Prayer | A People for His Name

Ten Things to Pray For Concerning the Super Bowl

February 4, 2012

The Super Bowl is scheduled to be played tomorrow evening. Many believers will intentionally pay as little attention as possible to it, and some may decry those believers who have any level of interest in the game.

Many other believers will pay attention to the game in various ways. Given that the game will be played barring some remarkable and unexpected providential intervention by God, here are some things that interested believers might consider praying for:

1. God would glorify Himself in an unmistakable way through whatever He allows to take place before, during, and after the game.

2. The number of believers who forsake the assembling of themselves together tomorrow would be amazingly small because of a supernatural working of God at a remarkable level to convince His people not to do so.

3. Success for whatever evangelistic efforts may be made by believers through commercials aired during the game or through attending the game or planning to be present somewhere near the stadium for that purpose.

4. The players would do no evil. It would be great to have a clean game where there are no dirty plays, especially plays that injure players unnecessarily.

5. The officials would have skill to officiate fairly and not miss any calls. It would be especially great if the game were not to be decided by a questionable call by the officials.

6. The team that wins would do so because they have striven lawfully.

7. Both teams would display excellent sportsmanship in everything that takes place.

8. The fans would not do anything to disrupt the game.

9. There would not be any tragic things take place among the fans such as have marred many major sporting events over the years

10. Law enforcement personnel would be supernaturally empowered to have great success in delivering a great number of the victims of the human trafficking that is expected to take place surrounding this event.

Who knows what God might do tomorrow if many of His people were to pray fervently along these lines!

In Prayer

A Plea for Fervently Praying Against Voter Fraud

January 16, 2012

Recent news stories have called attention to the issue of dead people’s having voted in recent elections in S.C. Hearing of such contemptible fraud in my home state, I have become even more burdened that believers need to be praying fervently against voter fraud in upcoming elections.

Prayer is our premier resource in opposing the efforts of evil people to cheat in elections. Only God is able to expose and foil the schemes of those who seek positions of civil authority in unrighteous ways.

Scripture teaches, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16). Let us pray specifically and fervently that God would mercifully intervene in every upcoming election to prevent voter fraud.

Let us also pray that He would yet expose all fraud that has taken place in recent elections and that those who have engaged in such activity would be dealt with properly (Rom. 13:4).

In Prayer

Should We Sing Prayers to Jesus and the Holy Spirit?

October 27, 2011

In response to a question that was recently directed to me, I have been pondering again whether we should pray to Jesus and to the Spirit as well as to the Father or whether we should pray only to the Father. It occurred to me tonight that we sing many songs that are prayers directed to Jesus and to the Spirit.

If we should pray only to the Father, should we be singing any prayers like the following?

Whiter Than Snow	“Lord Jesus, I long to be perfectly whole . . . Break down every idol . . .” Similarly, every stanza is a prayer to Jesus.
O to Be Like Thee!	“O to be like Thee, Blessed Redeemer, pure as Thou art; Come in Thy sweetness . . . Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.”
“Are Ye Able,” Said the Master	“‘Are ye able’, said the Master, ‘To be crucified with Me?’ . . . ‘Lord, we are able.’ Our Spirits are Thine. Remold them , make us . . .”
Draw Me Nearer	“Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, To the cross where Thou hast died . . .”
More Love to Thee	“More love to Thee, O Christ, More love to Thee! Hear Thou the prayer I make . . .”
Break Thou the Bread of Life	“Break Thou the bread of life, Dear Lord to me, As Thou didst break the loaves Beside the sea . . .”
Lead Me to Calvary	“Lest I forget Gethsemane; Lest I forget Thine agony; Lest I forget Thy love for me, Lead me to Calvary.”
My Faith Looks Up To Thee	“My faith looks up to Thee, Thou Lamb of Calvary . . . Now hear me while I pray, Take all my guilt away . . .”
Have Thine Own Way, Lord!	“Touch me and heal me, Savior divine!”
Near the Cross	“Jesus, keep me near the cross . . .”
Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me	“Jesus, Savior, pilot me . . .”
I Need Thee Every Hour	“O bless me now, my Savior . . .”
Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us	“Blessed Jesus, Blessed Jesus, Hear, O hear us when we pray . . .”
Spirit of God, Descend upon My Heart	“Spirit of God, descend upon my heart, Wean it from earth . . .”
Fill Me Now	“Hover o’er me, Holy Spirit, Bathe my trembling heart and brow . . .”
Open My Eyes, That I May See	“Open my eyes, illumine me, Spirit divine!”

If it is right for us to sing these prayers to Jesus and the Spirit, then it would seem . . .

What do you think?

In Music, Prayer

Answered Prayer – New Laptop!

October 14, 2011

The Lord recently blessed me with the first new laptop that I have ever had. My Samsung R540-JA08 has already been a tremendous help to me in many ways!

I look forward greatly to how this tool will help me to minister much more effectively in the years ahead, D.V.

Praise God for answering prayer!

In Computers, Prayer

Praying for My Favorite Sports Teams

September 29, 2011

This has not been a good year for my favorite teams in professional sports.

In football, the New England Patriots lost to the New York Jets in the playoffs. In hockey, the Chicago Black Hawks, after winning the Stanley Cup in 2010, lost their opening round playoff series to the Vancouver Canucks in Game 7 in sudden death overtime.

In basketball, the Boston Celtics lost to the Miami Heat in a series that I believe the Celtics were cheated by the officials in at least one game. In baseball, the Boston Red Sox missed the playoffs on the last day of the season by losing to the Baltimore Orioles in their final game.

In spite of all my teams have disappointing endings to their seasons, I remain a loyal fan of each team.

This morning, after learning of the Red Sox loss, God gave me a perspective about supporting them that I do not think that I have had before. I found myself hoping that God would use their loss to turn each Red Sox player to Himself.

