Thoughts for Life: #77 Maintain a Special Prayer Burden for the Youth

Dr. Wesley L. Duewel: The Youth. Maintain a special prayer burden for the youth and your ministry to them even though you may have a youth pastor.

Pray for (1) an adequately planned ministry to them; (2) the salvation of each; (3) an expanding ministry to youth outside the church; (4) God's call to Christian service for youth of His choosing; (5) training or employment for needy youth; (6) strength to withstand the special temptations of youth.
(Google image, Youth Group).

God can give you your own Elisha, Timothy, or Titus from your own community. When God seems to be raising up such a person, pray daily for him and often with him. Take whatever steps are needed to disciple and counsel him.

The Men. Every church needs spiritually strong men, active in the prayer and witness of the church. Every home needs a spiritually strong father to set the example and take the spiritual responsibility for the home. Too often this has to be done by wives and mothers. Your men need your prayer.

The Women. They have their special concerns and needs. They can be a tremendous spiritual strength to the church. Many wives carry a heavy burden for the salvation of their unsaved companions, and the pastor should help them by sharing this prayer burden.

The Singles. How our single people need our prayer these days! Do they hear you praying for them in your public prayer? Single parents need special prayer for their responsibilities and concerns.

Civic and Government Leaders. All Christians are commanded by Scripture to put priority on praying for government leaders (1 Tim. 2:1-3). We owe it to our government to pray for God to give wisdom, integrity, and right decisions to our rulers whether in nation, state, or city.

Key government figures should be on the leader's daily prayer list, and he should regularly pray for them in his pulpit prayers and train his people to pray for them. But at times when crucial issues are facing the government it is right to schedule special times of personal and church prayer.

Revival and Harvest. God depends upon Christian leaders to call their people to prayer for revival and for a great harvest of souls, just as He depended on prophets to call the people in Old Testament times to payer. The leader should frequently include this in his public prayers and in his requests at prayer meetings.

Set apart special prayer times for special burdens the Holy Spirit places upon your heart. Not only may the Spirit guide you to set apart special times of prayer for revival or harvest, He may guide you to seek new special blessing on your own heart.

Greatly used people of God have often found it necessary to get alone with Him for a longer time for a new anointing, new spiritual refreshing for their own soul, or God's special guidance concerning their ministry or their people. This was Finney's personal prayer habit.

God may guide you as leader to take steps to multiply prayer for the needs He has put on your heart. You may be led to call your people to make a commitment of a given number of hours of prayer for a need—five hundred or a thousand hours of prayer for revival, or for a special evangelistic campaign.

Almost anyone should be willing to pledge an hour of prayer, especially if you permit them to divide it into two half-hours or four fifteen-minute periods. Many may be willing to commit themselves to an hour a day, or five hours in a week, or some similar pledge.

The more times they stop their work and give God a love offering of intercession for the special need, the more God will be able to place the burden on their hearts, and the more their faith will begin to rise.

Spurgeon said, "If any minister can be satisfied without conversions, he shall have no conversions." We are too satisfied to carry on in our ministry with little or no outpourings of God's Spirit and with few regularly coming to the Lord.

God gives souls only to those who cannot live without them. The leader who is not hungry for souls is in serious need of a revival in his own heart. But there is no limit to what God can do if we are hungry enough and take specific steps to enlist the prayer of God's people.

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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
#77 Maintain a Special Prayer Burden for the Youth
by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel
(pp. 234- 236) ZondervanPublishingHouse

Today's post suggestion: #7 What Controls You? from Healing Thoughts and Prayers

Praying man

Father, help our leaders pray adequately for the ministry of our youth, which includes: for the salvation of each one, expanding the ministry to youths outside our churches, have services where You can call some for service, offer training or the employment of our needy youth, and helping them withstand the special temptations they face as youth.
Our men, women, singles, as well as our youth, need constant prayer so as to become strong in faith and committed to You.
Draw our pastors and leaders aside to have special prayer times for special burdens You place upon their hearts for our youth.
We've been too satisfied to continue our ministries in our churches with little or no outpourings of Your Holy Spirit. Stir our leaders to desire the loss to be saved, and to disciple them; the youth, as well as all who come in our doors.
Help us remember there is no limit to what You can do if we are hungry enough and take the appropriate steps to seek revival in our churches through planned times of prayer.
As our youth are hungry for something Real to believe and follow, may we prepare appropriate opportunities which have been covered with much prayer to reach them.
We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Today's Bible verses-

Rom. 16:19, 20) (NKJV) "For your obedience has
become known to all. Therefore I am glad on your
behalf; but I want you to be wise in what is good,
and simple concerning evil. (20) And the God of peace
will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen."

Ps. 119:9, 11, 12 (NKJV) "How can a young man
cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your
word. (11) Your word I have hidden in my heart,
That I might not sin against You. (12) Blessed are
You, O LORD! Teach me Your statutes."

Ecc. 12:1 a (NKJV) "Remember now your Creator in
the days of your youth, Before the difficult days come."

Today's quote-

~ John & Carol Arnott- "Your see, our battle isn't so much withe the demonic, although demons are very real and we are definitely at war with them. But our battle, especially these days, is for intimacy with God. Closeness with Him. knowing Him and being known by Him.
There are so many things, so many voices, that would pull us away from Him, and it can be a real battle to maintain that love relationship. But if we are truly intimate with God, the devil's power is thwarted in our lives. The more intimate we are with Him, the more secure we are, and the more the lies of the devil just fall off of us."

(pp. 89, 90 of PREPARING for the GLORY, Getting Ready for the Next Wave of Holy Spirit Outpouring)

~ Billy Graham- "But here comes the glorious part: Christ took the penalty of our sin. That is what the cross is all about. He died on that cross for people like you and me, sinners who had failed Him and had broken His laws.

On that cross, God took all of our sins and laid them on Christ, so that He became sin for us. He took the judgment of our sin; He took the hell of our sin. And the moral accountability that you would ordinarily expect to face at the judgment, you will not have to face if you claim Him as your Savior." (p. 34 of DECISION July-August-2018).

Today's popular post-

He Meets us Where We are

Tracy Crump shares with us about her experience:

“I want to be saved.' Twelve-year-old Jason’s words took his babysitter off guard.

She called her friend Katherine for help. Together they sat on the porch and talked with Jason."

Upcoming posts-

#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

#79 Men Who Served the Lord with Tears
14th- Tuesday's post by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel

#80 God Desires that We Leaders Weep
16th- Thursday's post by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel