three weeks before coming?

Because he himself was  tied up, fighting spiritual forces (Daniel 10:13).

The writer of my Bible's notes on Daniel explains this section:

"This is one of the clearest OT examples that demonic armies oppose God's purposes and that earthly struggles often reflect what is happening in the heavenlies, and that prayer with fasting may affect the outcome" - Coleman Cox Phillips, New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 1136 (emphasis added).

What does this glimpse into the spiritual realm mean for us? Dick Eastman in his book Love On Its Knees makes the following points about the Christian's mission, and fighting spiritual resistance with prayer:

1. "It is God's desire to see every person on earth provided access to the Gospel of Jesus Christ... (2 Peter 3:9; Mark 13:10; Matthew 24:14).

2. "It is Satan's plan to prevent every unbeliever from receiving access to the Gospel of Jesus Christ... (2 Timothy 2:25-26; Ephesians 2:1,2).

3. "It is the Church's duty to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ to every person on earth ... (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15).

4. "It is the intercessor's responsibility to hold back the unseen forces of satanic darkness wherever the Gospel of Jesus Christ is shared ... (Ephesians 6:10-12; 2 Thessalonians 3:1,2).

"... intercessors who contend for lost souls do indeed help add names to the Lamb's Book of Life. They may not be aware that they are sweeping through the heavenlies on their knees, or that they are contending against the darkness for a soul who has just been confronted with the claims of Christ, but their prayers make the harvest possible." - Dick Eastman, excerpts from Love On Its Knees, pages 166-171).

We don't need to know the names or territories of the demonic forces we fight, but being aware that our prayers are Kingdom warfare, and that spiritual battles take time is crucial, I believe, to our preparedness and perseverance.

PRAYER: Dear God, please convict me of the importance and effectiveness of intercessory prayer for the advancement of Your Kingdom. Help me not to be discouraged when the answers take long time to come. Amen.

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 58

MORE: Prayer is...

"Prayer is God's supreme gift to assist the Church in establishing His Kingdom throughout the earth" - Dick Eastman, Love On Its Knees, p. 161.

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New King James Version (NKJV) Used with permission. The Holy Bible, New King James Version Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Intercession: patriotism at its highest

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Lamentations 3; Psalm 29

TO CHEW ON: "My eyes overflow with rivers of water

For the destruction of the daughter of my people.

My eyes flow and do not cease

Without interruption

Till the Lord from heaven

Looks down and sees." Lamentations 3:48-50

Jeremiah* here shows himself a patriot whose heart breaks when God comes through with threatened judgments against Judah. What a picture of persevering intercession for his nation!

We are reminded of other leaders who prayed for their people.

• Moses interceded for Israel when God threatened to destroy them after the golden calf incident (Exodus 32:30-32), and again when God's anger was hot at their refusal to enter Canaan (Numbers 14:17-19).

• Samuel prayed for the people when they wanted to return to God after a time of backsliding (1 Samuel 7:2-6).

• David interceded for God's mercy on the people after they were inflicted by a plague following his sin of initiating a census (1 Chronicles 21:16-19).

We don't have to be leaders to intercede for our country. Dick Eastman says of the intercessor:

"An intercessor is a man or woman—or child—who fights on behalf of others. As such, intercession is the activity that identifies us most with Christ. To be an intercessor is to be like Jesus because that is what Jesus is like. He ever lives to intercede (Hebrews 7:25; Romans 8:34)!"

Eastman goes on to give four insights that help us understand the role of the intercessor and grasp its impact:

1. We must understand our "privilege" as intercessors. Christ is ever at God's right hand (Romans 8:34 linked above), and from this position He intercedes for the saints continuously. To be at God's right hand is spoken of in the Bible as being a great privilege and pleasure (Psalm 16:11).

2. We must understand our "position" as intercessors. We are energized (Ephesians 2:45), elevated (Ephesians 2:6: "raised... up together"), and enthroned with Christ in intercession (Mark 11:22-24).

