The Prayer of God’s People in Painful Times
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
How much time do you spend on your phone?
If you have a phone, I’m going to ask you to do something that we usually don’t do - I want you to pick it up and go to your settings. If you have an iPhone, scroll down to “screen time” and then click “See all app and website activity.” Does that number surprise you? If you scroll down towards the bottom you see another graphic called “pickups” - how about that one? Any surprises? We are living in a world in which we prioritize communication in this information age. The average American spends 4.5 hours each day on their phone and over 7 hours a day looking at a screen. We have to check in and make sure that we haven’t missed anything important and before we know it, a tool that is meant to help us suddenly becomes our master because we prioritize it too much. Anyone else a bit convicted by the numbers you see?
Imagine if we treated prayer like we do our phones. Something happens in life and we immediately go to the Lord in prayer… just like many immediately post it on social media or send out a text. We feel convicted or we remember something and we immediately ask God for help… just like we get a buzz or hear a notification sound and immediately look at our screen to see what it says. How would your life look different if you prioritized prayer more, especially in painful times?
On this Mother’s Day, we continue our study through Daniel and we come to Daniel 9:1-19 - no visions today, mom’s! Instead we see a remarkable prayer that demonstrates faith in the Lord. I was blessed as a boy and now as an adult to have a momma who was and is smart, Christlike, and wise… but who most of all knew that she needed Jesus and who prioritized prayer when I was young and who still prioritizes prayer to this day. Were any of you blessed with such an individual? I hope you were… but if you were not, what is stopping you from being this person who pauses and prays for those you love? This morning in Daniel 9 we’re going to see how we are to pray especially in painful times. I trust that you know what it feels like to be in a painful time, as some have said, we’re either suffering, coming out of suffering, or getting ready to suffer. We all know what this feels like - let’s turn to God’s Word and see how we are to respond in such moments!
1 In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, a Mede by birth, who was made king over the Chaldean kingdom—
2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the books according to the word of the Lord to the prophet Jeremiah that the number of years for the desolation of Jerusalem would be seventy.
3 So I turned my attention to the Lord God to seek him by prayer and petitions, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.
4 I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed: Ah, Lord—the great and awe-inspiring God who keeps his gracious covenant with those who love him and keep his commands—
5 we have sinned, done wrong, acted wickedly, rebelled, and turned away from your commands and ordinances.
6 We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, leaders, ancestors, and all the people of the land.
7 Lord, righteousness belongs to you, but this day public shame belongs to us: the men of Judah, the residents of Jerusalem, and all Israel—those who are near and those who are far, in all the countries where you have banished them because of the disloyalty they have shown toward you.
8 Lord, public shame belongs to us, our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors, because we have sinned against you.
9 Compassion and forgiveness belong to the Lord our God, though we have rebelled against him
10 and have not obeyed the Lord our God by following his instructions that he set before us through his servants the prophets.
11 All Israel has broken your law and turned away, refusing to obey you. The promised curse written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, has been poured out on us because we have sinned against him.
12 He has carried out his words that he spoke against us and against our rulers by bringing on us a disaster that is so great that nothing like what has been done to Jerusalem has ever been done under all of heaven.
13 Just as it is written in the law of Moses, all this disaster has come on us, yet we have not sought the favor of the Lord our God by turning from our iniquities and paying attention to your truth.
14 So the Lord kept the disaster in mind and brought it on us, for the Lord our God is righteous in all he has done. But we have not obeyed him.
15 Now, Lord our God—who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a strong hand and made your name renowned as it is this day—we have sinned, we have acted wickedly.
16 Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, may your anger and wrath turn away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain; for because of our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors, Jerusalem and your people have become an object of ridicule to all those around us.
17 Therefore, our God, hear the prayer and the petitions of your servant. Make your face shine on your desolate sanctuary for the Lord’s sake.
18 Listen closely, my God, and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations and the city that bears your name. For we are not presenting our petitions before you based on our righteous acts, but based on your abundant compassion.
19 Lord, hear! Lord, forgive! Lord, listen and act! My God, for your own sake, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your name.