I plan to pray to that end.

May God use these losses to work mightily in the heart of each player on my favorite teams to save those who are not saved and sanctify further those who are saved.

In Prayer

"The Best Way to Control Our Thoughts"

September 4, 2011

The best way to control our thoughts is to offer the mind to God in complete surrender. The Holy Spirit will accept it and take control of it immediately. Then it will be relatively easy to think on spiritual things, especially if we train our thought by long periods of daily prayer. Long practice in the art of mental prayer (that is, talking to God inwardly as we work or travel) will help to form the habit of holy thought.

—The Best of A. W. Tozer: Volume 1, 45

In Discipleship, Prayer, Quotes

Upcoming Evangelistic Services

August 1, 2011

Lord willing, I will be one of four preachers ministering in upcoming evangelistic services for Berean Baptist Church in Fountain Inn, SC. The services begin at 7pm this Sunday, August 6, and run through Wednesday, August 10.

I am scheduled to preach on Tuesday night, August 9. If you are near the Greenville area, I would like to invite you to try to bring some lost people to the services.

As the Lord brings it to mind, please pray for Spirit-filled skillfulness for us in proclaiming the Word and for the Lord to open the hearts of our hearers.

In Evangelism, Ministry, Prayer, Preaching

Praying For God to Avenge Us

July 17, 2011

In Luke 18:1-5, Luke records Jesus’ parable about the repeated appeals of a widow to an unrighteous judge. Jesus gave the parable to convey the necessity of continual prayer in the midst of circumstances that tend to make people lose heart (18:1). Since the widow persisted in her appeals to the judge that he avenge her against her adversary, he gave her the relief that she requested (18:2-5).

Christ demanded that His teaching concerning the words of this unrighteous judge be heard (18:6). He then emphatically asserted through the use of a rhetorical question that demands a positive answer that God, the righteous Judge, in stark contrast to the unrighteous judge in the parable, will certainly avenge His elect who are crying out to Him day and night (18:7a). In the same question, He also taught that God would do so in spite of delays in His response (18:7b).

Furthermore, He proceeded to declare directly that God would quickly give them justice (18:8a). Christ followed up with a question that points to the necessity of faith in God’s ultimate vindication of His own at the coming of the Son of Man (18:8b). The flow of thought in the passage shows that Christ, as the Son of Man, is the One who will execute that vengeance as the Father’s agent.

By giving this parable and its application, Christ validated appeals to God to avenge His own of their adversaries. The emphatic teaching in this parable strongly implies that believers’ crying out to the Father to avenge them of their oppressors is a righteous practice. Such appeals are in keeping with many similar appeals in the Old Testament (for example, Ps. 10) as well as related content in the New Testament (Rom. 15:31; 2 Thess. 3:2).[1]

Furthermore, Christ’s teaching here accords with His own supreme commitment to entrust Himself in His sufferings to the Father as “the One who judges righteously” (1 Pet. 2:23; cf. Luke 23:46). Moreover, this parable underscores that through unfailing prayer to God, faith in Christ is essential for properly handling injustices that believers are powerless to overcome (cf. Acts 7:59-60).[2] Luke’s inclusion of this account in his Gospel argues for the importance of this dimension of the scriptural teaching about Christ as God’s judicial delegate.[3]

[1] Martyred saints in heaven cry out to God for Him to judge and avenge their blood on those who dwell on the earth (Rev. 6:10).

[2] “When the fullness of time has arrived, God will suddenly and without delay put an end to the distress into which His chosen ones will be plunged by a hostile and evil world. There is no doubt about the certainty that Jesus will come again and that God will then make the righteous cause of the faithful triumph completely and forever. . . . [At Christ’s coming], God’s own elect will still continually be praying to Him that justice should be done to them. . . . He concludes the parable with a powerful summons to His followers to maintain true belief in Him, through whom the Father will give final victory.” Geldenhuys, Luke, 447.

[3] Apart from its context, the use of Luke 18:1 as a proof text for encouraging perseverance in prayer, while of some value, does not furnish the people of God with the real substantive teaching of the passage. For example, although he makes many helpful remarks about prayer in general, Warren W. Wiersbe hardly deals with the teaching of the passage about God’s avenging His elect and makes no specific mention of the Son of Man. The Bible Exposition Commentary, 1:247-49.

In Dissertation, Interpretation, Prayer

Praying For God's Light and Truth

July 10, 2011

Over the years of my being a Christian, I have probably prayed Psalm 43:3-4 (with varying slight modifications) many hundreds of times before studying the Bible:

O send out Thy light and Thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto Thy holy hill, and to Thy tabernacles. Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God.

I can attest to God’s having answered that prayer numerous times by granting me insight into many passages, even passages that I had previously studied many times in the past. Because I believe that the Bible is an infinite book, I believe that we should expect God, as He sees fit, to show us wondrous things that we have not seen before, even from familiar passages.

I encourage you to believe in a similar manner and expect God to answer such prayers for you as well.

In Bible reading, Prayer

Answered Prayers 6/20/11

June 20, 2011

Yesterday morning, I was quite discouraged because I had no upcoming opportunities to preach in my schedule, my employment situation was still not good, and some other concerns were weighing on me heavily. God ministered to me through the services yesterday and provided me with much encouragement, for which I am thankful.

Today, He mercifully provided me with a seemingly good prospect for additional tutoring for at least the next two weeks or so! Better than that, a pastor contacted me about ministering at his church this coming Sunday, and I also received some other good news concerning my efforts to get more preaching opportunities!

God willing, I will be tutoring a new high school student in chemistry for 4 hours this week, and I will be teaching SS and preaching twice on this Sunday. Praise God for answered prayers!

In Prayer

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