3. We must understand our "promise" as intercessors. Our objective is to see God's Kingdom established (Isaiah 11:9).

4. We must understand our "power" as intercessors. See Luke 10:19... "Our Lord is saying that those who move in the direction of involvement and are willing to pay the price of intervention will have all the power necessary to confront demonic forces in their citadels."

— Dick Eastman, summary and quotes from Love on its Knees, pp. 21-25.

What a privilege to be able to serve one's country in this way!

PRAYER: Dear God, please give me the urgency and conviction of interceding for my nation that I see in Moses, Samuel, David and Jeremiah. Amen.

MORE: Intercession's impact

"I am convinced that when we stand before God with the record of spiritual successes and failures, we will learn that intercessory prayer had more to do with bringing about positive changes in our world than any other single spiritual activity." - Dick Eastman, Love On Its Knees, p. 17.


* "The author (of Lamentations) is not named, but traditions long before Christ claim that Jeremiah wrote it"  - Paul B. Watney,  "Introduction to Jeremiah," New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 1036.


PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 29

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Intercessor

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Genesis 18:16-33

TO CHEW ON: "Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord." Genesis 18:22

Here we see Abraham, in effect begging for the life of one of his family members and the inhabitants of the whole city. He knew his nephew Lot had settled in Sodom. Now the Lord had said He intended to destroy the city for its wickedness and Abraham was probably thinking,  Surely Lot isn't one of those wicked.

Abraham was such an effective intercessor he got the number of righteous for which God would spare the city from fifty down to ten.

Abraham, in his role, reminds me of another intercessor: Jesus.

His intercession is prophesied in Isaiah - Isaiah 53:12; 59:16.

During His earthly ministry He interceded

• for weak believers - Luke 22:32
• for His enemies - Luke 23:34
• that the Father would send the Holy Spirit - Luke 11:13
• and for the church - John 17:9.

As our risen Saviour, He continues to intercede before God

• for our acceptance - Romans 8:34
• and for our salvation - Hebrews 7:25

As those who have put our faith in Christ, we too have the noble task of interceding for others. Dick Eastman in his book The Hour that Changes the World defines intercession and gives us insights into it. Here are a few of them:

"What is intercession? It is God's method for involving His followers more completely in the totality of His plan .... Basically, intercession is prayer offered in behalf of another .... To intercede is to mediate. It is to stand between a lost being and an almighty God, praying that this person will come to know about God and His salvation .... Intercession is the broadest scope of prayer. There is no other mode of prayer that reaches out to all the world as does intercessory prayer .... Fill your intercession with the four key scriptural claims: Ask God to give more labourers to the harvest, to open doors for these workers, to bless them with fruit as the result of their efforts, and with finances to expand their work" - Dick Eastman, The Hour that Changes the World, pp. 75-85.

Abraham's prayer here is one of the Twelve Great Prayers of the Old Testament. In his book Great Prayers of the Old Testament, Walter Brueggemann says of Abraham and his venture into prayer:

"The exchange exhibits Abraham as a daring man of faith. More importantly, it presents YHWH as a ready and available partner in the free play of prayer in which the destiny of the world hangs in the balance and is under intense negotiation" - Walter Brueggemann, Great Prayers of the Old Testament, p. 8 (Kindle Edition). 

PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for the example of Abraham's intercession. Help me to be a more effective intercessor for my loved ones as well as for people around the world. Please teach me to intercede. Amen. 

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
 

Watchful praying

"The sleep of the disciples"
by Alexandre Bida

l

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Matthew 26:31-56


TO CHEW ON: "'Stay here and watch with Me....What? Could you not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation...'" Matthew 26:38, 40-41


In Bible passages that precede Matthew 26 we see, Jesus had given the disciples plenty of warning that something big was up. He had interpreted the fragrance Mary of Bethany poured on His head as "'for My burial'" (Matthew 26:12). He had said plainly that one of them would betray Him (Matthew 26:21). He had charged them to eat and drink parts of the Passover meal as if they were His body and blood (Matthew 26:26-29).