Church, aren’t you thankful that we have a God who hears, listens, acts, and saves? Let’s go to Him in prayer this morning
Why We Pray: God Is Worthy | We Are Needy (1-3)
Why We Pray: God Is Worthy | We Are Needy (1-3)
Have you ever had someone ask you as a Christian why exactly you pray in the first place?
I remember reading an article about this very thing not that long ago. Some people say that they pray in order to make themselves feel better - almost as though prayer is a sort of mental processing time. Prayer certainly helps us pause and think through situations but prayer is more than just something that makes us feel better. Others said that prayer is informing God of something going on in life. God is all-knowing. Isaiah 46:10 told us last week that God declares the end from the beginning - we don’t inform God of something in the sense that God is surprised by something going on in life. So, what is prayer? Why do we pray? There are many who view prayer as a waste of time. Leonard Ravenhill shares it like this:
“The self-sufficient do not pray. The self-satisfied will not pray. The self-righteous cannot pray.”
What about you and me? What about Daniel in our text? We see that Daniel prays one of the theologically densest prayers in Daniel 9 that centers on God’s holiness and faithfulness and his own sinfulness. We see in our text that more time has gone on since the vision in Daniel 8. Darius, or Cyrus as he is better known in history, is now ruling as king of the Persian empire. They conquered the Babylonians in October 539 BC and here we find Daniel in the midst of this transition of power in March of 538 BC. In the midst of this political takeover of the Persians, we read that Daniel “understood from the books according to the Word of the Lord to Jeremiah…” What is Daniel doing? Daniel is reading Scripture. Whenever you and I say Scripture, we usually think of our completed Bible - do you realize how incredible this book is? For thousands of years, believers didn’t have this - a completed Bible! Daniel’s “Bible” or understanding of what was from the Lord was the Law of Moses (the first 5 books of the Bible) and various prophecies he had heard or read. Daniel believed that what his contemporary prophet, Jeremiah, said were the very words of God. Daniel knew his Bible and he believed God’s Word. What did God tell Jeremiah?
10 For this is what the Lord says: “When seventy years for Babylon are complete, I will attend to you and will confirm my promise concerning you to restore you to this place.
11 For I know the plans I have for you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.
One of the most wellknown verses in the whole Bible - what is its context? To a people in Babylonian captivity to reassure them that their time in exile would in fact come to completion and they would be restored and freed! This has nothing to do with graduating college or how to unlock your best life now or anything of the matter! This is a beautiful verse but we have to understand it in its context. Daniel believed this key part of this promise: The Babylonian captivity would last 70 years because God has a plan for His people and His plan involves 70 years of exile.
14 I will be found by you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and places where I banished you”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “I will restore you to the place from which I deported you.”
Daniel knew this was God’s promise and He believed it. Israel had gone into exile because they had disobeyed God’s law. God promised them that if they didn’t obey, they would be cursed and one of those curses was being captured by an enemy army and taken into captivity. This is what God promised and this is what God did. Yet, God promised them that this time would come to an end. He promises restoration.
So, why does Daniel go to God in prayer in verse 3? Why would he pray and fast and focus on God? Because he fundamentally understands that God is worthy of praise and worship. He recognizes that the reason that he and his countrymen are in the situation that they are in today is because they failed to pray to God and worship Him as He deserved… They got complacent. They gave in to temptation. They fell short. They sinned! So Daniel humbly comes to God in prayer. He knows the end is near. He trusts in God to keep His Word.
Why do you and I pray? Because God hasn’t changed across 2600 years. He has made a promise to provide for His children. He has made a promise to save sinners from their sin. We pray because Jesus Christ came to this world to seek and save the lost. We pray because we are redeemed. We pray because God hears the cries of His children. We pray not because we deserve to, but because we get to. Consider the early church in Acts praying for their leader, Peter
5 So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was praying fervently to God for him.
These early believers prayed with urgency because God is worthy of praise and prayer and because they were in need. As Spurgeon once said, “I have a great need for Christ and I have a great Christ for my need.” This is our attitude in prayer - humbly seeking God because He is worthy and we are needy. We recognize that God is sovereign and we are sinners. We don’t deserve to come before Him, but because of the blood of Jesus, we are able to and we are expected to. We pray as beggars as we come to the throne of the King, but we know that the King looks at us not as the filthy beggars we once were, but as the adopted children that we now are through the work of Jesus Christ! Because of Jesus, we pray!
