Are we capitalizing the awesome power of prayer through our Sunday School and Small group Bible studies? I have asked this question of many groups of Sunday School leaders and they tell me no. When we dig deeper, we discover that we mostly just pray for the sick. We don’t go deeper and ask God for needs of unreached people. We don’t ask God for those things which we may think to “that which only God can do”. That is almost like saying, “It is OK God, I think we can do this by ourselves.” What a mistake.
Do you remember Jeremiah 29:11-13, “I know the thoughts I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will
listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for me with all your heart.”
And what about Jeremiah 33:3 “Call to me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.”?
Don’t forget the prayer of Jabez, I Chronicles 4:10 “And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, ‘Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!’ So God granted him what he requested.”
Are we praying for and asking God for what He wants us to ask for, OR just what we think we need? Could it be that we are limiting God in our Sunday Schools because we are not seeking Him and what He wants to do through us? Maybe, we like things the way they are TOO much. God wants to stretch us, but we don’t want to be stretched, so we don’t ask Him for more than we can see to ask about.
God told Jeremiah to ask for “great and mighty things”. Jabez boldly ask God to “bless me indeed”. Both call for obedient prayer, seeking the Blesser more than the blessing; seeking His will more than ours.
God has Commissioned us to reach our communities. He has Commanded us to love Him and to love our communities. This begins with surrendered prayer seeking Him and His will for His church and the communities around us. Let step forward in faith.
Why not intentionally broaden our base of prayer and ask every Sunday School classes and Small Group Bible studies to pray for our church leaders every week?
We could go even further and ask them to pray for every member of their class/Small Group every week.
A step further would be to ask them to pray for prospects for their class/Small Group every week.
AND all of us know of friends not in any church or Bible study, why not pray for them every week.
AND more importantly still we know friends who do not know Christ as Savior. We need to pray for them until they come to Christ.
We could be bold and ask God to give us the opportunity to build a trusting relationship with that friend so that we could tell them how wonderful our Savior is and what He can do for their life.
We have not because we ask not.
John 15:7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”
Let’s keep abiding, asking, and prayerfully expecting God’s blessings.
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