Surely they sensed it wasn't business as usual. They didn't know what was about to happen (even though Jesus tried to tell them), but they could have brought their puzzlement to God. Especially when Jesus alerted them specifically to "watch," they could have been on the lookout for what all these things meant − to Jesus and to them.

The word watch has within it the meaning of close observation with a view to warning if trouble is coming, as a guard or sentinel. In the Old Testament watchmen guarded walled cities. It was their responsibility to warn the inhabitants of approaching enemies.

Jack Taylor says of this kind of praying: "Watching in prayer and supplication bespeaks having spiritual insight to discern the wiles of Satan and to discover the latter's ends and means" - Jack Taylor, quoted by Dick Eastman in The Hour that Changes the World, p. 64.

But instead of watching, the disciples slept.

I ask myself, am I much different? In the last little while the earth has been plagued with disruptions all over — refugees flooding Europe, worldwide threats of terrorism, wonderment over Earth's rising temperature, disasters of floods, earthquakes, and wildfires, diseases for which there is no antibiotic or cure.  I do pray for peace generally and for the inhabitants of these natural-disaster-ravished places along with the people trying to help them. But am I also watchful for what these things might mean in the realm of the spirit? Am I alert and praying into that? What about events in my own community and family?

Jesus' words: "'Watch and pray'" echo down to us across the centuries. Are we engaged in watching prayer, or are we, as the disciples were, thick, drowsy, and becoming riper every day for temptation's picking?

PRAYER: Dear God, I confess my frequent preoccupation with "other things" and my short-sightedness when it comes to prayer. Help me to be more spiritually alert and watchful especially over Satan's designs towards me, my family, and the world. Amen

MORE: Watchful Praying

Dick Eastman concludes his chapter on watching prayer, in the book The Hour that Changes the World, with four practical things we can do to become watchful prayers:

1. Take a few moments during prayer to become spiritually alert. Watch for the methods Satan may try to use to hinder your Christian walk that day. Prayerfully claim power to defeat Satan in each of these areas.


2. Read denominational or missionary-evangelism magazines to help become alert to specific needs in God's work around the world.*


3. Prayerfully recall various international news developments that deserve special prayer.


4. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal further spiritual facts about these needs. This will aid you in praying more intelligently for these needs."

- Dick Eastman in The Hour that Changes the World, p. 73.

*These days one could add to magazines, websites of mission organizations and individual missionaries.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

An intercessor's tears

Jeremiah by Rembrandt

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Jeremiah 8:18-9:3

TO CHEW ON: "Oh that my head were waters,
And my eyes a fountain of tears,
That I might weep day and night
For the slain of the daughter of my people!" - Jeremiah 9:1

It is because of passages like this that Jeremiah is called the "weeping prophet."

Why does he weep?

Here he has just predicted the dreadful future God has showed him:
- The land is barren.
- Foreign invaders devastate the countryside and the cities.
- His people are in exile and cry "From a far country" - Jeremiah 8:19.
- It is the end of hope.

No doubt his tears are part sorrow for the grief he sees is in store for the people he loves—no matter how they treat him. But these things haven't happened yet. So could his tears also be the welling up of a spirit of intercession within him?

Dick Eastman in his book Love on Its Knees puts the word "intercession" under the microscope:

[Intercession is derived from the two Latin words inter and cedere: inter meaning "between," "among," "involved," intervention"; and cedere meaning "to go," "to yield," "to move," or" to pay the price of" - Dick Eastman, Love on Its Knees, p. 20.]

He goes on to list four implications about intercession from its meaning:

• "First, the roots suggest that intercession means "to go between," as when stepping between someone and his enemy in battle.

• Second, these terms describe one who "yields himself" among those who are weak and need assistance.

• Third, intercession is a "moving in the direction of involvement" regarding the needs and hurts of others…

• Finally, intercession means "to pay the price of intervention" - Eastman, Ibid (emphasis added).