How We Pray:
How We Pray:
We see several ways that people pray in the Bible. We see that Jesus prays to His Father often in His ministry and we see that Jesus seeks the will of the Father, even when that means something difficult for Him. We see that God’s people pray in order to praise God for something that He has done. We see many times in the Bible where people pray in order to repent or turn away from something wrong that they have done. So, how are we to pray today? Some say that prayer is telling God what to do - or speaking things into existence by faith or declaring things. May we never be so arrogant as to assume that we have this type of power ourselves, church! That’s dangerous ground to stand upon! A helpful way to think about prayer is the acrostic PRAY - we see these components in Daniel’s prayer in the verses that follow starting with a section on praising God in verse 4
Praise (4)
Praise (4)
It is estimated that humans breathe 23,000 times each day - and the vast majority of these breaths are without us even thinking, subconsciously. Have you ever paused to consider how complex that process is? We breathe in oxygen and we exhale carbon dioxide and our brain helps regulate our respiratory system and all of these other natural processes playing out throughout our entire body, basically without us having to think twice about it. Isn’t that incredible? What do you do with those breaths, though? There are sometimes that we use those breaths to say things about someone that we shouldn’t say. There are times that we use those breaths to boast about ourselves and our accomplishments. There are times that we use those breaths to, frankly, talk about things of no significance. What do you and I do with those breaths? What should we do? We should use the breaths that God gives us to praise His name.
Our God is great, awesome, awe-inspiring, faithful, loving, merciful, and gracious, and so many more of these things as well! We see in verse 4 that Daniel, at the start of His prayer, praises God for WHO He is and WHAT He has done. Consider what we read about God’s faithfulness in the Old Testament to this point. After God established His covenant with David, David prays and gives thanks
22 This is why you are great, Lord God. There is no one like you, and there is no God besides you, as all we have heard confirms.
In Deuteronomy we see God’s awesomeness with this promise to deliver the Israelites from their enemies
24 Lord God, you have begun to show your greatness and your strong hand to your servant, for what god is there in heaven or on earth who can perform deeds and mighty acts like yours?
Years later, we see Solomon build the Temple in Jerusalem and this was his prayer during its dedication
23 He said: Lord God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below, who keeps the gracious covenant with your servants who walk before you with all their heart.
Our God is faithful. He is awesome. He is mighty. He is compassionate. He is gracious. He always comes through. Daniel shares that God keeps His gracious covenant with those who love Him and keep His commands. In the Old Testament, we see that this was the way that things worked - God’s law said that if the people kept His commands, they would be blessed, and if they didn’t then they would be cursed. Quickly, what do we see as problematic with this system? As humans, we are fallen sinners and we always disobey. As you and I look at just the 10 commandments, what do we see? Failure across the board. We don’t measure up. If God keeps His covenant with those who love Him and keep His commands, then we’re up a creek without a paddle. Praise God for His faithfulness, but we don’t measure up to deserve it in the first place! So where is there a drop of hope here? That word, covenant, is pointing us forward in redemptive history. You know that this book is all about Jesus Christ, don’t you? Let me ask you this, who truly loved God and fully kept His commands? Jesus did. So, how is God’s faithfulness to His covenant good news? It’s only good news for those who are in Christ.
1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus succeeded where you and I failed. Because of the work of Jesus on the cross, you and I now have peace with God. We can rest assured that God will keep His covenantal promises to us, not because of ourselves, but because of what Jesus did. Every time that we pray, the first thing that should come to mind whenever we commune with God is praising Him for both WHO He is and WHAT He has done for us in sending His Son, Jesus, to fulfill the Old Covenant and to bring about the New Covenant that is written on the hearts of His people rather than on tablets of stone the preacher of Hebrews reminds us of in Hebrews 8-10.
