Mt. Gilead Baptist Church

As I read about the prayer life of Jesus, one of the qualities that stands out in my mind is the amount of time and, especially, effort Jesus put into His conversations with the Father. He was always doing business with His Father. And since He was, His praying was intense as any prayer I have ever heard or read. I recall a story told in my youth by a saint of God now with the Lord about a revival meeting that was being held in a certain church. The guest preacher had done a fine job. His preaching was strong, and the Spirit was obviously with him. But throughout the scheduled two-week meeting, it seemed there was just no response by the people.

On the final night, as I remember the account went, a prayer meeting was called for before the beginning of the service. In that meeting, one of the elderly deacons was called upon to lead them to the throne of grace. He began something to the effect that they had been having a revival meeting for two weeks, and he went on to tell God, “And You haven’t been there one night!” Probably not the way most of us would talk to God. But he went on to labor before God in prayer for the church and the preacher and the community, pouring out his heart, laying siege to the very throne of God. And that night, real revival broke out, with repentance and confession and forgiveness and reconciliation taking place between individuals and families.

Our praying must be an intense labor of love with our Father in heaven. We may not pray to the point of sweating great drops of blood, but then again, that may be the only way to prepare the environment for spiritual awakening.

I hope you have a great week. I plan to.

Blessings, Pastor Lawrence

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 at 11:33 pm and is filed under An Encouraging Word.