Pray, Lifting Up Holy Hands

Pray For All Men

We are to pray for the unsaved. Why?

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 2

This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,

4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

God desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.

Lost people need to be prayed for because they are not able to pray for themselves. We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him. The blind man reminded the pharisees that were accusing Jesus of not being of God, that God only listens to those are God-fearing and does His will. The lost person can pray, but the Lord will not hear until they repent and are saved. This is the first act of God’s will for a person’s life is for them to enter in to a relationship with the Father through Jesus Christ.

I am thankful that I had a grandfather that prayed for my salvation. I was not saved during his lifetime, but God did not forget his prayers. Who was it that prayed for you? Who are you going to be willing to pray for? God will listen to your prayers. I remember praying for my brother to come to know the Lord. I prayed for 4 years and the Lord answered.

We are to pray for the unchurched. Why?

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 2

so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.

How we pray for the lost impacts our lives

so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), .

so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), .

We live in a world that we must interact with all kind of people. We live with those that are unbelievers as well as believers. There are times when we are forced to interact with unbelievers and our expectation is that they think the same way we do, have the same core values, and similar moralities. One thing that a believer will find is that they are not. This can cause frustration, particularly if we have to interact a lot. Point in case, How many have family members that you believe are not saved? How do you come to that conclusion? Just as in Timothy’s day, believers were facing persecution because of their faith, we too can face persecution from those that are unbelieving family members. We need to pray for them so we can live quiet lives in all godliness and dignity. I must confess there have been times in y life that I did not live in godliness and dignity. We cannot live a tranquil and quiet life when we are persecuted.

Also when we pray for the unsaved we get more compassionate and less frustrated. We can also get specific in our prayer.

Use Card. Unsaved, Unchurched, Unknown.

Pray For Kings and All Who Are In Authority.

Those in authority make decisions that affect our lives.

In Timothy’s day, the majority of the kings and governmental authorities were not believers. They created laws that prohibited the spread of the gospel. Believers would find it difficult to live for Christ and work for the kingdom of Christ if there were not believers that could govern and make laws that allowed for freedom to spread the gospel. Paul was instructing Timothy to pray for the leaders in Ephesus and around the world.

Those in authority in our lives make decisions that impact our lives.

Ways Government Impacts our lives.

1. Abortion - in 1973 the government made it legal to have an abortion. Since 1973 over 60 million babies have been killed. Just under 1 million babies are aborted per year in the United States. To put this in perspective around 37,000 people are killed in automobile accidents every year, and about 18,000 are victims of homicide. This is an atrocity that those in authority have allowed. Do you think God is pleased with a country that kills 1 million babies a year?

2. Faith in school - Authorities have pushed God out of schools. teen pregnancy is epidemic. Teen pregnancy and childbearing bring substantial social and economic costs through immediate and long-term impacts on teen parents and their children.

In 2010, teen pregnancy and childbirth accounted for at least $9.4 billion in costs to U.S. taxpayers for increased health care and foster care, increased incarceration rates among children of teen parents, and lost tax revenue because of lower educational attainment and income among teen mothers.8

Pregnancy and birth are significant contributors to high school dropout rates among girls. Only about 50% of teen mothers receive a high school diploma by 22 years of age, whereas approximately 90% of women who do not give birth during adolescence graduate from high school.9

The children of teenage mothers are more likely to have lower school achievement and to drop out of high school, have more health problems, be incarcerated at some time during adolescence, give birth as a teenager, and face unemployment as a young adult.10

These effects continue for the teen mother and her child even after adjusting for those factors that increased the teenager’s risk for pregnancy, such as growing up in poverty, having parents with low levels of education, growing up in a single-parent family, and having poor performance in school.10

School violence- Serious violent crimes at school hit a peak in the 1990s, when a series of school shootings and copycat shootings claimed the lives of a relatively large number of students. In the 2006-2007 school year there were 27 homicides and 8 suicides that took place at school. These school violence statistics equals one death at school for every 1.6 million students.

In the same time period, however, there were 1.7 million nonfatal crimes committed at school, ranging from assault to theft. These school violence statistics show 46 crimes per 1,000 students. School violence statistics show that 86% of schools reported violence or thefts taking place.

These incidents are not distributed evenly among schools. School violence statistics show that while 46% of schools reported 20 or more violent acts, 1% of schools only had one or two violent incidents, and 22% of schools reported no violent crimes at all.

Schools with higher incidents of teen violence are more likely to be in urban areas, where gang violence is more of a problem. 23% of students reported gang problems at their schools, though the ethnic breakdown of the students reporting problems indicate that inner city areas have more gang problems than suburban or rural areas.

Taxes- Government spending is increasing every year. This means that they are going to have to collect more in taxes. The more we pay in taxes the less we have to give.

These are just a few examples of how people in positions of authority significantly impact our lives. They need wisdom and discernment. When we pray for those in authority over us, our leaders can make better decisions that enable us to further the kingdom work.

Marriage - The Bible teaches that marriage is between one woman and one man. The government has redefined marriage to two men or two women can be considered spouses. This has precipitated a lot of other social issues, like gender identity, and will probably lead to further confusion.

I don’t know how many of the people in our government are believers, all I can see are the decisions that they make and how they line up with God’s Word. Right now I see a lot of conflict.

Are you willing to begin praying for our leaders? President, Governor, Mayor, Congressmen, judges, local commissions?

All Men In All Places Pray Without Wrath and Dissension.

We are not to pray wrathfully.

This means that we are not to pray for harm to befall those that don’t agree with us or those that we are angry with.

James 1:20 NASB95

for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.

We need to pray that God would lead people to Himself and that they would be saved. Our hope should be that those who do not know Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior would come to know Him. Our temptation may be for God to cause something bad to happen to them for punitive reasons. They hurt me so God you hurt them. We are not to pray for their harm but instead to have compassion on them.

Matthew 5:44 NASB95

“But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

We are to pray without dissension.

This means we are not to give up praying because we get frustrated at the person we are praying for or because it doesn’t seem like God is answering our prayers. We must be committed to praying for the lost.

Luke 18:1–8 NASB95

Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart, saying, “In a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man. “There was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, ‘Give me legal protection from my opponent.’ “For a while he was unwilling; but afterward he said to himself, ‘Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.’ ” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge said; now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? “I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”

Luke

I am glad this lady did not quit. Her persistence paid off. We too should not give up in praying but instead should be committed to it.