We praise our God whenever we pray to God - prayer without praise is problematic
Repent (5-14)
Repent (5-14)
The next section, and the longest section, of this prayer is on repentance from sin. Look at what Daniel says - we have sinned, done wrong, acted wickedly, rebelled, turned away, and not listened. Daniel is calling it how it is. He isn’t sugarcoating the situation. He’s being honest with the Lord. What is one of the greatest problem in the church today? A lack of honesty, especially towards God. We don’t call sin, sin. We call it a mistake. We don’t call it rebellion, we call it a matter of opinion. We don’t call it turning away, we call it going a different way. We don’t believe we’ve done wrong, we we just weren’t acting strong. We’re so good at blaming others for our sins and problems, that so often we forget that God holds us responsible for our actions. The lengths that people go to avoid repentance are incredible! It wasn’t my problem, it was my friend. It was my classmate. It was my coworker. It was this person. It was this situation. It was because I didn’t feel good! My favorite - it was the devil that made me do it! No, church! It’s me. It’s you. It’s on us.
8 If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say, “We have not sinned,” we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
What are we called to do? To repent. To confess our sins. We count our blessings, name them one by one… we should learn to confess our sins… name them one by one! We repent and ask God to forgive and cleanse us from our wickedness. This is an essential part of prayer and this is what Daniel spends quite a bit of time doing in our text. Notice, he says that “we have” done these things… Daniel was a relatively faithful person who trusted in God through thick and thin. Why would he say we?
Consider Isaiah 6:5
5 Then I said: Woe is me for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips and live among a people of unclean lips, and because my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Armies.
God’s holiness shines a spotlight at not only our personal sin but also our corporate sin. Daniel asks God to forgive not only his sins but also these people. We could say that he is living out Galatians 6:2
2 Carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
He shares that they have rebelled against God. They haven’t worshiped God as they should have. They are banished. They are cursed. They have brought shame upon themselves. Understand this, friends, sin always brings with it a price. There is no such thing as cheap grace. Think of the cost of our sin. Sin separates us from God. Sin destroys relationships. Sin distorts the truth. Sin ruins what it touches! As the song says, “It was my sin that held Him there.” Sin is serious! We must repent of it. We must admit that God’s Word is right and that sin is something that God punishes. Daniel realized that the reason that they were in exile was because God was punishing them for their sins. The average person in this region would have said that the reason they were in exile was because their God wasn’t powerful enough to defend them. The Babylonians were greater. Their God had abandoned them and didn’t care about them. The facts couldn’t be anymore different - God loved them so much that He was going to use this season in exile to discipline them as Hebrews 12 reminds us that God disciplines those whom He loves. Whenever we sin, our first response should be to turn and repent to our God rather than doubling down as we are all tempted to do. We must repent and seek God’s face.
Whenever you sin, do you mourn your sin or to you shrug your shoulders about it? This congregation should be a place where sin is regularly confessed, not because it is easy but because it is necessary! It isn’t enough to just know what to do, we must actually do it, even if it isn’t popular or easy.
“You can’t stand outside and admire the narrow gate; you’ve got to drop everything and walk through it.” J-Mac
Ask (15-16)
Ask (15-16)
The next thing that Daniel does is he petitions God, he asks God to act and to act out of His mercy. He once again goes to the example of Moses as God delivered His people from Egypt not because they were the greatest or the most powerful, but so that His power would be seen and His power made known to the nations through His covenant to Abraham. Just as the Israelites cried out to God to deliver them, Daniel is asking God to do the same thing here. Not because of their goodness, in fact Daniel again shares that they have acted wickedly against God, but Daniel still asks God to turn His wrath against Jerusalem and His people currently in exile.
There are a few extremes whenever we pray: There is the fear that we can’t ask something from God because of something we’ve done - as though we feel like we can’t approach God because of a skeleton in our closet that will surprise God. But there is another extreme that says that we don’t just ask God for things, we declare things and speak them into existence. In other words, we name and claim and blab and grab with a spirit of breakthrough as many in the charismatic circles claim to possess.
