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Scripture is filled with admonitions to pray. That same Bible reminds us that
we serve a God who knows all things so why are we to pray? I don’t pretend to
know all I should like to about that, but I was helped by a brother who wrote,
“Prayer lays down a highway over which the blessings of God may come.” That
helps. It also helps to know we have a God who wants us to pray.
As a student in college we were encouraged to have a prayer list of
things we wanted to bring before our heavenly Father. Somewhere along the line
I learned that one way to answered prayer is to pray the things we know to be
the will of God. It is what I call a Biblical prayer list.
What might be on a biblical prayer list? I suggest the following
as a starter list and very incomplete, but with extraordinary potential.
1. For God to send forth workers.
In that passage in Matthew where Jesus is working with the multitude
Matthew 9:36-38, Jesus gives one item on
heaven’s prayer list.
“But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on
them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no
shepherd.
37Then saith he unto his disciples,
The harvest truly is
plenteous, but the labourers are few;
38Pray
ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his
harvest.”
I am always grateful when the Lord is specific....Here He says,
“Put this on your prayer list: prayer for the Holy Spirit to send more persons
into the harvest.” The issue is not the harvest, for which we often pray; it is
plenteous. The issue is the laborers.
2. For our hometown.....While Jerusalem was not Jesus’
hometown he did pray for her, wept over her: so might we bring before the throne
our town. I’ve been in many smaller churches where there is a prayer list in
the bulletin. Often the pastor reads a prayer list, and sometimes even asks for
requests. I remember no time when there was a request for prayer for the town
or village where the church was located. We have recently heard prayer
requested for New Orleans, following the disaster of Katrina. I have been to
New Orleans a number of times in the past. On one occasion in the convention
center I preached before thousands of my fellow preachers on the subject “Jesus
And The Poor.” In retrospect what an appropriate subject for the city of so
many poor. It never occurred to me to pray for the City. The spiritual needs
were and remain a far greater need than the physical ones. Is anybody praying
about that? Are great resources being expended on the spiritual needs? I can
tell you it’s on heaven’s prayer list. He is not willing that any should
perish!
3. Anything the Lord has shown to be His will in our lives....
Take our marriages. He wants us to be
at peace with one another.....love and respect each other....I am intrigued by
the little word “be courteous” in 1Pet 3:8
Our Lord understands that the little details of our
relationships determine the atmosphere of the home....We ought to pray for those
details.....to be in place before so many bricks have been laid in the walls
between us that we can’t get over them anymore....Request for a spirit of
courtesy to prevail in our most intimate relationships is on heaven’s prayer
list....He intercedes for our courtesy to one another. Let’s join Him
Prayer for new converts and others we
know who are going to experience severe testing are on heaven’s prayer
list....Jesus said to Peter, “Satan hath sought to sift thee but I have prayed
for thee that thy faith fail not.”...Years ago in a church I pastored a man who
had a serious alcohol problem was gloriously saved; came forward to ask for
believers baptism and membership in the church....Some weeks later I showed him
my prayer list which included his name...I wanted him to know that I had been
praying for him for months....and that God had answered my prayer....I showed
him my prayer list with his name now marked through to show that he no longer
was on that prayer list....He blanched white and said in a serious voice, “
Please don’t take my name off your prayer list now I need it more than ever!”
I put it back. P.S. I am on his prayer list now and have been for over 40
years!
4.
Our own spiritual needs are Biblical prayer items.
I am personally on heaven’s prayer list! “...He ever lives to make
intercession for the saints...”(Hebrews 7:25) To put a finer point: I am on
Jesus’ prayer list.
Let me show you Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians, a prayer we need
to pray for our churches....especially the body with which you and I are
associated:
Ephesians. 1:16-20 “I
Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my
prayers;
17That the God of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and
revelation in the knowledge of him:
18The
eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope
of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the
saints,
19And what is the exceeding
greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his
mighty power,
20Which he wrought in Christ, when
he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the
heavenly places,...”
What an array of spiritual gifts and blessings he requests for us;
“wisdom and revelation, understanding, knowledge of His calling, riches of His
inheritance, greatness of His power toward us.....” His list goes on.
Believers have a spiritual treasure trove intended for us, and we typically live
on the poverty level. I want all God has for me. I want Him to have all of
me. All of Him in all of me that is my desire. Lord, “do thou remind me
through thy sweet Holy Spirit to ask, and seek, and knock, and keep asking till
there is manifest evidence that more of what you designed for me becomes mine.”
There is no end to the riches of His glory. Heaven’s prayer list
cannot all be comprehended in an article like this. It is scattered throughout
God’s Word. I am learning why by dear Mother nearly always prayed with it open
before her on her knees every night. Little wonder, in these days when she can
no longer see well enough to read the Bible, that her most fervent prayer is:
“Thy will be done. Thy will be done.” Amen
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