Network (2)

DAY 6/31 DAYS OF PRAYER TO BEGIN 2015

JOIN IN HERE DAILY: #31 DAYS OF PRAYER

VERSE:

But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.  He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked....(1 John 2:5-6)

PRAYER:


Oh Most Holy and Heavenly Father, I think You that Your Word, Oh God, is written in the Heavens. I thank You that Your Word is Truth. I thank You that Your Words will never fade or pass away and therefore, because You keep Your Word, I pledge to do my part and keep Your Word hidden in my heart and shown through my actions and deeds, that Christ lives within me. 

Lord, may Your Holy Spirit, the Spirit of all Truth, Wisdom and Understand Who keeps me permanently connected to the Eternal, fortify my will to keep Your Word of Truth firmly embedded, to keep it from shame and slander, to keep it from dishonor and degradation and to keep and guard it as jealously as You guard Your Holy Name. Your Love commands, compels and gives me confidence in Your Word to remain faithful to it, to obey it and dwell on it as our Savior did. Your Word says in Hebrews 5:7 that our Savior's prayers, cries and petitions were heard because of His piety, obedience and submission to Your Will and Yours alone.


Let us now walk in that Truth, in the Path of Persistent Obedience where He, the Lord Jesus, walked that we may too be found in Him, to the praise and glory of His Name. By this Truth we know we are His, in Him, in His Will and walking in His Ways. Lord we long to be like Jesus, and to live, walk, talk and rest in You as He did and may ALL our worship be Yours and His, throughout our lives, in the Strong and Mighty Name of King Jesus I pray, amen.

Read more…

IT SEEMS TO ME . . .


It seems to me ... our fears for the National Day of Prayer may cause us to appeal to the wrong court!

Along with most of you, I am a huge supporter of the National Day of Prayer. I am privileged to serve on America's National Prayer committee, the members of which are collectively stewards of this vital spiritual enterprise. As director of the National Pastors' Prayer Network, I have annually promoted the event and encouraged pastors' prayer groups across the country to meet on that day and pray fervently for the future of our nation. I have enjoyed the Chicago NDP prayer breakfast in my home city and attended several national rallies on the first Thursday of May in our nation's capitol.

The NDP has been catalytic toward greater expressions of the unity of the Body of Christ in cities and communities in every state of the union. Though not yet more popular than Valentine's Day, the National Day of Prayer has accomplished much in calling America to recognize oits Creator. Similar to the nation of Israel's feasts and solemn assemblies, an annual day of prayer reminds us how desperately we need repentance and must humbly petition our eternal Judge to heal our land and restore justice. Long live a national day of prayer.

Suddenly, more than in years past, opposition is rising. Voices have always spoken critically, especially since Congress officially recognized a day for prayer. But this year, for the first time in memory, our judicial system has joined the antagonists. Many, even some Christian leaders, fear the end of a national day of prayer. And I, for one, certainly hope that does not take place.

But what if it does?

Christians have responded quickly to this threat. Some appeal to constitutional rights or legal precedence. Others seem incredulous that our society wants to vote prayer out, so to speak. A few sound genuinely fearful, as if the Church of Jesus Christ will tumble without government permission and protection. Of course we have the right, even the responsibility, to champion for our rights like every other citizen . . . but I wonder if our bottom-line concern is motivated more by the potential loss of the comfort and ease we've experienced as Christians living in America. As the NDP faces new threats, is our defense based upon American tradition or political connections in high places? Will we appeal more in courts of law or in the court of heaven (Ephesians 2:6)? If what we know as the National Day of Prayer disappears, what, really, has changed? Yes, our comfort (no small issue) and maybe one day our safety but hopefully not our commission and calling and commitment.

What if the growing anti-NDP movement in our country is in reality an answer to decades of praying for revival? Maybe the Lord knows that our desire for an awakening is sincere but that our capacity to refocus our lives and reformat our congregations is in need of a serious challenge. Not a political or legal challenge but one that causes us to individually and corporately become radical Christians. And maybe the Lord knows that can only be accomplished by those things that cause us discomfort; a jolt that shatters our Christianized status quo.

Believe me, I am not inviting discomfort or cultural disapproval nor am I courageous enough to welcome a purifying persecution. The threat to freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion are life and death issues (at least they were at one time in our nation's early history). Like you, I have read chilling reports of persecution in other nations and watched news clips of the hardships and even killings endured by fellow believers in other lands. No thank you. I am enormously grateful to live in the land of the free.

But this is also the home of the brave. And if Congress or the courts one day delete a National Day of Prayer from the calendar, our calling to pray has not been altered one iota. Our permission to gather is rooted, not in a legislative decree but, like millions of brother and sisters in Christ throughout history and across the globe, is in our Lord's commands. Maybe the real test is not legislative nor judicial (and certainly not political); the real test may be spiritual. How committed are we, and to what extreme will we risk our comfort or safety, to make certain Christ-followers in every town and village, community and city gather to pray for our nation? Is it possible that the court of heaven would actually hear from more desperate American Christians if NDP was rescinded? Could the God of heaven be asking us to move from one day of national prayer to 365?

It seems to me, our fears for the National Day of Prayer may cause us to fight the wrong fight and appeal to the wrong court; God forbid!

Pastor Phil Miglioratti
Originally posted by the Church Prayer Leaders Network
Read more…