As with most things, the truth isn’t found in the extremes but in the middle. As God’s people we are called to ask things of our Father!
9 “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you.
We have the relationship, though Jesus, to ask things of God when we pray to Him. We ask Him to provide. We ask Him to answer. We ask Him at times to heal. We ask God to save loved ones. We ask God to protect us during literal and metaphorical storms that we face. It is normal to ask things of God! But we also understand that God’s answer isn’t always what we ask for. Look at 1 John 5 with me
14 This is the confidence we have before him: If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
15 And if we know that he hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked of him.
We present our requests before God after praising Him and repenting from our sins. We ask, and we know that God answers. Tim Keller put it like this a few years ago, “If we knew what God knows, we would ask exactly for what he gives.” In other words, as we study God’s Word, understand more of WHO He is, and as we look at the situation before us, we know what to ask for. Daniel doesn’t pray for deliverance just because times are hard… He prays for God’s glory to be made known by restoring a people who are presently powerless and in exile. He asks God to be glorified in this situation - that is a prayer that God undoubtedly answers, and a prayer that must be on our lips each day.
Yield (17-19)
Yield (17-19)
Finally, Daniel yields to God’s will and trusts in the Lord to hear his request and listen and act and forgive - not because of anything good in him or the Israelites but because of God’s goodness and glory. Why is it that we can trust in God in the midst of our uncertainty and tragedy and suffering? Have you ever met someone going through an awful situation who has this peace that surpasses all understanding? How is that even attainable? Consider Daniel’s situation here. What did we see back in chapters 3 and 6? Some of the most famous passages in the Bible! God delivered his friends from a fiery furnace and God delivered Daniel from a den of death! What about before this in the history of Israel? The Israelites were in exile in Egypt. Slaves in chains… and what did God do? He delivered them. Later they faced the Red Sea on one side and the Pharaohs army on the other side and what did God do? He delivered them, rebellion, sinful, broken, and all. Are you ready for an incredible truth, church? Jesus Christ is the SAME!
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
If God could deliver then, He can deliver now. Why do we trust in the Lord and yield to Him and wait for Him? Because He is faithful. He is all-powerful. We look around our lives and world today and we see problems across the board. We see Christians around the world persecuted for their faith. We see the church in the United States largely more concerned with power than prayer and millions than missions. We see issues, but where do we find hope? Where is the antidote to despair? The providential peace of God. The Bible is so helpful if we would but read it. Church History is full of examples of God delivering people from certain destruction. Why do we trust in God? Because we know how it all ends. We know that He is working all things for His glory and our good in Christ. This is Daniel’s hope - he petitions God not because of his righteousness but because of God’s mercy and compassion!
We are hurting. We need you. Please listen. Please save. Please do what you have promised to do. We trust in You - this is Daniel’s prayer!
Church, shouldn’t this be our prayer today. Not for our sake. Not for our comforts. Not for our preferences. But for the glory of God and the good of the people of God. And the salvation of those around us who don’t even realize the situation that they are in today. Yielding to God’s will isn’t always easy… but as we study Scripture, we come to understand that God knows best! Doesn’t this change the way in which we pray? As a Christian, God is fully committed to your sanctification - you becoming more like Christ - and He promises to finish the work that He starts as Philippians 1:6 tells us. That means that in all things, good and bad, He is shaping us into the image of His Son through the work of His Spirit. Sometimes this hurts - think of a artist thousands of years ago working on a statue of marble with a hammer and a chisel, removing things that don’t need to be there in order to complete the masterpiece. This is what God does in our lives and sometimes it hurts, but as we yield to His will and plan, we can trust that He has our best interests at heart. This is why we pray.
AW Pink once said that, “Prayer is not so much an act as an attitude of dependence upon God.” We depend on Him.
