This revival focus is not going away. Yes, I have to nurture it, share it with others and keep a daily practice of prayer centered on the heart of God for myself, my community and my country. I need continual openness to the Holy Spirit to fill and use me. I need his love to consume me. I need to be aware of my need for forgiveness. My community and country need the love and humility of Jesus to work together. They need to know God's kindness that leads to repentance, that whosoever believes in him shall live in everlasting life.
I use a great tool from Christina Union Day and Night ministries that keeps me going. It's a list of 41 prayer points that I pray through regularly. It might sound monotonous and boring to repeat the same prayers, but I find the Holy Spirit dwelling on certain ones which leads to additional prayers in that area. I'd like to share some of those with you.
Number 15. "Let love for God and allegiance to the name of Jesus Christ be paramount in our hearts and our churches in Jesus' name." May this be what your people are known for, Jesus. This alone-not by our political affiliations, our voices on cultural matters that only divide us, and not by what we are against.
Number 22. "We plead for the power of the Holy Spirit to fall on us and make us bold witnesses for Jesus, in Jesus' name." Father, do this in us; we can't make this happen by ourselves. Give us opportunities that we can't miss and the desire to care enough to share with whoever needs to hear.
Today I read a Bible passage from 2 Corinthians where Paul, the author, shares the ways he and other leaders in the church commend themselves to those under their care. Number 16 is a prayer for pastors to protect their flock with devotion to prayer and feeding them the pure milk of the Word of God. I'm adding a prayer today from the list in 2 Corinthians. Lord, help pastors across our nation have great endurance no matter what troubles they are going through. Help them to stay in purity, understanding their people, patience, kindness, filled with the Holy Spirit, having sincere love, truthful speech, the power of God, wielding weapons of righteousness, being genuine, always rejoicing, and out of their need making others rich.
You can find the prayer list here.
May God raise up his church in these days to repent of our sins and pray for his refreshing and revival to come-soon!