Can you see how Jeremiah is this kind of intercessor? Though it costs him popularity, comfort, and safety, he feels compelled to speak God's words to his countrymen. He continues on, delivering God's warnings despite rejection, even threats, identifying with his people to the point of tears. (Jeremiah's tears remind us of another intercessor, who also wept over the people who rejected Him  - Luke 19:41).

Do we have such love for the unsaved, such an abhorrence of their eternal future without God that we would make ourselves available to intercede to this extent? For I believe such prayer, indeed such an intercessory life, happens only as the Holy Spirit empowers and prays through us.

PRAYER: Dear God, please grow in me the spirit of intercession to the point of tears—the intercession I see in Jeremiah and Jesus. Amen. 

MORE: Weeping prayers

"At times, God calls us to weep. This is His call to empathy, to vicarious intercessory identification with others. At such times, we must be sure to pray 'us' prayers and not 'them' prayers. We must identify with those in need, rather than condemn and accuse" - Wesley Duewel (quoted in Prayer Powerpoints, p. 163).

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

For wisdom seekers

TODAY'S SPECIAL: James 1:1-18

TO CHEW ON: "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given him." James 1:5

If you're like me you know this verse, have it memorized, and claim it often as you go through life. Let's take a close look at its various parts.

Wisdom is the thing we feel we lack and are after here. My Bible commenter explains this request in the context of the book of James:

"The wisdom which may be had by asking 'in faith' is not intellectual knowledge or philosophical speculation but spiritual understanding of the purpose of trials" - John Mark Ruthven, New Spirit-Filled Life Bible notes on James, p. 1751.

Personally I have claimed this promise as one that encompasses more than only the understanding of trials. The meaning of wisdom gives us an idea of its scope:

[Wisdom - sophia  means "practical wisdom, prudence, skill, comprehensive insight, Christian enlightenment, insight into the true nature of things" - Dick Mills,  Word Wealth, NSFLB, p. 1501.]

I love that: "insight into the true nature of things." That is what we need and what we're after, isn't it? And God promises to give it without reproach.

[Reproach - oneidizo has evolved, according to my Bible's WW writer, from meaning to act in an immature way as youngsters tease and taunt each other to include all of general mocking, ridicule, scolds, insults, and using words angrily or sarcastically.]

James is telling us here that God doesn't do that. He doesn't throw our requests for wisdom back in our faces with sarcasm, scolding and insults for needing to ask Him again and again, even after all He's taken us through. Instead, He gives this wisdom lavishly and generously.

But the next verses (James 1:6-7) remind us that after we've asked, we must follow through with faith in the answer. To me this means:

• refraining from placing fleece after fleece before God as a way to confirm His answer.

• not doubting today what I was sure God was saying yesterday.

Sounds easy, but it's way harder than it sounds. (My journals are testament to how often I've let myself be "sea-driven and tossed by the wind.")

PRAYER: Dear God, help me to go to You for wisdom and to trust the answers You give by acting on them instead of doubting, vacillating and asking for confirmation. Amen.

MORE: Praying faith in action

"Are we really convinced God answers prayer? Why do many travel life's journey uttering prayers but doubting answers? Picture Joshua, an Old Testament hero of faith. He, one of twelve commissioned by Moses to survey the promised land, brought a positive report. Ten came crying, 'There are giants in the land ... we cannot seize it.' Joshua, however, is one of two taking the positive approach....

Jericho is an excellent example of how prayer and faith combined remove an otherwise impenetrable barrier. In prayer Joshua received God's battle plan promising victory over Israel's enemy. In faith Joshua led Israel around towering walls, mentally visualizing every stone tumbling to the ground. Here is praying faith in action" - Dick Eastman, No Easy Road, pp. 27, 28 (from the three-book volume, Dick Eastman on Prayer).