Let me ask you this, based on your prayer life would you say that you truly depend on God? Think back to the amount of hours we’re on our phones… We depend on them for so many things in our world, and many of them are good things! But shouldn’t we depend on prayer more? Think of all the ink in Scripture devoted to people spending time with God in prayer - read the Psalms, read the Gospels, read the early church in Acts - God’s people are a praying people. Here Daniel prayed for the restoration of Jerusalem because all the pagans in the region believed wrongly that God couldn’t protect His people agains the gods of Babylon. What should our prayer be today? That God would strengthen us to stand against a tidal wave of godlessness. That God would strengthen local churches to remain faithful to Scripture. We’re in a season of history where churches and pastors are falling left and right due to either moral failings or bending the knee to culture instead of Scripture. Friends, this should break our heart to see. I’ve seen some people rejoicing to see once faithful ministers, ministries, and churches fall - this should grieve us! What does God think of such things? He can’t stand those who bear His name mocking His Gospel. What does the world think of such things? What is different about this person or ministry? They say that they worship God but their leader is a criminal or he’s corrupt. What should our prayer be for our church, our leaders, and other churches, and other leaders? That God would provide strength to remain steadfast and to yield to His will in all things. To stand out in a sea of skepticism and subjectivity. Our prayer isn’t self-serving, it is Christ-Centered! Our prayer is for God to be glorified as His people stand on His Word. This requires us not only to pray, not only to do what is right, but to wait and yield to His good and perfect will - even in painful times!
EM Bounds once shared this remarkable quote, “A Praying Pulpit Begets Praying Pews.” We must be people of prayer. As great and obedient and faithful as Daniel was, he recognized that he was still a rebel. A sinner. An evildoer. Friends, it doesn’t matter who you are, we are all in the same boat! We all need the mercy of God
1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins
2 in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient.
3 We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.
At best, this is your past! At worst, this is your present! Dead in sins. Walking in darkness. A child under wrath. What do we all need? A Savior of sinners. A light in the darkness. Adoption from wrath to warmth. We all need Jesus! He is the Savior of sinners - and He is the Savior of Mom’s. God hears our cries. As we read our Bible’s we see that God only acts in the best interests of His people. He only answers prayers in the best way possible! Believer, do you see how this gives us hope? You are not only an image bearer of the most high God, you are an adopted child of the King! Through Jesus, you have access to God whenever you want. Your Heavenly Father promises to work all things for His glory and your ultimate good. This grounds our faith today. We bear His name. He knows what we are struggling with. He knows the pain. He knows the grief that we experience.
God had ordained that for 70 years the people would be in exile. That time was drawing to a conclusion and Daniel prays for God to bring about the deliverance that He promised. What about you and I? What has God promised us? His presence. His power. His peace.
What are we instructed to do at all times, but what must we especially do in painful times? Be people of prayer. Women who were able to attend the Spring Women’s Event, you heard my mom’s story of waiting in painful times and praying and trusting in the Lord. Waiting is hard. We’re not guaranteed of the outcome we’d necessarily like… but we know that God will act in accordance with His good and perfect and pleasing will!
Whatever season of life you are in, friend, depend on God. Trust in God. He hears. He answers. He delivers. He saves. God is committed to Himself. His people. His Word. His plan. “You can do more than pray, after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed.” John Bunyan. As we continue onward at FBC Salem, let us be a people who prioritize prayer both individually and corporately. Are you ready for your challenge? What things are you praying? Husbands, do you thank God for your wife and ask God to encourage, protect, and strengthen her? Mom’s, do you thank God for your husband and children and ask God to encourage, protect, and strengthen them? Children, do you thank God for your parents, especially today your mom? You want to know how to completely wreck their world? This afternoon, ask mom and dad how you can pray for them and right then and there, pray for your parents. Let’s apply this passage, friends! We have a God who hears and answers prayers and who calls on His people to be a people of prayer - let’s be intentional about setting aside time each day to be in the Word of God and praying to the God of the Word. Let’s commit to pray for one another as we live in a godless world. Let’s commit to pray for opportunities to stand out as we stand on God’s Word and let our light shine for Jesus. Even in painful times, let’s pledge to be people who prioritize prayer.
If you don’t currently understand why prayer matters or if you don’t have peace in painful times, look at Scripture. Look at the brokenness in your life caused by sin. Repent. Turn away from it and trust in Jesus. Be made new today!