Thoughts for Life: #76 Suggestions for Your Prayer Role

Dr. Wesley L. Duewel: Regardless of your leadership role—pastor, teacher, Sunday School leader, lay leader, youth leader, missionary—adapt this to your situation.

1. Plan your intercession for your people. You will be sure to fail God and your people unless you have a regular prayer plan for your intercession times. If anything in life is worth planning, surely this is. (Google image, Man with uplifted hand).

a. Reserve a special daily time for your intercession. This is as important as setting apart time for preparing your messages or for visiting your people. This should be daily time, choice time, when you are physically alert and able to intensive intercession.

In addition, God will bring your people and their needs to your attention at special times at the particular moment when someone needs your prayer. When God thus specially prompts you, as far as possible put other work aside instantly and pray.

God will also bring your people to your prayer attention as you work, travel, as you have moments when your mind is comparatively free. As their leader, your people should constantly be on your heart, even as they were on the heart of Paul.

b. Have a place where you intercede for your people. If you have a private room, you can make that your prayer closet. It is an added blessing when you have a special place to pray.

When I visit John Wesley's house in London, I always treasure the the time I can spend praying quietly in his prayer room at the top of the stairs.

c. Have prayer lists of your people. God greatly blesses the use of prayer lists. There is strong evidence that Paul used them. You will also want special lists—of unsaved people you are seeking to win, of leaders of your nation, of missions needs (nations, people, ministries), a prayer-partner list (people in whose ministry you want to share by prayer), a family list. Your major responsibility, as shepherd, is your prayer list or lists for your own people.

Jesus said the good shepherd calls his sheep by name (John 1:3). If a shepherd knows the name of each sheep, how much more should the spiritual shepherd pray by name for each one of his flock.

Hudson Taylor, founder of the China inland Mission, used to pray for every mission station, every missionary by name, and every specific need and circumstance of which he was aware. His prayer lives on in China today.

It may be that the greatest change that could come in your life and ministry would be for you really to learn to pray for your people and for your ministry among them.

d. Plan how you will cover with prayer the needs of your people.
If your congregation is too large to pray for each one personally each day, plan ways to include regularly all for whom you are spiritually responsible and accountable to God (Heb. 13:17).

You may need to segment your list so that you pray for a portion of your congregation each day of the week. Perhaps you will want to have a list of family names so that you do pray each day for each family by name.

You will want a constantly changing "need list" on a separate sheet of paper with the special needs of your people as they arise. This would include sickness, accidents, bereavement, unemployment, special discouragement, or trial. As your people begin to realize how personally you pray for each of them, they will gladly share their needs as they arise so you can more effectively be their prayer shepherd.

e. Have a prayer plan for major needs of your people and community. Special concerns and major needs weigh heavily on the heart of every pastor. If your congregation is small, perhaps you can pray for them all each day. If it is large, you will need to plan your prayer with separate topics for each day of the week.

Among your major prayer concerns for your people as a whole are unity, integrity, godly living, a praying people, witnessing people, revival, a growing church impact, a worldwide church impact, God's presence in your services.

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Used by permission of the author and Duewel Literature Trust, Inc., Greenwood, Indiana. Creative reading style by Jean.

Ablaze for God
#76 Suggestions for Your Prayer Role
by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel
(pp. 231- 234) ZondervanPublishingHouse

Today's popular post:

#19 Intercession as a Christian Role

C. Peter Wagner tells us, "Intercession, as I have mentioned, [in his book, PRAYER SHIELD], is only one kind of prayer.

But it is so important that Jesus Himself is described as an intercessor. Jesus Christ, at the right hand of God, "also makes intercession for us"

Praying for leaders

Father, whether we're a pastor, teacher, Sunday School leader, lay leader or youth leader, or even a missionary, may we adapt the advice given us today:
We're to plan our intercession for our people by reserving a special daily time for that purpose.
Create a special place for prayer, and to have lists handy to cover the needs of our people. Have a plan for covering the known needs of our community as well.

May we keep in mind that our main concern is for our people as a whole to be in unity, known for their integrity, living godly lives, are a praying people, witnessing people, seeking true revival, are a growing church, have a worldwide church impact, and have God's presence in our services.
Hear our prayer, Father. In Jesus' name we pray for His glory and Yours. Amen.

Today's post suggestion: #5 God Understands, from Healing Thoughts and Prayers

Today's Bible verses-

Prov. 30:5 (KJV) "Every word of God is pure: he is a
shield unto them that put their trust in him."

Prov. 25:11 (KJV) "A word fitly spoken is like apples
of gold in pictures of silver."

1 Cor. 3:16 (KJV) "Know ye not that ye are the temple
of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?"

1 Cor. 4:20 (KJV) "For the kingdom of God is not in
word, but in power."

Today's quote-

~ Charles Spurgeon- "The very act of prayer is a blessing. To pray is, as it were, to bathe in a cool, swirling stream and so to escape from the heat of earth's summer sun. To pray is to mount on eagle's wings above the clouds and get into the clear heaven where God dwells.
To pray is to enter the treasure-house of God and to gather riches out of an inexhaustible storehouse. To pray is to grasp heaven in one's arms, to embrace the Deity within one's soul, and to feel one's body made a temple of the Holy Spirit." (p. 48, Spurgeon on PRAYER & SPIRITUAL WARFARE).

Today's question-

Why should we take our eyes off each other?

We're to do all things without complaining, (Phil. 2:14), so when we compare ourselves with others, there's room for doubt that they, or we, aren't doing enough to please God.
Keeping our eyes on Christ Jesus helps us refuse to entertain negative thoughts. Phil. 4:13 shows us with His help, we can resist this judging of others.
We'll all stand or fall before the Father, and our getting involved unnecessarily with someone's problem, (if we're not asked as part of the problem), may only cause us grief. Praying for them is our duty, privilege and opportunity.
Phil 4:8 instructs us to think thoughts worth thinking, like: whatever is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of a good report, and if there be any virtue; we're to think on these things.
Approach life with gratefulness and to look to Jesus our Great High Priest, Who is Faithful to pray for each one of us by name. Let's stay focused on Him, not on others. As we pray for them, He'll see to their needs. He doesn't need our input as to how He's to do it, either. Let God be God!

Upcoming posts-

Made Up Minds
4th- Saturday's post by Merlin Carothers

#77 Maintain a Special Prayer Burden for the Youth
7th- Tuesday's post by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel

#78 Your Ministry of Tears
9th- Thursday's post by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel

Have You Been to the Water?
11th- Saturday's post by Jean Oathout