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Intercession

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Joel 2:1-17

TO CHEW ON: "Let the priests who minister to the Lord, Weep between the porch and the altar; Let them say, 'Spare your people, O Lord, And do not give Your heritage to reproach, That the nations should rule over them. "Why should they say among the peoples, Where is their God?"'" Joel 2:17

The scene in Judah that Joel paints is hellish. Locusts advance like an army:

"With a noise like chariots
      Over mountaintops they leap,
      Like the noise of a flaming fire that devours the stubble,
      Like a strong people set in battle array" (vs. 5).

The people are terrified:

"Before them the people writhe in pain;
      All faces are drained of color" (vs. 6).

The only appropriate response is repentance (Joel 2:12-13) and intercession. When Joel says to the priests, "weep between the porch and the altar," he is referring to the space between the porch of the temple and the altar of burnt offering. This was right in front of the door of the Holy Place where God's presence lived. The priests were to mediate and intercede with God for the people there.

E. M. Bounds said of intercession, "Talking to men for God is a great thing, but talking to God for men is greater still" - quoted in No Easy Road by Dick Eastman, p. 63.

S. D. Gordon explains why intercession is prayer's highest form. "Prayer is the word commonly used for all intercourse with God. But it should be kept in mind that this word covers and includes three forms of intercourse:
1. Communion — being on good terms with God, simply enjoying Him, loving Him, talking to Him.
2. Petition — a definite request of God for something I need.
3. Intercession — reaching out in prayer for others."
— quoted in No Easy Road by Dick Eastman, pages 63-64.

Intercession has several parts to it.

• It involves identification, as we recognize another's hurt and distress. 
• It often involves agony. I have heard intercessors describe how, during times of deep intercession, they are overcome with pain and the sense that they are actually participating in the situation for which they are praying; weeping is not uncommon. 
• Intercession is also praying with authority, as the intercessor claims God's promises for the person or situation for which they are praying.

Look at these intercessors in action:
- Moses for Israel: Exodus 32:11 and for his sister Miriam: Numbers 12:13
- Samuel for Israel: 1 Samuel 7:5-6
- Jesus for us: Luke 22:34
- Paul for the Ephesians: Ephesians 1:15-17

"Indeed, no force transmits human love more than intercessory prayer. No greater gift could man give society than bended knee. In the last analysis, when all history is written and we stand before God, we will know what really shaped this age. When we talk with God in eternity we will quickly learn everything of worth that was accomplished was connected to an intercessor's prayer." - Dick Eastman, No Easy Road, p. 73.

Who will you and I love in our families, our churches, our cities, our countries, indeed in the world, with our intercession today?

PRAYER: Dear God, impress on me again how important, no urgent intercession is. Help me to be one of those "priests...who weep between the porch and the altar" for my world. Amen.

MORE: More thoughts on intercessory prayer:

"A Christian fellowship lives and exists by the intercession of its members for one another, or it collapses. I can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray no matter how much trouble he causes me." -  Dietrich Bonhoeffer quoted in Prayer Powerpoints, compiled by Randall D. Roth,  p. 150

"Criticism of others nails them to the past. Prayer for them releases them into the future." Frank Laubach, quoted in Prayer Powerpoints,  p. 150.

"There is nothing that makes us love a man so much as praying for him." - William Law quoted in Prayer Powerpoints, p. 151.

 

Do your 8-12-year-olds have daily devotions? Point them to Bible Drive-Thru.

Prayer clinic

"Answer to Daniel's Prayers" - Artist Unknown 
 (Northrop's Treasures of the Bible, 1894)

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Daniel 9:1-27

TO CHEW ON: "In the first year of his (Darius) reign, I Daniel understood by the books the number of years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet .... Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes." Daniel 9:23

What a wonderful little prayer clinic Daniel puts on for us here. I believe we, as pray-ers, can learn about effective prayer from his example. Here are some things that pinged with me today:

1. His prayers flowed from his study of "the books" (Daniel 9:1-3). Daniel studied Jeremiah and gained insight into God's plan and purpose for His people. Then he set himself to pray into those plans and purposes.

Similarly we can study the Bible to see what it says about God's purposes in general and then pore and pray over passages that seem especially relevant to our time.

