PRAYER PULSE

PRAYER PULSE
January 19, 2018

Prayer: My prayer for you is that you, and every Christian, would courageously be a believer of life-service.

Scripture: They took his advice ; and after calling the apostles in, they flogged them and ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and then released them. 41 So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name. 42 And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. Acts 5:40-42 NAS

Life on earth is hard, there are many difficult circumstances. Illness, insurance, debt, division, job cuts, marriage strains, concerns for our children, students, the choices they are making and the legacy we are leaving them. I was challenged last year to use an analyst eye instead of a faith-filled heart, to look at the topics of the prayer requests I receive each week over a three month period. My report did not include any detail of any sort concerning our prayer requests, just an overall category that would be considered the “Prayer Pulse” of Christians with a slant towards education. Our “Prayer Pulse” is not really any different from those of any other vocation slant including parents, business groups and other diverse prayer groups. A heavy majority of our prayer requests concerns are medical and monetary. Please do not misunderstand me as being judgmental, my family has been fighting cancer on several fronts for over 20 years, I know the deepest need and peace that comes from having friends and even complete strangers pray for healing. I also have known what it is like to wonder where the money is going to come from to pay my bills; it is frightening to think that you could come home to no water or electricity. These are real needs that we absolutely should pray over. The concern was not so much what American Christians are praying about; it was deep concern over what we are NOT praying about.

Again, let me say we need to be praying for secure, supporting jobs and healthy lives; but we need to take our prayers from happiness to holiness. Just as we look for God to reveal Himself in Scripture, we need to look to God and His heart and will in our prayers. We need to pray for the lost and ask God to give us the courage and opportunity to share the Gospel with them. Our schools need more than survival, they need revival. We need to pray that God will use our lives to bring substantial change to our campuses, that once again His Name would be used in awe and respect, that we would learn about all of our religious rights at public schools and then exercise them on a daily basis. We need to ask God how we can suffer and sacrifice for His Kingdom, knowing that our salvation is not about being comfortable but useable. We are His warriors, He wants us to be courageous, strong, faithful, joyful, loving, patient, peace-filled, kind and compassionate. We must ask Him to remove the complaining, the fear, the judgmental thoughts, the fatigued minds and bodies and then we must respond by living out what we believe.

A recent study of church attendance records shows that only 16% of Americans go attend church regularly. 6% are Catholics and 10% Protestants. We are closing 4000 churches a year when we should be building 3000 to keep up with the population increase. If the student’s in your classroom do not decide to follow Jesus, we could see the American church fade into obscurity in my lifetime. Lip service will not draw them, as a matter of fact; statistics show that Christians do not live much differently than secular, our divorce rate is even higher. Non-believers say that they don’t see us live what we believe and if we are, then we sure don’t seem happy to be “holy.” We must look to God and listen as He reveals Himself and then make a deeper commitment to stop the lip service and begin life service. No more gossip or panic when we hear about cuts at school, prayer and encouragement must replace the anger and fear as we voice our trust in Jesus who loves us. We need to be the example of faith. Our student’s are watching, our co-workers are watching; we need move past the mundane and pray mountain-moving prayers that delight God and fulfill His will for our lives.