Topic : Prayer

In one region of Africa, the first converts to Christianity were very diligent about praying. In fact, the believers each had their own special place outside the village where they went to pray in solitude. The villagers reached these “prayer rooms” by using their own private footpaths through the brush. When grass began to grow over one of these trails, it was evident that the person to whom it belonged was not praying very much.

Because these new Christians were concerned for each other’s spiritual welfare, a unique custom sprang up. When ever anyone noticed an overgrown “Prayer path,” he or she would go to the person and lovingly warn, “Friend, there’s grass on your path!” - RWD

Our Daily Bread, November 18, 1996

Experiencing a life-changing faith, having a close relationship with God and desiring to please God above all else are strong earmarks of belief for born-again Christians, according to a recent poll comparing America's religious attitudes.

In a nationwide survey, 1,210 adults were asked?(those responding yes)

Margin of error is plus or minus 3 percent

Source: Barna Research Group, by Monica Seaberry and Mike Paquette, 1998 Religion News Service, quoted in Moody, July/August, 1998, p. 37

Pray for:

1. Protection from Satan's attacks on their faith and calling, tempting them to quit and go home.

2. God protect their marriages and families. Protect them from doing so much work that they neglect their families.

3. Protect them from getting so busy doing things for God that they forget to sit and listen to Him.

4. They could forget to find unhurried time for Bible meditation and prayer.

5. Protect them from losing their spirit of worship, love and devotion to you, Lord.

6. Protect them from divisiveness, criticism and crankiness with each other.

7. Protect their unity in Christ, their love for each other, their commitment to each other.

8. Protect their willingness to serve one another, and to esteem their sisters and brothers better than themselves.

9. Protect them from conflicts with local believers and national church leaders.

10. Protect them from squabbling over budgets and properties.

11. Protect them from misinterpreting each other's motives.

12. Protection from even hinting that the way we do it in America is best.

13. Protection from using their control of money to get their own way.

14. Unity in Christ among missionaries and believers is so important because unbelievers watch them. So they can see and grasp the good news that God loves them so much that He sent Jesus to this world.

15. Protection from defection for their souls, not their bodies.

16. Our primary concern should be for our missionaries perseverance in faith.

Jesus did ask God to protect his disciples, but not the kind of protection we usually think of. He warned them of what might happen. He simply asked His Father to protect the disciples 'so that they be one as we are one.'

1. They needed protection from fighting, jealousy and clamoring for position.

2. If the evil one cannot destroy their faith, he will disrupt their work by sowing dissension in their ranks.

3. If he can get our missionaries or us to believe gossip and suspect each other's motives, Satan does not have to resort to terrorism.

4. If he can maneuver them into head-on collisions with the national believers, he doesn't need car crashes to wipe them out.

Lord, teach us to pray for our missionaries more effectively, daily.

Protection From What? by Jim Reapsome

Last night I took a journey
To a land far "cross the seas;
I didn't go by boat or plane,
I trusted on my knees.

I saw so many people there
In deepest depths of sin,
And Jesus told me I should go
That there were souls to win.

But I said, "Jesus, I can't go
And work with such as these.'
He answered quickly, "Yes, you can
By traveling on your knees.'

He said, "You pray; I'll meet the need,
You call and I will hear;
Be concerned about lost souls,
Of those both far and near.'

And so I tried it, knelt in prayer,
Gave up some hours of ease;
I felt the Lord right by my side
While traveling on my knees.

As I prayed on and saw souls saved
And twisted bodies healed,
And saw God's workers? strength renewed
While laboring on the filed.

I said, "Yes, Lord, I have a job
My desire Thy will to please;
I can go and heed Thy call
By traveling on my knees.'

-Sandra Goodwin

Source unknown

I cannot tell how much I owe to the prayers of my good mother...I remember her once praying, "Now Lord, if my children go on in sin it will not be from ignorance that they perish, and my soul must bear swift witness against them at the day of judgment if they lay not hold on Christ and claim Him as their personal Savior.?

Charles Spurgeon