2. He stood in for his people (Daniel 9:4-19) It seems odd to hear devout, praying-three-times-a-day Daniel confessing: "...We have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments..." Surely he hadn't done those things. Yet he completely identified with his sinful countrymen and the sins of his people. Of course his prayer continuing on tells us that no matter how white his life looked, he too was sinful and knew it: "Now while I was speaking, praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people..." Daniel 9:20.

Leslyn Musch in her commentary at the end of Daniel helps us apply this to our praying:

"Intercede before God, identifying with the sins of a church or a nation. Confess those sins before God asking for the Lord's mercy, forgiveness and restoration for His glory" - Leslyn Musch, "Truth-In-Action Through Daniel," New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 1140.

3. His prayers made a difference (Daniel 9:20-27). The angel Gabriel assured Daniel "At the beginning of your supplications the command went out."

Wow! That tells us that prayers can be like a trigger. They spark changes in the heavenliness. They move the hand and command of God: "The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working]" - James 5:16b Amplified
 
PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for these lessons on prayer. Help me to apply them to my life so I will be an effective prayer warrior in Your kingdom. Amen.
 
MORE: Effective intercessory prayer

"I'm convinced that when we stand before God with the record of spiritual successes and failures, we will learn that intercessory prayer had more to with with bringing about positive changes in our world than any other single spiritual activity" - Dick Eastman, Love On Its Knees, p. 17 (from Dick Eastman On Prayer - Three Bestsellers in One).

Scripture Praying

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Luke 1:57-80

TO CHEW ON: "'And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest; For you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, To give knowledge of salvation to His people …. To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, To guide our feet into the way of peace.' So the child grew and became strong in spirit. Luke 1:76-77; 79-80

I love the prayers of prophetic blessing in the Bible, especially the ones that fathers prayed over their children. Our reading today is the powerful prayer / prophecy that Zacharias prayed the day he and his wife brought their eight-day-old baby to the temple to be named and circumcised. And isn't the outcome of Zacharias's prayer exactly what we want for our kids and grandkids - physical growth and spiritual strength?

So why not pray the same way for our kids? We may not have the original Holy Spirit inspiration that Zacharias did on the day he prayed this prayer (Luke 1:67), but we do have all of inspired scripture on which to base our prayers. Why not pray it for and over our kids?

Dick Eastman in his book The Hour That Changes the World gives a three-part plan for devising scripture prayers.

1. Listen to or read a passage from the Bible.

2. Stop listening or reading the moment you discover a verse or two that impress truth on your heart:
- Meditate on what the verse is saying to you.
- Ponder every aspect of the passage.
- Evaluate how the passage might be transformed into a specific petition.
Ask:

• Does this verse prompt me to pray for something specific?
•  How can this passage be directly applied to my petition?
• Can I use some of the words of the passage verbatim as I pray?

3. Using your meditation "form a personal prayer 'enriched' by that promise from God."

- Dick Eastman, The Hour That Changes the World, pp. 59-60.

Here are a couple of my favorite passages on which to base prayers for the babies and children in our lives:

"So Samuel grew and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground." 1 Samuel 3:19

"And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom and the grace of God was on Him." Luke 2:40

"And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and man." Luke 2:52

PRAYER: Dear God, please bless (___insert names of loved ones) and keep them. May You make Your face shine upon them and be gracious to them. May You turn Your face toward them and give them peace. Amen (prayer based on Numbers 6:22-27).

MORE: Nativity of St. John the Baptist

Today the church celebrates the Nativity of St. John the Baptist.

Here is the collect that begins the day's liturgy:

"Almighty God, by whose providence your servant John the Baptist was wonderfully born, and sent to prepare the way of your Son our Savior by preaching repentance: Make us so to follow his teaching and holy life, that we may truly repent according to his preaching; and, following his example, constantly speak the truth, boldly rebuke vice, and patiently suffer for the truth's sake; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen."

"Birth of St.John the Baptist" by Luca Signorelli (1445-1523)

(From the archives.)