[Faith-talk] {Spam?} Daily Thought for Tuesday, June 21, 2016

[Paul Smith]

Hello and a good day to most of you for the second time today.  Hope 
that your day is going well, by God's matchless grace and His 
providential care.

The April 2016 of "Decision" magazine, the house organ of the Billy 
Graham Evangelistic Association, had a very interesting four-article 
series on the subject of prayer.  The blurb on the contents page read:  
"Reclaiming Prayer, Articles by Bob Paulson, P. Douglas Small, Richard 
Blackaby and Ronnie Floyd." The next statement on the table of contents 
page really had me sitting up and thinking:  "If things are as dark as 
we think they are, why do believers pray so little? We must resurrect 
the kind of prayer that changes nations."

Well, folks, I don't know if that grabbed you spiritually, but it sure 
did me.  If you read "Decision" magazine regularly, you no doubt know 
what I'm talking about.  On the other hand, for those of you who don't 
read it regularly, we begin with the first in this series of articles 
by Bob Paulson.  Entitled "Reclaiming Prayer:  Crying out to God for a 
Darkening Nation," rendered as follows:

Do we care enough to pray?

Prayer.  Is any other practice so universally extolled yet so often 
left undone by Christians? And in an age when true followers of Christ 
increasingly are marginalized, mocked and despised, can we continue to 
act as if we don't need to cry out for God's help?



Erwin Lutzer, longtime pastor of Chicago's Moody Church, observes:  "I 
find it very interesting that even though as a church generally we 
complain about the present darkness, we still are not desperate enough 
to sincerely pray and call congregations to pray.  If the darkness is 
as bad as we believe it is morally and spiritually, why is it that we 
still do not pray?"

Although he has not conducted a formal survey on the issue, Lutzer has 
asked other evangelical pastors whether or not their church holds 
regular prayer meetings, and he is surprised at the number who say no.

Thom Rainer, president and CEO of Lifeway Christian Resources, has 
noticed this lack of prayer too.  Noting on his blog that the decline 
in American churches has been commensurate with the decline in 
corporate prayer, Rainer asks, "Where have all the praying churches gone?"

Lutzer suggests that some prayer meetings have fallen victim to 
entertainment.  Whether it's television or the Internet, it seems 
harder today than in past generations to get people to go back out in 
the evening for a church meeting.  Other prayer meetings, lacking 
strong leadership, have degenerated into gossip sessions, or one person 
has dominated the meeting with long prayers seemingly designed more to 
impress others than to plead for God's help.

So how can we recapture the kind of prayer that makes a difference? 
Anne Graham Lotz offers advice gleaned from her study of
Scripture and her own years of participation in prayer efforts.  Her 
forthcoming book "The Daniel Prayer:  Prayer that Moves Heaven and 
Changes Nations" is scheduled for release May 5.

"First, a person needs to be right with God," Lotz says, "meaning you 
need to be in a right relationship with Him because you've been to the 
cross and you are in that covenant relationship, which of course Daniel 
had.  And as much as possible, we need to be right with others as well."

A significant part of Daniel's prayer, as recorded in Daniel 9:1-23, 
was confession of sin.  "That's one thing I think is lacking in prayers 
within the church or in prayer groups," Lotz noted.  "I think it's 
difficult to do as Daniel did in such a humble way, because he 
identified with the sin of his nation to the point that he could 
confess it as his own.  My tendency, when I am aware of the sin of our 
nation, is to want to lower the boom on them.  We need to have a broken 
heart and come before God and confess the sin of our nation as though 
it's our own.  They're sinners.  But we are, too."

Lutzer concurs:  "Prayer in the New Testament often represented such a 
dependence on God," he said.  "It was a sense of utter helplessness 
apart from God's intervention.  I think that's connected to repentance, 
where we acknowledge our sin in a serious way, and we don't just come 
to God with requests.  We begin with a sense of repentance, which then 
leads to serious intercessory prayer."

Another crucial aspect, Lotz says, is to pray God's Word back to Him.  
"So often our prayers are what we want, what we wish, what we hope, 
what we're trying to tell God to do, and then just fall flat," she 
said.  "No wonder God doesn't answer them."

By contrast, Daniel read what God had said in Scripture, and he brought 
those truths and prophecies before the Lord.  "It's what Eugene 
Peterson calls reversed thunder," Lotz said.  "To take God at His Word. 
God honors that."

Lutzer and Lotz both see some bright spots when it comes to prayer.  
Lotz notes that some churches in her city of Raleigh, N.C., have 
24-hour prayer rooms.  And Lutzer points to PRAYChicago, a citywide 
movement that is drawing as many as 2,000 people at a time across 
racial, social, economic and geographic lines to pray for all 77 of 
Chicago's neighborhoods.

Like many prayer movements, PRAYChicago was born partially out of a 
sense of desperation, as the murder rate in Chicago has soared in 
recent years.  John Fuder, a former professor at Moody Bible Institute, 
is helping to lead the movement.

"There has been this sobering sense of, God, our city is in need--deep 
need," Fuder said.  "Our city had more than 100 murders in 
February--twice the number of a year ago."

Although the city continues to be broken, Fuder and Lutzer are 
encouraged by what God is doing in Chicago.

"My heart is overflowing with the sense of what a privilege we have," 
Fuder said.  "What a moment for God's people right now.  We want to say 
to pastors and leaders, We've got to do this.  This has got to be priority."

And there you have the first in this series of four articles on prayer. 
Tomorrow in this space, Lord willing, P. Douglass Small will continue 
with his article entitled "How Prayer Can Change a Nation." As they say 
in radio and maybe TV, stay tuned.

Until then may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, 
individually and collectively, in these last days in which we live.  
Your Christian friend and brother, Paul